Premium Essay

Pain In The Giver

Submitted By
Words 1208
Pages 5
Pain is something that we need to help us learn from our decisions. In the book The Giver it shows that very well. The Giver by Lois is a book about a futuristic world in which there exists no pain, no war, and very little emotion. In this utopia, everything is as nice as possible. When people become too old or brake rules, they are “released". Although they do not realize it, those who are released are actually killed. A boy named Jonas who is turning twelve and that’s when the citizens get a job but Jonas gets chosen to be the receiver of memories who holds all the memories of the world before along with all the pain so no one else has to. When he starts his training he meets the Giver who is the previous receiver who the gives him the …show more content…
When the first receiver of memory was training, the Giver, was giving her nice memories at first but then when to memories of loneliness and mental pain that led her to apply for release. “The Giver shook his head and sighed. ‘No. and I didn't give her physical pain. But I gave her loneliness. And I gave her loss. I transferred a memory of a child taken from its parents. That was the first one. She appeared stunned at its end.’” (142). Another example is when the committee wanted advice from the Giver about increasing the birthrate but the Giver had a painful memory of hunger and overpopulation and advised them otherwise. The Giver says, “‘And the strongest memory that came back was hunger. It came from many generations back. Centuries back. The population had gotten so big that hunger was everywhere. Excruciating hunger and starvation. It was followed by warfare” (111). The first example showed that the pain helped make the decision to not do that to the next receiver and slowly ease him into the pain and the second example shows that the Giver’s knowledge of pain made it so that he could help the committee make the right choice. The Giver is not the only one who has the pain, Jonas also has the pain and uses it to make

Similar Documents

Free Essay

The Giver

...In “The Giver”, we are introduced to Jonas, the eleven-year-old protagonist of the story, as he struggles to find the right word to describe his feelings as he approaches an important milestone. He rejects “frightened” as too strong a word, recalling a time when he had really been frightened: a year ago, an unidentified aircraft flew over his community; it was a strange and unprecedented event, since Pilots were not allowed to fly over the community. As Jonas remembers the community reaction to the event, we learn more about the society in which he lives. It is extremely structured, with official orders transmitted through loudspeakers planted all around the community. As a punishment, the pilot was “released” from the community, the worst fate that can befall a citizen. Jonas decides he is apprehensive, not frightened (Jonas and his society value the use of precise and accurate language), about the important thing that is going to happen in December. Jonas thinks he lives in a perfect world. He lives in a highly ordered community where there is no pain, but he learns that there is a price to pay for this kind of life and discovers humanity’s long forgotten pains and joys. He finds out that he is living in a twisted messed up imperfect “utopia”. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true...

Words: 3632 - Pages: 15

Premium Essay

Characters In Lois Lowery's 'The Giver'

...with and must take responsibility for forming.” Jonas, the protagonist in Lois Lowery’s The Giver, acquires the feelings and memories that his society has willingly forgotten. As Jonas changes and learns of true feelings, colors and the pain that his community doesn’t want to endure, he realizes that without the pain of the memories, the people of his world can never be truly content. The people of the past in The Giver have taken away almost all of the choices for the people of the community. Jonas realizes this when he wants to keep the colors that he begins to see, and he subsequently discerns that he wants to make choices of his own. “If there everything’s the same, then there aren’t any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things!”(123) Jonas had said to...

Words: 522 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

The Giver Full Summary

...THE GIVER Lois Lowry ← Plot Overview → The giver is written from the point of view of Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy living in a futuristic society that has eliminated all pain, fear, war, and hatred. There is no prejudice, since everyone looks and acts basically the same, and there is very little competition. Everyone is unfailingly polite. The society has also eliminated choice: at age twelve every member of the community is assigned a job based on his or her abilities and interests. Citizens can apply for and be assigned compatible spouses, and each couple is assigned exactly two children each. The children are born to Birthmothers, who never see them, and spend their first year in a Nurturing Center with other babies, or “newchildren,” born that year. When their children are grown, family units dissolve and adults live together with Childless Adults until they are too old to function in the society. Then they spend their last years being cared for in the House of the Old until they are finally “released” from the society. In the community, release is death, but it is never described that way; most people think that after release, flawed newchildren and joyful elderly people are welcomed into the vast expanse of Elsewhere that surrounds the communities. Citizens who break rules or fail to adapt properly to the society’s codes of behavior are also released, though in their cases it is an occasion of great shame. Everything is planned and organized so that life is as convenient...

