ipl-logo

Theme Of Obedience In The Giver

915 Words4 Pages

Obedience and Emotion

"Rules are the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men" (Harry Day). Although boundaries and guidelines are important for the success of a society, it is also invaluable to know the gift of freedom. If one is foolishly obedient and follows only the orders they are given, there is no growth for their future. People will start to become robots and will never learn some of life's most crucial lessons. In the book The Giver, by Lois Lowry, there are three main themes; conformity, tradition, and compliancy.

One major theme in The Giver would be the idea of how emotions affect our willingness to follow orders. In this book, it is not allowed for one to choose his or her own spouse. This …show more content…

Without these steps of proper protocols and procedures, many would not know what to do or how to become their own person. A crucial element for them to have absolute accomplishment is the direction for …show more content…

One of the greatest goals to many is the pristine and luxurious idea of a nation without blunder or defect. This thought is a main focal point in The Giver, by Lois Lowry. "Jonas stared at the screen, waiting for something to happen. But nothing did. The little twin lay motionless. His father was putting things away. Folding the blanket, closing the cupboard" (Pg. 150). Even in a world with no emotion and complete order, mistakes are inevitable. These people try to use conformity as a means to erase self identity. They take out memories so that they don't have to acknowledge the fact that they are not "releasing" babies and elderly to Elsewhere, they are murdering them. "'She left here that day, left this room, and did not go back to her dwelling. I was notified by the Speaker that she had gone directly to the Chief Elder and asked to be released" (Pg. 143). No matter how hard anyone tries the perfect society is not reachable. There will always be cons to success; in The Giver, these downfalls result in the suicide of the young and searching of discharge by the rest. We, as humans, will always seek the correct way and order for things to be; but the truth is, there is no right way to do things because everyone has their own

Show More
Related
351 Words | 2 Pages

Lea Vilna Santos Mrs. English, 7th September 1st, 2015 The Giver, by: Lois Lowry Log Entry 4: Chapters 7-8: Question 2: In chapters 7 and 8, Jonas is assigned the job of Receiver of Memory and although the Chief Elder calls it the greatest honor,it might give him more hardship and pain than fortune. She explains that the selection is rare and his role is very important because there is only one Receiver and it takes integrity, intelligence, courage, wisdom, and the capacity to see beyond to be that person. At first he wants to tell he has no idea what she means and that he doesn’t have it until he notices a change in the crowd that was quick but he knows that he isn’t dreaming because it’s happened before but to his apple. Then he realizes

Read More
815 Words | 4 Pages

It is later revealed that she was killed by the community by lethal injection. They killed anyone that opposed and questioned the system. The Giver is comparable to Clarisse from Fahrenheit 451. They both served as the catalysts for change in both stories. They provided the protagonists the capability to change their minds and inspire them to go against the grain.

Read More
523 Words | 3 Pages

Lois Lowry, “The giver shrugged” “The Giver shrugged. ‘Our people made the choice, the choice to go to Sameness.”(pg.120). This story focuses on the idea of sameness is, “The giver shocks his head. “No, the flesh isn’t red. But it has tonessi in it.

Read More
1886 Words | 8 Pages

Several types of societies exist in today’s world, dystopias - miserable societies of oppression- and utopias - ideal societies of political or social perfection. Dystopias are illustrated in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, which extensively follow the characters, Katniss Everdeen and Guy Montag, and their quests to rebel against government control. The Giver by Lois Lowry, an ostensibly utopian community, succumbs to the typical, corrupt dystopian society, where the government is in total control of every aspect of the community. Although each novel, on the surface, has a diverse plot, they share a comprehensive idea: the effects of the government on society. In The Hunger Games, the government,

Read More
941 Words | 4 Pages

Have you ever felt the urge to want to become someone your not? Or have you been forced to act or dress a certain way that you did not like? Well if you have felt this way then you know how it feels. In the Giver it lets people express their personalities physically and Emotionally. But in the Harrison Bergeron short story, you can’t express anything at all, and you are forced to do more things.

Read More
531 Words | 3 Pages

The Giver How would you feel if you had no memories, celebrations, pain, or choices. The Giver community is a futuristic society where only two people hold the memories of the past. Jonas gets elected for the new receiver of memory at the ceremony of twelve. Jonas learns new things, see color and learns the meaning of release. He escapes, travels to elsewhere and releases his memories back to the community.

Read More
791 Words | 4 Pages

Debate-written Assignment, Conformity The idea of conformity is to eliminate individualism and to unite the society together, making it a safer place for the citizens to live, and develop in. A place that has no war, no hunger and no pain, where citizens create strong bonds between each other. The Giver written by Lois Lowry represents the idea of conformity in the society where they try to keep everyone the same as each other by following the same rules and trying to avoid having people stand out by receiving daily pills to lose the feeling of inclination between each other.

Read More
543 Words | 3 Pages

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” In “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, they did exactly this to achieve utter “perfection”. In this novel, the main goal of this society was to keep everything perfect, no matter what. The government would do absolutely anything to keep their society “faultless”. They took every flaw, and every ounce of pain away.

Read More
876 Words | 4 Pages

It is difficult to imagine being the most extraordinary and honored person in a community. This is something The Receiver inherits when they are selected to be The Receiver, honor. To be selected as The Receiver is an enormous honor that only absolutely brave people can handle. Whoever is selected obtains incredible memories that no one else knows besides The Giver. They are also considered the bravest out of everyone in a community

Read More
531 Words | 3 Pages

John F. Kennedy once said, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” This statement is exemplified in Lois Lowry’s The Giver where the people of the community live in a world with excessive conformity. Lois Lowry warns that total conformity is not healthy for a society because of how many negatives that come along with it. The people of the community are brainwashed, have no individuality, and have no freedom. One example of conformity in the novel is nobody questions the elders.

Read More
667 Words | 3 Pages

Have you ever had a belief that you were so passionate about, that your actions, words, and behavior reflect on it? That is integrity. Think for example, you believe being considerate is right. Thus you’d think before you speak, behave, or act. This shows consideration because you are thinking of how other people feel.

Read More
466 Words | 2 Pages

Lea Vilna-Santos Mrs. English, 7th September 1st, 2015 The Giver, by: Lois Lowry Log Entry 5: Chapters 9-10: Question 7: In chapters 9-10, Jonas realizes from reading the last rule in his list that allows him to lie, that what if what people say isn’t the truth, despite what everyone in his community learns about the importance of telling the truth. He was even chastised when he exaggerated as a Four. He said that he was starving, but he was only hungry. His teachers made sure he understood that even though it was an unintentional lie, it was still a lie because as long as he lives in their community he will never be starving so they didn’t want him to ever say anything like that again.

Read More
1056 Words | 5 Pages

Thus, by holding the true pain and pleasure of life alone, The Giver and Jonas decided the future can be changed. As what they

Read More
771 Words | 4 Pages

One of the main themes in “The Giver” is the importance of individuality. The people in the community are not given any freedom to be individuals. They are not allowed to be different, and this creates less understanding of the world. This is why the community needs a receiver to understand these things for them.

Read More
1073 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Theme Of Obedience In The Giver

Related Topics

Open Document