Blake1

Caleb Blake

Mrs. Cramer

Comp Pd. 2

18 December 2020

Giving Diversity

When Lois Lowry was publishing The Giver, she was in a stage of her life where she was

watching her father age. These ideas are what inspired the events behind the book. Authors

always guide the reader to the same question: "What gave you the inspiration for your book?" In

Lowry’s case, she was inspired by her father aging, which was a memorable time in her life and

a unique concept to her. At the time, Lois's father was losing his memory, so Lois asked, "What

if we could control other people's memories?" From there, the storyline was created and thus

became The Giver. Lois Lowry emphasizes a lack of diversity, a disconnection from the world,

and it describes the problems that follow which make for an amazing book for everyone.

In the world of The Giver, sameness is encouraged and even stressed. Since the beginning

of their life, they are assigned a certain role to play in the community. Each citizen has an

organized plan they are to follow. In some instances, characters in the Giver are forced to be

identical. Almost everyone has the same rules, clothing, and ways to express their opinions. The

population is expected to follow the rules and act appropriately. The society created eliminated

choice, and competition among one another. The population described show a isolated

community, who are reprimanded if they interact otherwise. When one decides to ignore these

rules that are places, they are condemned with many harsh, unnecessary rules. For example, the

novel says "...Asher had dashed-into the classroom, late as usual, breathlessly in the middle of
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the chanting of the morning anthem... Asher remained standing to make his public apology as

required." This quotation from The Giver is an example of a need for more diversity because

individuals are not encouraged to act independently, they are forced to follow pointless rules that

could hurt them in the future. This lack of diversity shows the unnecessary rules because one of

the main characters, Asher, must apologize for being late. In the real world, students just get a

pass for being tardy and turn it in. They do not have to apologize publicly. This is just one of the

laws that illustrates the problems that occur from the lack of diversity.

Because of the harsh rules, many conflicts occur in the way citizens live. If residents

make a mistake that is big enough, they must be "released." This means that they are taken into a

room and given a lethal injection which eventually kills them. In the community, release is death,

but it is never described that way by the author. Most citizens believe that after release the

mistaken or flawed people are welcomed into “elsewhere” that surrounds the community. When

one is released in the occasion of a mistake it is a great shame. The lack of social and emotional

connections promotes this because they don’t know any better. They are raised from their

ancestors and taught how to live. If they lived a different way, they might evolve, or become

more educated, and know how to solve problems better. One major problem with the "release"

system is shown when The Giver says "Within minutes the speakers had crackled again, and the

voice, reassuring now and less urgent, had explained that a Pilot-in-Training had misread his

navigational instructions and made a wrong turn. Desperately the Pilot had been trying to make

his way back before his error was noticed." A simple mistake had been made and no one was

hurt, but since the pilot caused havoc, he was released. There are multiple ways that the situation

could have been handled, perhaps by more training. A more diverse community would evaluate

the situation and handle it more appropriately because they would have the knowledge to see a
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problem and act accordingly. The issues within the community in The Giver sense a lack of

variation throughout the population, which seems to cause more harm than good.

The lack of connection to the other communities also demonstrates difficulties and causes

social relationship problems in The Giver. Because people don’t interact much with others

outside of the community, they don’t know how to connect with new individuals in an

appropriate manner. For example, Lily, the main character's sister, had a play date with kids her

age from a different community. Lily became enraged when the children didn't know their rules,

but that is because both towns have different instructions. If Lily was used to being exposed to

new people, or had less harsh rules, she might understand some of the actions that occurred with

the other kids. Also, being that Jonas, the main character, lives in a community separated from

the rest of the world, it gives him the urge to leave, especially because of all of the problems in

the system. He sees how warped the people in charge are. Jonas had mixed feelings about

leaving, but the novel says "He felt surprisingly, no fear, nor any regret at leaving the community

behind." This shows Jonas' excitement to flee from his community and to be free. The weak

connection from the community and the outside world causes conflicts that could be avoided.

To conclude, a lack of diversity and a connection to the world in The Giver causes many

issues occur. Had there been better communication and the ability to allow their citizens to have

choices, these problems would have been resolved. The community forcing everyone to behave

in the same manner causes overreactions and many unnecessary deaths. Meanwhile, a lack of

association with other districts contributes to having poor communication because citizens don’t

know how to act around new people and the lack of connection also makes the community

members want to rebel. In The Giver, these miscommunications portray the problems throughout

the community.
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Work cited

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Portland: Ember, 2006. Digital