The Giver- Sharissa

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The Giver was a very eye-opening book written by Lois Lowry. In this book, the world is removed of all emotions. They are even stripped away from something that we take for granted: color. The Community that Jonas lives in, is very plan and "to the books."

One of the most shocking things about this book, is the picture of family. That is a very good way to describe it: picture perfect. They all are well behaved. They have the same routine everyday. They always eat supper together, like the perfect family would. The family is like a business transaction. You have to apply to get a spouse, same as with children. A family had, "Two children--- one male, one female--- to each family unit. It was written very clearly in the rules" (Lowry 11). Notice how Lowry describes the family as a "family unit" not just a family. It makes it sound very strict and stale. There is not emotion, even when talking about a family. In fact, the use of the word "love" to describe your family is not allowed. When Jonas asks his father if he loves him, his response was, "...precision of language please" (Lowry 159). His mother then goes on to describe love as, "... a very generalized word, so meaningless that it's become almost obsolete" (Lowry 160).

The sad part about this community is the fact that they do not know what a family is. Family is more than just sharing our feelings and then going to bed. In a family, you do talk about your feeling, but you are apart of way more. Love is a major part of being a family. It is what holds us together. Without it, a family is just like what is talked about above. In a family, there is supposed to be support, and fellowship, love and annoyance, loyalty and trust. But there is a lot of that absent in the family described above. (Also how likely is it that every family has just one boy and one girl?)

Overall, this really can make you evaluate your family. This makes you think about all of the times that you loved your family and stuck by them during hard times. Without my family, I would not be the person that I am today. And I could never picture my family being like the one from The Giver and never would I want to.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 10, 2017 at 6:39 AM

    I think it's interesting you bring up that the family is called a "family unit". I find subtly different connotations in words to be fascinating, and it's something I found intriguing in The House on Mango Street, too. What I'm getting at is that we refer to a family as a family unit, too. But it certainly doesn't carry the kinds of connotations when we say it as when Lowry writes it. I wonder if that is because of family is described and perceived in the novel. In turn, does that mean at some point, we view our own families as "units"? Does that take away from the human connection that we have? What does that say about our society in general? I think it's definitely a reflection of how we view family, either way.

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  2. Taylor SimmonsOctober 11, 2017 at 8:25 AM

    I love that you wrote your post on this too, we had a good conversation about it in class, haha. I totally agree with you though, the idea of family in The Giver is just really weird to me. Their families are not genuine, and there is no emotion. I can't imagine my family being assigned to me by my parents applying for spouses and children, the whole idea is just so weird!

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