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The Giver

Providing Equality, Forcing the Sameness:

The Giver (1993) and Democracy

By Zekayi Kılıç 

First edition cover of the The Giver by the Lois Lowry, 1993 (The old man is the current Giver. He is staring at the sunset which only he and Jonas can experience,)

The Giver, a novel by Lois Lowry asks whether one group or person has the right to choose for everyone. Even if that group only intends to erase all the pain, war, and hunger in the world, is it just for them to take away all democratic rights of individuals? While the founders of this dystopic society aim to create a society where people do not suffer, they unintentionally force a society where individuals are not allowed to make democratic choices because they can make wrong choices. The government fears the individuals who can question the rules, and the government’s fear of transparency and democracy causes them to hide all the information from each citizen, except The Giver, Jonas.

Jonas holds a special place in his community. He is the only person who has the right to read books, communicate with the previous Giver, and touch him. Through physical contact with The Giver, he acquires all information, emotions, and even the physical pain humanity has suffered. In this community, everyone takes blocker pills that block ‘the stirrings’ such as anger, fear, sexual needs, and love. Everything, including the partner they marry, or the occupation they practice is decided for them when they reach a certain age. They don’t know about colors because the variety in anything can complicate daily life. ‘‘The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without color, pain, or past.’’ (165) The reason there are no colors is because sunshine and heat were inconvenient and leaders in old times relinquished the light that produces colors. When the protagonist becomes The Giver, he acquires the memories of the colors transferred till his days by the previous Givers. He says: ‘‘If everything’s the same, then there aren’t any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things!’’ (97)

Life in this community is linear. The similarity of each individual produces sameness, and this allows them to not question potential differences. Sameness also prevents the accidents and coincidences from leaking into the daily lives of the citizens and causes them to not ‘want’ or ‘need’ more than what they are allowed to know. Without individual needs, or a need to choose, characters do not even think about democratic rights. The system is aware that individuality is a threat to order, and they prevent it by creating sameness. Yet, they still preserve every bit of information through The Giver because they also fear that the complete erasure of information would cause their civilization to be guideless. Ironically, without the information and wisdom carried through by the previous Givers, former mistakes would be made again.

When the protagonist Jonas finds out about the colors, pain, emotions, and all the information an individual is forbidden to know, he wants to make a ‘choice’. He chooses to escape from his community. In The Giver, this escape journey symbolizes  Jonas’ first individual choice, and through this choice, the novel shows that individuals want to alter their lives through their own choices, and the lack of democracy in the society closes the door to individuality.

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993

-By touching the hands of The Giver, Jonas steals his memories. Now, he can see the color ‘blue’. (A scene from movie, The Giver by Phillip Noyce.)