No Love, No Freedom, and No Choices: The Giver Essay Example

Imagine a life full of nothingness, black and white. No love, no freedom, and no choices about what your future will hold. The community in The Giver represents a dystopian society because they had no color, no love and no freedom.  

They had no color because the community wanted everyone to stay the same, so no one could judge one another. “There were a lot of colors, and one of them was called red.”(pg.119) In this quote it’s talking in past tense, which is implying that there were a lot of colors not that they have a lot of colors. “It was so—oh, I wish language were more precise! The red was beautiful!”(pg.120) This quote is showing that Jonas hasn’t seen color before, and the community doesn’t want the citizens to have emotions. They took away strong, meaningful language which Jonas is trying to get a word to describe what he is seeing for the first time. 

No love could live in the community because they weren’t allowed to choose their own spouses they were assigned, also that they weren’t allowed love because because it was an inappropriate term to their society. “Do you love me?”(159) “‘Jonas. You, of all people. Precision of language, please![...]’ ‘You could ask, ‘Do you enjoy me?’ The answer is ‘Yes’,’ mother said.”(160) This is using precision of language, because he said love which is not okay in this community. When Jonas learned about love he wanted to know if his parents loved him, but in the community you have to say “Do you enjoy me?” This is saying that you aren’t allowed to love. 

They weren’t allowed any freedom, they were expected to just get everything assigned to them, so they had to go to a special ceremony for their lives to be given to them. They future had nothing in store for them, they did this because then no one would ever be poor and will always have a job. “I wish that language were more precise!”(120) In this quote it is saying that Jonas can’t find the words to describe what he is seeing. This is because the community in The Giver, they didn’t have the freedom to speak about what they are deeply thinking. They have to say words that could never show what they are feeling.