Sameness in The Giver Essay Example

Sameness is everyone sharing the same things and having the same personal beliefs. The community went to sameness in order to try and reduce conflict. But they were unsuccessful. In The Giver by Louis Lowery, sameness can be shown through ceremonies and rules while Jonas’s conflicts with sameness show how sameness is not something society can achieve and that they need diversity.

The community in The Giver promotes sameness through civilization and community. The first rule introduced is how the characters in the story are required to take a daily medication. At the beginning of the story Jonas has a dream called a sturing. These dreams are not allowed because they can not have emotional relationships and feel love and attraction. Everyone in the community has to take these pills. If everyone in the community has no emotion they can not love different people and love people of different or same sex. This way everyone is the same and they do not have the ability to feel and love because the community wants equality. Along with rules there are also ceremonies. In the middle of the story after a baby named Caleb dies, the community chants his name at the ceremony and the family that lost the baby gets a new baby also named Caleb  to replace him. This ceremony is controlling the people's will to create life, and how they replace it. They are controlling how children are born and how to replace children in order to remain normal and equal. They are making humans into objects. Another rule is Toward the end of the book after Jonas gets to know the giver, a rule is that he cannot apply for release. The reason he can not do this is because the past receiver of memory applied for release because she could not handle the pressure and grief after living her whole life without it. This rule controls the right to their own lives and the right to end their life. The community decides when it is time for them to be born and when it is time for them to die. They take life and death into their own hands. All of these ceremonies and rules define how the community runs and how they control their citizens.

In addition to rules and ceremonies the story The Giver is characterised by the relationships and lifestyles of the stories characters. In the community people do not get to choose their own families. In the middle of the story when Jonas finds out more about the community, Lily wants to adopt a sick baby named gabe. Jonasas parents tell Lily that they can not adopt the baby because it is against the rules. They cannot have more than two children, one son and one daughter. The community's ability to create life in the traditional sense is gone because of how the chief elders run the community. They have birthmothers, babies, and name replacements. They are only allowed two children so that everyone is the same and has the same amount of children. Along with the relationships there are different lifestyles. In the end of the book they see that the community's chief elder uses all of these rules to make sure that the community does not remember the trauma of the past. She makes them take medicine and live according to her rules to try and keep them safe. The community archives sameness by living the same lives from day to day. They eat the same diet, have the same homes, ride the same bikes, and have the same education levels. They are controlling the right to be independent and think for themselves. Along with livestyle another relationship is present, in the middle of the story the giver and jonas bond. The giver shares his past with Jonas and tells him of how the past receiver of memory applied for release and was his daughter. Jonas is confused by the community once he finds out what is going on and the giver helps him to try and make a difference in the community by awakening the people and saving gabe. Jonas and the giver relate and are similar, they both need to deal with the grief and happiness, and boredom of the past. The giver sees himself in jonas. They represent sameness by being different, they choose not to be the same as everyone else and are told not to be. This relationship is controlling whether or not the community gets back their memories. The giver can be defined by its relationships and lifestyles.

While relationships show sameness and community, Jonas’s conflicts show how people can overcome unfair societal standards. In the beginning of the story Jonas is assigned his job, his new set of rules makes him worried He is assigned the job of receiver of memory. The giver introduces him to the color red and the feeling of snow. Jonas is overwhelmed and wants to be able to see more. The giver puts his hands on Jonas's bare back and feeds him the memories. He starts to see the color red in Fiona's hair and in an apple. He wonders why the world is the way it is now and begins to want to change how the community sees it. Jonas decides to keep on looking at his community in a different way and starts to notice things he finds unfair. Later in the story, Jonas watches the kids in the neighborhood playing games, he remembers war and sees the children. He realizes that the game they are playing is based on something that really happened and that people died in war. He knows the game is wrong. He feels upset and frightened because he knows what the game represents, he wants the kids to stop playing the game and realize that what they are playing really happened. A third conflict in the story is, In the end of the story Jonas is told that Gabe is going to be released, By this point he knows what that means so he plots to leave the community with gabe in order to save his life. The giver and him come up with a plan to distract the chief elder and they leave, The giver stays behind to aid the community once they get their memories back. Jonas is scared but brave, he took gabe to help and change something horrible that happens in his community. He wants to prevent a child from being killed. He knows that people are different from each other and values that people should have the chance to live. Jonas holds Gabe and they have the memory of snow to keep them from the heat. The cold over takes them and they hear music from over a hill and see light. Jonas and Gabe are together and don’t know what the future holds.

In the story the giver Jonas’s conflict shows why diversity is important.The rules control the right to their own lives and the right to end their life. The community decides when it is time for them to be born and when it is time for them to die. They take life and death into their own hands. The elders control everything about their lives. All of these ceremonies and rules define how the community runs and how they control their citizens. If everyone in the community has no emotion they can not love different people and love people of different or same sex. This way everyone is the same and they do not have the ability to feel and love because the community wants equality. In addition to ceremonies and rules, lifestyle and relationships also promote sameness. In addition to ceremonies and rules, lifestyle and relationships also promote sameness. Jonas and the giver relate and are similar, they both need to deal with the grief and happiness, and boredom of the past. The giver sees himself in jonas. They represent sameness by being different, they choose not to be the same as everyone else and are told not to be. This relationship is controlling whether or not the community gets back their memories. The giver can be defined by its relationships and lifestyles. The community archives sameness by living the same lives from day to day. They eat the same diet, have the same homes, ride the same bikes, and have the same education levels. They are controlling the right to be independent and think for themselves.