Giver Essay

                It’s hard for us to imagine something truly unfair, considering we live in a free country. We are allowed to live out our dreams as we choose, and determine our own futures. Not all countries are like this, yet their citizens still have a purpose for living. In The Giver, lives are laid out by The Community Elders which is unfair to the lives of the people whom it belongs to. Deaths are only by choice and happen all the same, jobs are assigned for them, and love and money don’t exist. The Elders believe this is the only way to live without emotional or physical pain; and if pain doesn’t exist, then neither does purpose.

                Their government has total control over every choice in The Community. The Elders fear that if they allow everyone to make their own choices, then some would make the wrong ones, and live in a world of despair and regret, which is a type of pain in their eyes; and  pain is not allowed. So they simplify the citizens’ lives by choosing their futures for them. One way they control this, is by selecting a job for you. They will watch your actions attentively, and carefully choose a job they believe is to your liking. But only one of each job exists for every generation; so two people of the same age cannot have the same job. You also cannot change your job as you get older, because that would mean disrupting the order of how jobs are assigned.

                When people plan their futures, usually it includes getting married, and having kids. But in the community, once you feel ready, you can apply for a spouse. And once you’re married to that assigned person for three years, you can apply for a child. The marriage situation reminds me of the olden days, where people would have an arranged marriage. The people in the community basically do nothing for themselves because like I said before, their futures are planned for them. All they have to do it live it.

                Another way lives are decided is when they die. People in The Community do not die of old age or sickness, their medicine is way too advanced for that. No, the Elders believe that if someone dies naturally there will be a panic, and no one will know what to do with the body and sadness. So it is arranged for them. This is called a release. The Elders brainwash the people into thinking that a release is a celebration of a good life and is a great honor, so they won’t be scared when the day comes. What really happens surprised me will much horror. They kill them. Not through violence or bloody murder, but they inject poison into your veins that kills you instantly and it happens without pain of course… You can apply for a release for a reason of your choice, in which most don’t decide upon… or the Elders will decide when you go.

                Everything above is unfair to the people to the people of The Community… even if they don’t know it, because they live in a world of ignorance and blindness. But what is even more unfair is for the Elders to take away the purpose of these people’s lives (which they don’t know about either).

                What they don’t know is that they live without love. There’s no compassion or love for others. The first time a person feels love for another person they force them to take a pill from then on. They call love “the stirrings”.  So without love, what is the purpose for living? That’s what makes the world go round, right? But that’s not how the Elders see it. They think that love leads to broken hearts, and pain. So they thought of a way to eliminate it.

                Money, (as some people say) makes the world go round too…which is another thing that the Elders were determined not to use. So why are the citizens working then? There’s no point to work if you don’t have motive, and most of the time, money is the motive for working. Obviously they don’t know that there’s no point for working, because they don’t know about money. Everything is provided for them because they do nothing. Without money, no one feels jealousy of another because they have more objects or money. No one goes hungry and feels the pain of starvation, and no one fights over it. But the sacrifice is the purpose for working.  

                If the citizens of The Community realized what they were missing, they would understand my point, but of course not, they live in ignorance. All of this is done for the absence of pain. But is it really worth it? I don’t think so. Pain branches to so many opportunities of life, so many great and wonderful things…The feeling of success, love for another and the purpose for living… none of which exist in The Community. The government basically played a big game of would you rather? And I fear they chose wrong, but their fear of pain was so strong and determined, it won over the joys of life. I would feel bad for them, but no one (except for Jonas and the Giver) would understand why.

               

By Tori Johnson