Name: Stella                                             Humanities

7th Grade                                                                                    The Giver

Control Through Lies and Fear

Imagine a world where control is maintained by ignorance and fear, where sameness and perfection is valued. This is The Giver, by Lois Lowry. 12 year old Jonas lives in a world where he has no choice in anything that happens to him. He has to keep a secret from his community that reveals imperfection. This secret shows him that he has been lied to his whole life. He realizes that there is more to his controlled society which makes him want to change the norms. Jonas’s society is a dystopia because everyone is the same and has limited choice. This a community that is only controlled by the people in power.

In Jonas’s society perfection is valued. The Elders control their society by making the people the same and ignorant. They want to make their world a utopia. For example the Elders have a set of rules to keep people from rebelling. The Elders also attempt to control the society through rituals that promote homogeneity.  They script the lives of people by choosing their partner, children, jobs, houses, food– usually things that you would choose yourself but, in this case, they are chosen for you. One of the ways they do this is by having the ceremony of ages. On page 41, Lowry says, “The entire community attends the Ceremony each year.” This ceremony represents how they take away difference to make a perfect world. The Elders think that if everyone is the same no one will have anything to fight about. There will be no conflict, no battle over difference. The Elders maintain control because they are the only ones who know everything and they strive to keep everyone else ignorant. In their heads they are making a utopia but does sameness and control over everything really make a world perfect? The Elders believe control and the elimination of memory and history lead to a utopia.

Jonas’s society is very controlled. The Elders are the main people in power. They keep everyone in line by making rules and rituals that everyone follows without question. They are very isolated from the outside world. Another way they keep power is by eliminating memory. The Elders have gotten control over everything including memory. For example they have one person holding all of the memories called the Receiver. The Elders take away memories, good and bad, which keeps people ignorant. The Receiver holds all the pain of the past but all the good things too. On page 103, Lowry writes “Jonas felt the joy of it as soon as the memory began” (Giver, 103) but she also writes on page 86 “The Giver had chosen a startling and disturbing memory that day.” (Giver, 83). These quotes show how memory can be scary and dangerous but also joyful. The Elders think that they are protecting people from bad memories that could scare them or make them rebellious. Even though they trying to protect everyone, they are blocking them from memories that are special and good. The people don’t know anything about history because the Elders have eliminated the history of the society. Jonas doesn’t even know who the failed Receiver was even though he was alive when it happened. That is how easily the Elders destroy history. By destroying history they are making people more ignorant and easy to manipulate. This is the cycle that keeps them in control.

The people in Jonas’s society are living in an dystopia that is strongly controlled and is maintained by sameness, ignorance, and elimination of memory. By eliminating history and memory they are taking away progress and emotion. A utopia is a world where differences are treasured and important. It is also a place where conflict can always be resolved, where mistakes can be made but learned from. The Elders do not agree with differences and they want to eliminate them. They do this hoping that it will resolve conflict and it does in a way but they are taking away people’s best qualities which is difference. They think that by making everyone the same no one will fight about anything. Jonas realizes that some of the Elders ideas might not be what is right.