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  • Essay / Freedom versus security in "The Giver"

    In a country where many are free to learn what they want, express themselves and feel a wide range of emotions, it is strange to see these freedoms simple restricted or even abandoned. . The Giver by Lois Lowry follows Jonas, a boy who begins to question his perfect, problem-free society when he receives memories of the past as part of his job as a memory collector. The community abandons its residents' freedom for security, leading to ignorance of the past and an inability to perceive the future. Giving up freedom makes emotion non-existent. This begs the question; Is it really worth erasing the freedom to learn, experience the world, and feel emotions in favor of safety? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThe government of the Jonas community significantly restricts the range of knowledge that can be acquired within the education system; here, the education of young people involves renouncing their own individuality in order to retain identity and maintain order within the community. Because of their identity-centered education, no one learns about the past and no one can think beyond the parameters set by the community. This indoctrination ensures that everyone has their place in society, and also ensures that no individual is capable of disrupting the order with their own thoughts or concepts that conflict with the Unity. The citizens are so ignorant of any other method of thinking that even Jonas doesn't realize how ignorant he is until he learns about family and love in a Christmas memory. Jonas states, “I just didn’t realize there was another way until I received this memory” (157). He didn't know there was another way to live their lives, and he didn't even know what Christmas was or what love was until he received this memory, which shows how deep their memories are boundaries. With this security, no one can be free in his mind. How do we perceive the world on a physical level? The answer comes from their senses and their thoughts. How can we perceive if our thoughts and senses are incapable? This is a trick question; it is not a person who can perceive, but rather the illusion of perception. In other cases, The Giver's community objects to basic facts of life that most free societies never question. No one in Jonas's community can see colors or hear music, which seems harmless enough. Color is an expected amenity in a typical person's life, but in such a controlled environment it can be overlooked and music can be seen as a distraction from an orderly lifestyle. However, it goes a little further than being able to discern hair color or being able to listen to chord progressions. Color allows people to be individuals with distinct qualities about their bodies (hair, skin, eyes), and music allows people to express their creativity. Therefore, color and music conflict with sameness as they express individuality and choice. No one can see colors or hear music because everyone is genetically modified before birth so that they are all the same. They are essentially intended to never be different in order to keep the community safe. If people are born different in Jonah's society, then they are released from the community by lethal injection. The narrator describes the euthanasia of a twin baby: “He pushed the plunger very slowly,..