Community In Lois Lowry's 'The Giver'

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The Giver Essay When Lois Lowry made this book twenty years ago she was thinking about the future and what it would be like. The book is about a community that is strange and when you cut threw the first layer you find secrets that you would never know. The community is very different from others because they have no emotions, they do not love, and they don’t have or share feelings. There is always a secret amongst the community, but it’s up to you to find what they are. In The Giver by Lois Lowry, there is a young boy whose name is Jonas; he lives in this strange community and he starts to get through the first layer of the secrets. Control is a big thing and in this community, control is mostly done by language and having no emotions/feelings…show more content…
For example, the phrase Amusement park we would think fun and exciting, they would think, a large park with recreational devices. “And I thank you, because once again you have provided me an opportunity for a lesson. ‘Distraught’ is too strong an adjective to describe salmon viewing.” He turned around and wrote “distraught” on the instructional board. Beside it he wrote “distracted.”p.g 5. This shows how the community is being controlled by how they speak and how they aren’t allowed to say most words with feelings or emotions in it. “Do you love me?” There was an awkward silence for a moment. Then father gave a little chuckle “Jonas you of all people. Precision of language, please!” “What do you mean?” Jonas asked. Amusement was not at all what he had anticipated. Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it’s become almost obsolete,” his…show more content…
Jonas use to be like the normal boys in the community and after he learned these words and not taking the pill, he now has feelings and emotions like love. “Jonas felt the joy of it as soon as the memory began. Sometimes it took a while for him to get his bearings, to find his place. But this time he fit right in and felt the happiness that pervaded the memory.” p.g 154. This is a great example of how Jonas is affected when he learns new words with feelings and how it really changes him in the long run. “Don’t play it anymore,” Jonas pleaded. He saw the boy begging for water and he realized he is playing the game, WAR! p.g 168. War use to be one of Jonas’s favorite games to play; but now that he learned what war really is (the boy asking him for water), when he plays it he instantly has the memory of war. “It was so—oh, I wish language were more precise! The red was so beautiful!” This is when Jonas realized how beautiful color is and how it changes people when you see color unlike the people in the community. These are some of the reasons how Jonas is affected during his training by learning new words he didn’t know

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