"THE GIVER" BY LOIS LOWRY

MY ARGUMENT IS HOW LIFE IS MUCH BETTER WITHOUT SAMENESS.

EVERYONE HAVING TO BE EQUAL HAS IT'S LIMITS

• If everyone is equal, things that we take for granted and don't pay much attention to, such as color, they do not get to see or experience.
• The world's true beauty is limited to the colors back and white, and the world is boring and bland.
• You don't get to express yourself or be your own person, and no one knows true beauty/individuality.

Supporting Quote:
Jonas shows that he does not want Sameness and that he wishes people could see color when he argues that "if everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic or a red one? He looked down at himself, at the colorless fabric of his clothing. But it's all the same, always" (Lowry 97).

YOU HAVE NO CONTROL AS TO WHAT HAPPENS IN YOUR LIFE

• You don't get to make your own choices, and things such as your career get chosen for you.
• It is against the rules to have anything but two parents, (male and female), and two children (also male and female), in a family.
• If you do not like a rule that is made in the community, even if you try hard to make it change, it will more than likely never change.

Supporting Quote:
The importance of picking a job comes to Jonas's mind as he realizes that "during the past year he had become aware of the increased level of observation. In school, at recreation time, and during volunteer hours, he had noticed the Elders watching him and the other Elevens" (15).

YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW VERY STRICT RULES, AND YOU CAN'T LIVE LIFE TO THE ABSOLUTE FULLEST

• You are under constant surveillance and don't get any privacy.
• Life isn't as much fun because you can only do a limited amount of things within the community.
• If you break too many rules you are "released," which means you are killed.

Supporting quote:
Jonas realizes what exactly release means and how his father has lied to him all his life. Jonas was stunned "as he continued to watch, the newchild, no longer crying, moved his arms and legs in a jerking motion. The he went limp. His head fell to the side, his eyes half open. Then he was still...He killed it! My father killed it! Jonas said to himself, stunned at what he was realizing" (150).

Lowry, Lois. "The Giver." New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1993