Imagine a society where everything is perfect, well thought to be perfect by the citizens of Jonas’s community which have no feelings or choices. In the book the Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas’s society is made up of rules, ceremonies, rituals, no colors, no music, no feelings, no choices…no life. Jonas was picked to be the new Receiver of memories in his community. Throughout his training with The Giver, he gains all the missing puzzle pieces from his society. He now has an understanding of what his community is actually like. Although some things look perfect on the outside, without choices there is no life; especially in the societal ideas of rituals, death, and family.
Rituals are performed in societies to remind us what is important and
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Death is our society is a natural occurrence that happens to every living thing, due to the cycle of life. In Jonas’s society elders are killed due to their “Release.” Everyone in Jonas’s society thinks that release is going “Elsewhere.” Jonas starts to question Elsewhere when he is in the House of Old, “What happens when they match the actual release, where exactly did Roberto go?” (Lowry 32). This evidence reveals that in Jonas’ society there are things that they don’t know about. In chapter 6 Jonas and Asher were talking about how someone applied for release and were gone the next day, “Here today gone tomorrow. Never seen again” (Lowry 48). Consequently, Jonas’s father works at the nurturing center and he does some releases, but since he has no feelings he doesn’t know he is killing the people. After The Giver showed him the tape of the release, Jonas doesn’t want to go home “To his surprise his father began to very carefully direct the needle into the top of the new child’s forehead, puncturing the place where the fragile skin pulsed. The newborn squirmed, and wailed faintly” (Lowry 149). In Jonas’s society you have no choice of how you live, or how you die, whereas our society you die because of natural