ipl-logo

The Theme Of Family In The Giver, By Lois Lowry

713 Words3 Pages

“‘Family” isn’t defined only by last names or blood. It’s defined by commitment and by love. It means showing up when they need it most. It means having each other’s backs. It means choosing to love each other even on those days when you struggle to like each other. It means never giving up on each other!” (Dave Willis). In the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry “family units” are assigned by the community elders. The adults apply for a spouse once they are married for three years and approved they may apply for children. The children who are born to “birth mothers” are given to their family and named at the December ceremonies. Because of the process of children being assigned to a family, the community has a result of none of the families are biologically related. Due to this a theme for The Giver is being biologically related is not the only contributing factor to being family. There are many examples of this theme throughout the text including when the family got Lily, when Jonas asks the Giver to be his grandparent and when Jonas in taking care of Gabriel on the journey to “Elsewhere”.
One example of this theme is when Jonas in remembering how the family got his sister Lily. Although the two of them are not related he in having thoughts that would be the same if his parents were having a child themselves. The narrator tells us, “Though Jonas had only become five the year they acquired Lily and learned her name, he remembered the excitement the conversations at home wondering

Show More
Related

  • Dialectical Journal For The Giver

    542 Words  | 3 Pages

    He was often overwhelmed with the feeling of loss and loneliness. But without the memories, other people like Asher and Fiona couldn’t give back the love Jonas had for them. If memories could be shared and remembered, everyone would have real feelings, whether that’s love or happiness. At this point in the story, Jonas realizes that there were many memories, both good and bad, but in the end, Jonas had gained knowledge, things he had never imagined of. The Giver tells him that “‘There are so many good memories,’ The Giver reminded Jonas.

    Read More

  • The Giver Critical Lens Essay

    1015 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Giver looked down at him, his face contorted with suffering. ‘Please’ he gasped, take some of the pain.” (Lowry 149). This excerpt shows that even an assured brave man like the Giver suffers greatly when forced to bear a weight this colossal alone. Jonas is the one person that the Givers trusts and confides in, the one person that he uses to lean on in these kinds of times.

    Read More

  • Family System In The Giver

    1018 Words  | 5 Pages

    They even do not have their biological parents and could never know them. The kinship is acute absent in the community. Therefore, all the citizens in Jonas’ community cannot feel the emotion called

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Memory In The Giver By Lois Lowry

    1595 Words  | 7 Pages

    I have read the novel, “The Giver”, written by the famous American writer Lois Lowry. This book was written under author’s impression after visiting her aging father in the hospital, who had lost his long term memory. The idea of the book is the importance of memory. The novel is set in a society which seems like utopian, in this society there is no hunger, sadness, or misery. However this utopian society is held from experiencing true emotions.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Ellen Goodman's The Family That Stretch

    1442 Words  | 6 Pages

    Although perceptions of who can be determined as ‘family’ have been extremely customary in the past, Ellen Goodman utilizes a plethora of rhetorical strategies including perspective, figurative language and Aristotelian Appeals in order to express that straying away from labels and evolving with society over time will allow individuals to step beyond the realms of tradition and embrace the complexities of a more meaningful, extended family. In Ellen Goodman’s The Family that Stretches (Together), the author argues that what once stereotypically defined ‘family’ can no longer be representative of the greater population. She argues that in the modern day, it is important to understand that purely recognizing who falls under personal ‘family trees’ can be detrimental because a family tree alone is not sufficient in determining family. While Goodman does not fail to include empirical data and statistics to argue her point, the initial

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Giver And Our Society

    459 Words  | 2 Pages

    “We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others” (Lowry). In other words, this means that to get what you want, you have to get rid of other things you have. Although there are many similarities between The Giver and our society, there are a lot more differences like families, rules, and personal freedoms. For starters there are many differences with families between their society and our society.

    Read More

  • Jonas: Changing The Community In The Giver

    517 Words  | 3 Pages

    He is under sameness and the influence of the community. Jonas is chosen to receive feelings, colors, and emotions from memories. As time goes by Jonas sees the community not as a utopia but a horrible place. Jonas wants to change

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis: The Giver By Lois Lowry

    846 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jonas felt anger for his father and the pain he feels for the baby twin. On page 168 in the giver,Jonas realized that they been playing a game of war ( Lowry). Jonas feel sad and misunderstood for the boy in war. Jonas sadly understood that no one know what he is feeling. These are like real life because some careless people don 't think about others and think that everything is just a joke.

    Read More

  • Analytical Essay On The Giver

    771 Words  | 4 Pages

    One of the main themes in “The Giver” is the importance of individuality. The people in the community are not given any freedom to be individuals. They are not allowed to be different, and this creates less understanding of the world. This is why the community needs a receiver to understand these things for them.

    Read More

  • Communism In The Giver

    733 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is a typical family in our society as well. In Jonas’ society they do not live with their birthparents, but this are more and more normal in our society today. The parents in Jonas’s community are matched together by the Elders. The Elders analyzes the people who search for a mate, and sets together cupules who has the same interest and can fit echoers personalities and skills. This seems kind of weird for us, but it is not far from the way people in our society finds each other today.

    Read More

  • The Giver Rhetorical Analysis

    423 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Giver then told Jonas he would be glad to share that memory with him. He transmits the memory of a christmas morning, grandparents and love. Jonas liked the memory and wanted to be able to feel it all the time. When Jonas got home he asked his parents if they loved him, They were a little fluster about the word love and told him to pay attention to his precision of language. His father told Jonas that the word love is absolutely meaningless.

    Read More

  • Jonas Hardships In The Giver

    535 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jonas thought that after they received their assignments, him and Asher, his best friend, he thought that they would grow apart and no longer be friends. Throughout the beginning of the book, Jonas kept worrying about how they might grow apart from each other. In the book Jonas thought to himself “...but what would become of me and Asher and the assignments we received”. Jonas did not want them to grow apart because they have been best friends since they were little. This was hard for him because he didn't know what would become of them and what would become of them.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Family Inequality

    1429 Words  | 6 Pages

    Families can be regarded as the foundation of society. For Fleetwood (2012: 1), the importance of families is highlighted by the fact that it would be difficult to comprehend a society that could function without them. In addition, even though families and their compositions vary across societies and cultures, the family can be viewed as a universal social institution (Macionis & Plummer, 2012: 625. Specifically, according to Macionis and Plummer (2012: 625) and Neale (2000:1), it has the ability to unite individuals into cooperative groups via social bonds (kinship) and is ultimately experienced differently from individual to individual. However, the family can be a source of conflict, tension and inequality, which is why one of the key practices

    Read More

  • Family Definition Essay

    1100 Words  | 5 Pages

    “The Changing American Family” by Natalie Angier states, “Fictive families are springing up among young people, old people, disabled people, homeless people, and may well define one of the ultimate evolutions of the family concept, maximizing, as they do, the opportunities for fulfillment of specific social and economic needs outside the constraints of biological relatedness.” The ever changing social dynamics and circumstances of this life have opened the definition of family to encompass individuals who can fill those deep-seated needs

    Read More

  • Speech About Family

    924 Words  | 4 Pages

    It does not need to be blood related in order to be a family. Family is home, they are the ones who gives you unconditional love. They are the people who comforts you towards difficulties in life. The ones who I can count on in times of love problem. Family, the people whom I call my world, my world because they are the people who guides me taught me how to walk and talk when I was

    Read More

More about The Theme Of Family In The Giver, By Lois Lowry

Open Document