Words: 18773 - Pages: 76

Premium Essay

The Giver Rhetorical Analysis

...The Giver, Cathartic Responses How would you feel if you couldn’t see color? Or if you had lost memories that you didn’t even know about? The community in The Giver by Lois Lowry, were in that exact situation. In what appears to be a utopia, the people in The Giver cannot see color and they have no memories of previous historic events. This is due to the fact that the Chief Elders, the leaders of the community, think that eliminating all previous memories and the memory of color is better for the people. The Chief Elders strive to eliminate pain and all human desire throughout the book creating what seems to be a perfect world, but Jonas, the main character, later comes to discover eliminating these things may not make their world the utopia...

Words: 828 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Me Sitala

...COMMON THEMES BY: SITALA Tuesday, April 2, 13 COMMON THEMES ✤ JUSTICE/INJUSTICE : quality of being fair or reasonable/lack of fairness FREEDOM: power to act, speak or think as one wants ✤ Tuesday, April 2, 13 JUSTICE/INJUSTICE In The Death and the Maiden, Paulina Escobar is a young student in the early days of the military dictatorship that ruled her country when she was unjustly arrested by the government which altered her life continues to affect her seventeen years later. In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne is a young and successful banker whose life changes drastically when he was unjustly convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover Tuesday, April 2, 13 In The Death and the Maiden, Paulina was unjustly raped and tortured by The torturer who was the doctor in military abductees. In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy was unjustly assaulted and raped by both guards and other prisoners, The "sisters" , for two years.   Tuesday, April 2, 13 In The Death and the Maiden, Paulina wants to do justice by herself, she doesn't listen to her husband who tells her that now there is a commission to solve all these problems She throughly believes that In The Shawshank Redemption, someone needs to be punished for Andy fight back the sisters to what happened to her , So She receive the justice he deserves, kidnaped Dr. Roberto Miranda. Andy then receive justice from the guards.The sisters get assaulted themselves...

Words: 1173 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Why When Memories Are Forgotten or Emphasized, Will Result in a Community Becoming a Dystopia?

...Topic: In both The Giver and The Chrysalids, the communities strive to create utopias in their own ways. Discuss how memories are forgotten and/or emphasized to achieve this. In the novels The Chrysalids by John Wyndham and The Giver by Lois Lowry, both authors illustrate how, when communities emphasize or forget memories from the past, it will result in a dystopia. Further, it will also affect our future generations and the way people choose to live. In the Waknuk community of The Chrysalids, memories are recalled, emphasized, and then used to threaten and control the society. The leaders rule the community using fear as a weapon, forcing the people to believe what they want them to believe. The Waknuk community’s idea of a utopia is to have the people obey the rules, and to live under the will of God. A citizen of another community criticized the Old People, “If they had not brought down Tribulation which all but destroyed them” (Wyndham 157). The memory of Tribulation is constantly discussed, repeated and emphasized throughout the novel. The community believes that if they break the laws and rules of The Bible and Nicholson’s Repentances, their two only and sacred books, they will be faced with consequences like how the “Old People” of the past did. Tribulation is believed to be a period of time where the people of earth made too many mistakes, broke too many rules, that angered God, causing Him to destroy all of earth to give people a chance to start a new...

Words: 1036 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Euthanasia In The Giver

...What if you had the chance to pick whether you lived or died? In the book The Giver by Lois Lowry The Main Character Jonas has to deal with the practice of euthanasia on Elders and babies and anybody who wants to be released. Euthanasia is practiced in The Giver because People don't die a slow painful death,It stops overpopulation ,and It gives people the choice of death. Euthanasia stops people from dying a slow or painful death because euthanization is always done humanely.The first thing they do is give you a shot that makes you unconscious.Once you are unconscious the heart and brain functions usually shut down within one or two minutes.Even if there is pain you will not feel it for long.Also a little pain is not as bad as a long...

Words: 397 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

The Giver A Dystopian Society

...The Giver Essay Imagine living in a community lacking color, emotions, and differences, or where choices are banned. Imagine being tricked into believing you’re living in a perfect world, but really, your community is hiding both life changing secrets and terrifying truths from all its people. In The Giver by Lois Lowry, the characters have to take on these problems and limitations. The setting is takes place in a community that the characters believe to be a utopian society but is actually a dystopian society. The community is run by a council and the Chief Elder who make all the decisions. The main character, Jonas, is an eleven year old boy who undergoes a series of changes after he is selected to be the Receiver of Memory during the Ceremony...

