The Giver

What do you think of the theme of Freedom&Choice after reading Lois Lowry's The Giver,Dystopian, 1993,Teen and Young Adult genre?

Throughout The Giver, Lowry attempts to awaken each and every reader to the dangers that exist when people opt for conformity over individuality and for unexamined security over freedom. Only by questioning the conditions under which we live, can we maintain and secure our freedom of expression. In Jonas's community, no one makes choices. By sacrificing the freedom of choice, community members are guaranteed a stable, painless life. Consequently, the people lead pleasant but robotic lives. However, “Choice is power.”, Jonas learned. He makes the first real choice in his life when he decides to escape from the community and take Gabriel with him. In making this significant and dangerous choice, he gives a windfall of pleasure and pain to the people he leaves behind, and gives the freedom of choice back to the community.

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By eliminating as much personal variation as possible in favor of Sameness and a predictable society, Jonas's community has rejected the truly utopian possibilities of a society where people are free to move society forward. The result is a dystopia of conformity. A series of conversations between Jonas and The Giver shows that the totalitarian rationale for restricting each person's choice of clothing, job, spouse, and children results from the fear of making wrong choices. Yet, as Jonas realizes after he escapes from the community, he would rather be able to choose his destiny than remain in the safety of a community that normally does not even allow its citizens to choose their time and manner of death. Although the possibility of individual choice sometimes involves risk, it also exposes Jonas to a wide range of joyful experiences from which his community has been shut away. His conversations with The Giver lead him to understand both the advantages and the disadvantages of personal choice, and in the end, he considers the risks worth the benefits.