The Giver by Lois Lowry Essay Sample

📌Category: Books, The Giver
📌Words: 776
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 15 June 2022

"Language is power, life, and the instrument of domination and liberation." (Angela Carter). The words people speak are an amazing way they can express their thoughts and feelings. However, in the wrong hands, words can be twisted and obscured to conceal the true meaning of an idea or an action. In the award-winning novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, the government stresses the importance of accurate language and pronunciation to prevent any misconceptions or mix-ups. However, some words used by community members were twisted to deceive people into not knowing the true meaning of what they were expressing. In The Giver, Lois Lowry uses language to distort the true meaning of people’s words and experiences, and the three best examples of this are "release," "stirrings," and "assignments."

The first word the government uses to inveigle people is "release." The first mention of the word "release" was on page three of The Giver, when an announcer states, "Needless to say, he will be released." The main character, Jonas, wonders what being "released" really means throughout the book. In chapter nineteen, Jonas watches his father "release" a new child, and slowly realizes, "he killed it! My father killed it!" (188). However, almost everyone in the community doesn't realize that being "released" really means to die, and many think that being "released" is cause for a celebration of life, and going to another place. The word "release" disguises the true meaning of the word "death", because the government wouldn’t want to scare the people of the community into thinking there was something wrong. In The Giver, the government uses the word "release" to deceive the true meaning of death.

Another word in the community that is used to double-cross people is "stirrings". We first learn about these stirrings in chapter five, when Jonas feels an attraction to another girl in his community. After waking up confused about an interesting dream he had the night before, he explained to his mother the attraction and desire he felt. She told him, "You're ready for the pills. That’s the treatment for the stirrings" (48). By taking the pill, it eliminates Jonas from feeling any emotions such as joy, pain, love, anger, and desire. In the community, people take these pills to eliminate the chance of people falling in love or showing attraction to one another. Another benefit to the pills is to minimize the chance of people making the wrong choice of a relationship or any wrong choice altogether. On the contrary, in real life people are able to use their wrong choices as learning opportunities to prevent even more mistakes in the future. The government in The Giver stops the chance to learn from mistakes all together to “protect” their world. They have gone to extreme measures to maintain peace and eliminate social problems.  However, in an effort to fix these problems, the government chooses to eradicate all feelings, and the freedoms that go with them. They use the word "stirrings" to disguise the meaning of this.

Not only does the government use the words "stirrings" and "release" to hoodwink people, they also use the word "assignment".  At the age of twelve, everyone is assigned a role in the community. In The Giver, "the Assignments were scrupulously thought through by the Committee of Elders. He was certain that his Assignment, whatever it was to be, and Asher's too, would be the right one for him." (62). Jonas is apprehensive about the "assignment" that will be given to him, because he doesn’t have any specific interests like his friends. Since his “assignment” will be chosen for him, he doesn’t want to be stuck with something he wouldn’t enjoy. Having an “assignment'' that is given to people, chosen by someone else, defeats the purpose of having a job. People should be able to choose on their own what they want to do in life and have the choice to leave that job and find a new one if they wish. However, in The Giver, when the previous receiver had "failed", she could not get another “assignment”, so she had to apply for "release" because she was not as suited for the job chosen for her. The government uses the word "assignment" to conceal its true meaning of having a job, no matter the way it is looked at.

In the utopia of The Giver, where accurate language and pronunciation are viewed as very important, there are still words that promote the lies of the government, which continue to keep the truth of the world from their people. The words “release”, “assignment”, and “stirrings” all serve to obscure the truth behind them. For example, being “released” conceals and twists the true meaning of death by sugarcoating it to make it seem much less. “Assignment” which conceals the true indication of having a job. Finally, a word that describes emotions, “stirrings”. At the end of the day, all three words, in some way or another, are able to manipulate people’s views and how they are able to read a situation.

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