The Giver

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Themes are the main idea of a novel as a whole. Themes in literature are used to show what the main lesson of the book is for the reader. In the book The Giver by Lois Lowry a young boy named Jonas lives inside a utopian community that have no feelings, freedoms or choices in order to retain order in society, known as Sameness. Jonas is chosen to be the next Receiver of Memory and he learns about the world before Sameness. Jonas experiences emotions such as love and pain and things such as color, war, and families, all of which no longer exist in Sameness. Jonas and his teacher, The Giver are the only members of the community who have been exposed to these things and the only ones who know that things need to change. Jonas flees the community…show more content…
Early in the novel, Lowry begins to reveal the main theme when Jonas tries to expose his friends to the new things he is experiencing from his training as the next Receiver. Jonas finds that is impossible to show them because they have never heard of the things he has experienced. He is mad at his friends because they are unaware of the wonderful things that once existed before Sameness, “they [are] satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on. And he [is] angry at himself, that he [can] not change that for them”(93). Jonas wishes that he could expose his groupmates to the wonderful new things he has learned. He tries without success to transmit memories to his friends and tries to talk about it to them. The other members of the community are…show more content…
Love is something that the other members of the community know about, but it since their lives have no feelings, they do not understand it’s meaning. It is considered a word so vague and imprecise that it is not used. Through experiencing the memory of families, Jonas learns how love is so important. “But anyway, I was thinking, I mean feeling, actually, that it was kind of nice, then. And that I wish we could be that way, and that you could be my grandparent. The family in the memory seemed a little more-’ [Jonas] faltered, not able to find the word he wanted.’A little more complete,’The Giver suggested. Jonas nodded”(119). The members of the community receive their spouse and children after applying for a family unit. From there, the village Elders choose their spouse and children. The citizens of the community have absolutely no choice in this decision. Each spouse is selected based off of how they would suit each other and how productive they would be when being inside a family unit. This removes the unpredictable nature of being in a relationship and raising a family. Once the family unit’s children reach age 12 and become adults, the parents in the family units move to go live with the Childless Adults and the House of the Old when they get older. This makes the members of the family units have no real feeling towards each other. Jonas realizes how having a family is less

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