The Individual In The Giver

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Imagine a meticulously-controlled, utopian society without pain, trepidation, poverty, or terror, in exchange; every soul is stripped of his or her ability to make their own choices. Lois Lowry, receiver of the Margaret Edwards Award and multiple Newberry Medals, authors The Giver. The novel exploits the interconnectedness of society and the individual through the eyes of a young boy searching for answers.
How important is memory to us? “Without memory, there is no pain. If you cannot remember physical pain, you might as well not have experienced it.” Long ago, the community elected to eliminate all pain from people’s lives. By doing so, all memories of pain, along with any memory one had, were transferred to The Receiver of Memory. This also …show more content…
As an individual, you cannot make your own choices, you must obey the society’s strict rules, and you are forced to accept a future that is chosen for you. When a child is born he or she starts their life without a family. As they grow up and reach a certain age where they are mature enough, they are chosen a family to live with in which they have no idea who they are. The children grow up thinking these people are their real family. “…Two children – one male, one female – to each family unit. It was written very clearly in the rules” (Lowry 57). Children are forced to go to school every day to learn the basic knowledge to succeed in life like math, science, and English. By stripping individuals of memory shows that the absolute rationale for restricting each person's choice of clothing, job, spouse, and children results from the fear of making wrong choices. Almost every aspect of the community exists to squash diversity and individual creativity, all of the rules and ceremonies are the same for all of the children. "Almost every citizen in the community had dark eyes. His parents did, and Lily did, and so did all of his group members and friends. But there were a few exceptions: Jonas himself and a female Five who had noticed had the different, lighter eyes. No one mentioned such things; it was not a rule, but was considered rude to call attention to things that were unsettling or different about individuals." (Lowry
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