Response to The Giver by Lois Lowry

The author, Lois Lowry, wrote a fiction story titled The Giver that took place in a community where everything is under control with tons of rules.  When a kid named Jonas turns 12, he is given the task to become the new receiver of memory.  Through the memories, he finds out that the community sacrificed many good things for everything to be perfect.  Lois Lowry uses the idea of “sameness” to show the importance of independence and diversity.

Everyone conforms to the rules that the elders set up.  There are rules from eating to talking.  They all wear the same thing, they have birthdays on the same day, an people even already have jobs chosen for them.  These rules are in place for the “good of the community”.  Lowry uses the extreme to show the importance of independence.  They are so used to conformity that they are blind to what they are really doing.  Jonas realized this when he saw a video of his dad “releasing” a twin baby for being lighter than the other twin baby.  Releasing was common, and Jonas was horrified when he found out it meant killing. 

The community sets up rules to get rid of differences.  For example, there aren’t that many mirrors in the community because they don’t want to judge others or themselves.  The family units are also already set up and every family has the same traditions and cultures.  Another way how everything is the same is that the people don’t see color.  This way, a person can’t judge another by skin color.  Even though racism is gone, people don’t have memories of their past or culture.  At my school, we have uniforms so people don’t fight each other over what they wear.  However, on Fridays, we can wear whatever we want, so it’s balanced.

I think “sameness” isn’t worthwhile because even though it gets rid of bad things, it also misses out on good things.