Giver Vs Today

How Is The Giver’s Society Different From Modern Society? Linda Thompson claims, “Our uniqueness, our individuality, and our life experience molds us into fascinating beings. I hope we can embrace that.” Without individuality, people would be inseparable and there would be no differences. When privacy, individuality, and feelings get taken away, the end result is exactly that of The Giver’s society. Thankfully, today, those freedoms are rights. They are used everyday. The society of The Giver is different from modern society in the condition of privacy, amount of individuality, and emotions of the people, Jonas’s society differs significantly from today’s society in the aspect of privacy. In The Giver’s community, eyes and ears watch and

They were left with the remnants of the idea of feelings. The people of The Giver’s community had not truly experienced the different variations of feelings. What they ‘felt’ did not even compare to real feelings. The elders did away with all emotions just to be rid of the less enjoyable feelings. In the end, the cons outweighed the pros because the joyful emotions got taken away, too. The citizens of Jonas’s society miss out on something they don’t even know exists. Because they have felt numb for so long, they have forgotten what true emotions feels like. Today, the feelings come without unnecessary limits. People feel joy, happiness, and ecstasy. Pain, anger, and sadness surround the people as well, but the happy and sad emotions balance each other out. Lois Lowry comments, “Although he had through the memories learned about the pain of loss and loneliness, now he gained, too, an understanding of solitude and its joy”(153). Thankfully, people experience a variety of emotions and the good that they bring. Pain can also be a good thing. Happiness would be so common that it would not be recognized that it represents such a huge, amazing emotion. Today, the two main sides of emotions include pain and happiness. Many people see that, as long as joy remains in the world, the pain will be bearable. Although the people of The Giver did not see it, emotions

In The Giver’s community, eyes and ears watch and listen at all times. Speakers, that are inserted into everyone’s houses, can hear everything that anyone says. The Speaker, one with the monotonous job of making announcements, watches for the wrongdoing of others to single them out by saying what they did wrong in the form of a reminder in front of everybody. Although nobody uses names, everybody knows who did it. Jonas experienced this once. In his instance, “Everyone had known, he remembered with humiliation, that the announcement [...] had been specifically directed at him, the day last month, that he had taken an apple home”(29). Everything is exposed including things that would normally be private. The people of the community have to confess their feelings and dreams to their families every morning and night. Privacy does not exist in The Giver. The lack of privacy helps the government monitor the people’s activities and limit the amount of rebellion. Taking the privacy away may have resulted in less outbreaks of crime, but it also took away their freedom. Today, society accepts and allows much more privacy. People do not constantly listen in on the conversations held in the privacy of the public’s secure houses. Although cameras surround everybody, they secure the safety of others. Feelings remain private, too. Typically, people do not expect each other to share one’s emotions or