Topic > Censorship, Control and Conformity in "The Giver"

In "The Giver", we can see that Jonas lives in a dystopian place where his community believes that everyone should be equal. Throughout history we can see some rules in the community that apply to identity and at the same time limit freedom. Some of these rules are that girls should wear their hair up to a certain age, telling their feelings at night and sharing dreams to their family, and that each family can have a maximum of two children, one girl and one boy. the other is a male. After Jonas is assigned the role of Receiver of Memory, he discovers all the books and how society is controlled by the elders. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay "A room without books is like a body without a soul." To me this quote means that books are like the soul of a room because they are what give us knowledge of everything in the world. Before the Internet, all the answers to our questions were in books. Just as our body would be nothing without a soul, a room would be nothing. Books. Sometimes, when I read a book and see a meaningful and thought-provoking quote, I try to think about it deeply. I try to relate to the quote and make a difference in my life according to the quote because I feel like I could become a better person if I start acting like the quote. For example, if the quote said something like “don't give up,” I would try to think of times when I gave up and convince myself that if I hadn't given up so soon, I could have achieved something that I really wanted by now, so I would try to don't give up anymore and try harder. This quote will give me some knowledge and tell me that if I try harder, I could achieve great things in my life. This will never happen in the society where Jonas lives. They don't have access to books, so how will they ever get that knowledge? Older people may be holding them back from achieving great things, and society is too naive to know that this is happening. In my opinion, a community where knowledge is held only by a select few is a bad community and not well governed. If the "ruler" of the community doesn't want you to know something, that means "they" are probably doing something wrong and are afraid of what the community would think. They are afraid of the community's opinions. They are afraid that if they allow the community to have access to books, they will gain more knowledge and be aware of the dystopian world they live in. By gaining this knowledge, the community will disagree with the way the "ruler" deals with things, and everything would become confusing and people would start demonstrating for a better life. If my access to books and the knowledge they contain was limited, I would feel like I was being controlled for living a certain way, and that my rights were being taken away. I would feel like I didn't have an opinion because I wouldn't have any knowledge of what was going on and I would feel like I was being told how to live. I would feel exactly like 'a body without a soul'. And that's exactly what Jonas began to feel when he realized that he and the rest of society had been held back by that knowledge. In “The Giver,” we can clearly see aspects of censorship, control, and conformity. “They” are controlling the community to gain more knowledge by preventing them from not having access to books. They do this so that the community doesn't realize that they live in a dystopian place and that there are better places to go. Books are very important in The Giver because the community really has no other way to gain knowledge. When Jonas sawthe room with all those books he was very surprised to know that they existed since everyone in the community only had access to a few books, those were instructions and rules. Jonas then realized there was more to know about the world they live in. An example of control, conformity and censorship in The Giver is when we are told that the memories saved by the Receiver are of things that no longer exist because it wasn't "practical" because it caused transportation problems. Therefore, in the interest of identity, the snow had to disappear. Jonas expresses a desire to have and see snow again, but the Memory Receiver tells him that "that choice is not ours." It seems like the community has taken control of this part of life and someone is making this decision on behalf of everyone else. This is a restriction and is done to establish compliance. But snow is part of life and removing it is like having "a body without a soul". Another example is how the community doesn't allow Stirrings. Stirrings are basically the feelings we humans have and the one thing we can't control. But “they” made it possible for it to be controllable. A pill was created to control it. It was created to get rid of feelings and block emotions by taking the pill every morning. They are controlling how people should feel and making them like robots. Even though Jonas didn't want to let go of those feelings, he still had to take the pills because he was forced to, but then he felt guilty because he didn't want to let them go. He shouldn't have felt this way. No one should feel guilty for their feelings and above all they should not get rid of them. This shows how messy that community is. In my opinion, these rules do nothing but make the community a worse place because people have to live their lives according to these rules, and I think they should be able to decide things for themselves. This community does not allow love. No one knows what love is in that community, except a few. They haven't experienced it either. Normally, a family is made of mutual love and care, but in "The Giver" this does not exist. I don't understand how it's possible not to love your family. I don't understand why that community doesn't allow love. Loving someone is not harmful, it will not kill you. It's the opposite. You feel cared for and safe. When I think of this society where love is absent, I think of a sad place. A dead place, without joy and happiness. It terrifies me to think about it. When Caleb, a boy who lived in this community, died, I thought the family would be heartbroken. But they had never loved Caleb, so death didn't bother them more than it should. They simply replaced Caleb with a new baby and never thought about their old son again. They continued with their lives as if nothing had ever happened to Caleb. It's very depressing to think about and shows how crazy this community is. The absence of love is not the most shocking thing in this society. The fact that Jonas' father had the courage to free a baby who was almost part of their family is scandalous. It's revealed that releasing someone is killing them, but everyone in the community thinks that release happens when someone is sent somewhere else, to a better place. The community is unaware that release is equivalent to death and is manipulated into thinking that release is a great opportunity for the elderly or those who want to leave the community to go to a better place and perhaps start over. The fact that Jonas saw his father kill the newborn is terrible. He must have felt like he no longer knew who his father was because he saw his true face. If a child watched their father kill someone, I would definitely think he would stay.