Name: Gus Dotson                                            Humanities

7th Grade                                                                  The Giver

Outline for GIVER LITERARY ESSAY

Themes: Ignorance vs. Knowledge

Paragraph #1: Introductory Paragraph (GIT)

Grabber Statement (G):

Imagine a world with no color, no freedom, and no knowledge, this is The Giver by Lois Lowry

Introduce Plot Summary (I):

12 year old Jonas is turned into an outcast after he is assigned to be the new receiver and must decide what to do with the knowledge he has been given. For it is him and only him that must bear knowledge of the past.

Thesis Statement (T):

Jonas’ Society in a dystopia because there is no freedom to know and understand the world and no true feeling.

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Paragraph #2: Thematic Analysis

Topic Sentence (T):

In the Giver the characters are kept ignorant

Explanatory Sentence (E):

In the Community the elders keep up the utopia by not letting the people know about the past or anything that might encourage them to come up with rebellious ideas.

Evidence (E):

For example jonas didn’t know what color was until he had his sessions  with the Giver, and then when he tries to tell his friend about color the kid just stares at him. “‘Asher,” Jonas said one morning, “look at those flowers very carefully.’… trying to transmit the color red to his friend.”

Analysis (A):

This shows that the people in Jonas’ community are so ignorant that they can’t even see color. This really shows that the elders want control over EVERYTHING.

Concluding/ Transition (C):

Although the average community member is ignorant to many things Jonas and the Giver are more knowledgeable than many people in our world today.

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Paragraph #3: Thematic Analysis Continued

Topic Sentence (T):

The Giver and Jonas are the only non ignorant people in the community.

Explanatory Sentence (E):

The reason this is is because all the people except the Giver and Receiver, don’t know about the past so they can’t help others or themselves in the future. The giver and Receiver know about the past and that means there were things that happened in the past that they can use to help themselves or others in the future.

Evidence (E):

On page 89 of The Giver, the Giver says, “‘But it certainly made them aware of how they need a Receiver to contain all that pain. And knowledge.’”

Analysis (A):

This shows that the that the common people are ignorant but the giver and receiver are actually quite knowledgeable, and probably know more than many people in our world, because they know about the past.

Concluding/ Transition (C):

The theme of knowledge vs. ignorance is very important to the book because that is what creates the conflict.

Paragraph #4: Concluding Paragraph (ROC)

Restatement of Thesis (R):

Jonas’ society is a dystopia because ignorance and knowledge can’t coexist. A society that has only one or two people with knowledge is weak because knowledge is power. To only give a few people power you are creating a dictatorship.

Overview of Main Points (O):

Aspects of life are like a giant web, if you take away the bad you will also end up taking away the good at the same time. To make a perfect world you need difference. Choice is what makes us humans and without it we would be more like robots and less like people.

Concluding Sentence– Comparisons and Connections (C):

Would you want to live in a world where you didn’t see color or feel emotion? Would you want to not know you parents but have others that pretended to be them? Is being the same truly perfect or is difference more important to have difference?