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Sameness In The Giver

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One of the many joys in life is the ability to use agency for the choices required. In the novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry, the main character, Jonas, lives in a society where everyone demonstrates Sameness. The citizens are given the same things at the same age. They are limited with choices and feelings and also don’t receive memories. At age twelve, Jonas is selected to become the next Receiver of Memories. Jonas is trained by the Giver, who receives all the memories in the community, and has the memories bestowed upon him. Having Sameness in The Giver portrays a negative effect on the community because it eliminates choices, limits feelings, and prevents diversity. One way the creators of Jonas’s society deprive the citizens in the community is by eliminating the ability to choose. For example one choice that was eliminated in the community was the amount of children in a family unit. The citizens are prevented from choosing the number of children they want in their family therefore causing all families to …show more content…

Sameness causes the community to have a small amount of variety. The citizens are given the same things at the same age. Imagine the world; everyone receives the same thing which causes no one to be different. In the community, everyone fits in with everyone. In a conversation between Jonas and Asher, Asher said, “If you don’t fit in, you can apply for Elsewhere and be released,” (61). By this, Asher explains how if someone doesn’t fit in then they can just leave. This shows that the community wants everyone to be identical. If everyone were identical then it would prevent diversity. Diversity is what makes everything unique. People need diversity because diversity is how people see the beauty and differences in the world around them. Having Sameness in the community stops the diversity from taking place in people’s lives and therefore plays a negative effect in the lives of

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This is because everyone has to be equal, which to them means that everyone has to be the same, and this lack of individuality is yet another cost of maintaining The Givers so called utopia. People in this community have almost no control over who they are and what they do because they have no freedom to choose. They are forced to live in a society where sameness is preached and individuality is scorned. They essentially live in a black and white community that forfeits "art, music, literature, spontaneity, passion, even color itself ”(Chamberlain). This is represented when Jonas asks why everyone cannot see colors, The Giver replies by saying that if a person has could choose their colors “he might make wrong choices” (Lowry 98).

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There so used to being the same, that everyone acts out the same way. To illustrate, Clarisse mentions “.. head for a Fun Park to bully people around, break window panes in the Window Smasher place or wreck cars in the Cars Wrecker place with the big steel ball.” (Bradbury 30). Everyone being the same shows lack of diversification, along with their actions. They all act the same, as they don’t think twice.

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Imagine living in a world with no freedom, choice, individuality, and color. Would you want to live in a world like this? Most of you would have said no, but a boy named Jonas has no choice, but to adhere to his community’s rules. In the book and the movie, “The Giver”, by Louis Lowery, Jonas finds it difficult to accept his community’s way of life. However, after he becomes the receiver of memory, he challenges the community after discovering what the world used to be like before sameness.

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but no one is unique, there are No secrets in the community and that is bad because you can't have adventures. That is why Jonas and the giver are trying to give the community memories towards the end of the book. So they can all experience the pain and not all be the same. Because he think they should

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In "The Giver" by Lois Lowry, the reader can see the subjects such as different behaviors, rules, and perspective of a lifestyle. The government is working for the society to look-alike day by day, this is called sameness. Sameness is seen in every part of this society, for instance, all family has determined the number of the family member also genders of them, people wear same clothes which are in same assignment… Although some people believe that sameness has so many benefits, many believe that it should not be applied in communities because it prevents feelings and limits memories,

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If there was no sameness then the community would be a mess. It is because if a person chooses their spouse wrong then they will have to live with them for the rest of their lives. It is also the same when getting a job, if they pick their own jobs and they pick bad then they’ll be stuck with that job until their death. The elders think that sameness is good but Jonas is not happy. Jonas thinks that all people should have their own voice so that they can decide what they can do.

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One argument for the theme of sameness it that the government squashes all differences, supported by the memories, the job of the receiver, and what Gabriel symbolizes. Another argument is that all emotion and love are taken away so that there is no difference in their society. This is supported by the memory of the war game, the love that Jonas feels in a special memory, and the symbol of the color red. A final piece of proof to support the theme is the control that the government has over your life, shown by children that you are assigned, the fact that all children grow older together, and the symbol of the color red. All of these arguments combined show why the theme of The Giver is sameness.

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Teens can relate to the feeling that Jonas goes through. Lastly the article brushes on the topic of independance. This means that no matter what gender one can be, “They learn to be their own individual and do not depend on other people for happiness or survival.” (Artifice 8). In The Giver, Jonas learns to be an individual thanks to his training.

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An example of conformity found in the book is how Jonas and all others had to take pills for the “stirrings.” In The Giver, stirrings are strong feelings of love for others, and these emotions were not allowed because that would ruin the sameness of the society. Emotions are healthy and not allowing people to feel emotions

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He is under sameness and the influence of the community. Jonas is chosen to receive feelings, colors, and emotions from memories. As time goes by Jonas sees the community not as a utopia but a horrible place. Jonas wants to change

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Would you give up love and true happiness for a life without pain? In the dystopian novel The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, strong emotion is sacrificed for a peaceful environment. The depicted community at first appears to be a utopia, where hate and discrimination are abolished, but the emotionless society is quickly revealed to be dystopian as the story continues. They live in a world of sameness; there is no hunger, suffering, or war, but also no color, diversity, or sensuality. The protagonist, a twelve-year-old boy named Jonas, uncovers the truth about his community when he is assigned to be the Receiver of Memory, and acquires the memories from the past from an elder called the Giver.

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In Lois Lowry’s award-winning novel, The Giver, Jonas’s society is considered to be utopian because the society has an overall sense of sameness, organization, and minimal problems. To begin, the society is utopian because of sameness. In Lois Lowry 's, The Giver, Jonas is selected to be the Receiver of Memories and he comes to learn that when his community decided to go to sameness they were getting rid of color, emotion, and choice. At first the Giver tells him it 's to "protect" them from making the wrong choices. As stated in the text “Our people made that choice the choice to go to sameness”.(Lois Lowry pg 95)

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