Words: 1380 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Flawless Society In The Giver

...perfect world. No war, poverty, or hunger. Constant equality and nobody is left out. But, like all things, perfection comes at a cost. In The Giver, this price is you no longer have freedom and must obey all rules or suffer death. Your family will be chosen for you, your differences frowned upon. On top of all this, the pain of the world would never truly go away. It would simply be placed in the hands of a young individual chosen to suffer. Doesn’t sound so perfect anymore, does it? Family consists of a mother and father, as well as “two children- one male, one female- to each family unit. It was written in the rules.” -Giver 11. This is an ideal and perfect family, according to the maker of the Community, which is a flawless society that Jonas and everyone he knows lives in. Families are controlled and regulated, spouses are chosen...

Words: 713 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

The Giver Symbolism Essay

...them. In this paper you will find that there is three ideas about the symbols in The Giver that play along with the theme I’m about to reveal. In The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, the theme is to be one that sticks out in a group and be different is explored through the symbols of different vision (seeing red), feeling strong emotions, and powers to transfer memories to others. The symbol of different vision supports this because it tells of seeing beyond the normal. If one was to see into the realm of difference this would make that person different than others because it is not a normal trait of humans so when Jonas does this and sees colors he does not fit in with the rest of his society. Him being able to see “beyond” as the story says allows himself to see past events that relay memories to him until he gives them away, but with this he experiences the emotions that tag along with them. An example of emotions with the memories is when he recalls the war scene and has been shot in the arm, the pain he felt in the memory was excruciating because...

Words: 684 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

The Giver And The Truman Show Analysis

...Imagine you are born into a so called world that is controlled by others from the place you live to the weather you have. Two worlds that seem so real come to be fake all your life you've believed in what's been presented to you untill you one day become curious. In the giver and the truman show there are tons of similarities in the two main characters. One thing that is similar is in the truman show and the giver is they both live and believe in this fake world that was set up for them. Then they both start to become curious about the world they are living in. Finally that all leads to the two characters Jonas and Truman seeing beyond and kinda discovering this world they live in has secrets and they both want to find out. The two settings...

Words: 406 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Perfection In The Giver By Lois Lowry

...In a perfect society conflict, pain, distrust, and secrets would be eradicated. That is a far cry from from society today where people fight constantly, there are grave differences in the way people think and act, and pain is evident everywhere. But while we are not perfect people are still happy and if you look true joy can be found in many places. Through Jonas’ experiences over the course of “The Giver”, Lois Lowry develops a theme of nothing is perfect. Though opposing readers may believe that perfection is attainable, Jonas’ actions and experiences throughout the novel convey that attempting to become flawless can only lead to ignorance and the unavoidable idea of an escape from a life of strict perfection. Jonas society strives to be...

Words: 632 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

The Giver Compare And Contrast

...No emotion, no feeling, nothing, just blissfully content with life. This is life for everyone in Lois Lowry’s The Giver except for Jonas and The Giver; they experience all memory, every second of pain, and every moment of delight only they feel. Society today is like the society in Lois Lowry’s The Giver in how it makes sure that most people are happy but without pain or grief there can be no happiness only the serene feeling of peace. The societies are also very different because in Lois Lowry’s The Giver there is no feeling, but in society today you cannot avoid feelings everything is based off feeling, facts are based off feeling, and you can’t avoid hurting someone’s feelings. The problem in both of these societies is that they both ignore...

Words: 362 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Give

...tomorrow?  And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?  And what is fear of need but need itself?  Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, thirst that is unquenchable?  There are those who give little of the much which they have and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome. And there are those who have little and give it all.  These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.  There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.  And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.  And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;  They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.  Though the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.  It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;  And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving  And is there aught you would withhold?  All you have shall some day be given;  Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'.  You often say, "I would give, but only to the deserving."  The trees in...

Words: 511 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Importance Of Diversity In The Giver

...Can you imagine our world without feelings, diversity, and animals? “The Giver” takes place in a community that is in the future named The Giver community. Jonas is selected to be the receiver. When the Giver gave Jonas the memories he realized that his community is a horrible place. Jonas and the Giver plan an escape for Jonas. The Giver community needs feelings, diversity, and animals to make it more positive. Feelings would have been important to make the community more positive. “Love, the Giver told him. Jonas repeated it Love. It was a word and concept new to him.” Page 125. “Sobbing, he turned his head and vomited onto the frozen snow. Blood dripped from his face into the vomit.” Page 109. If everyone felt pain they would...

Words: 377 - Pages: 2