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Citizens voice birthdays1/15/2024 ![]() ![]() The community members have chosen Sameness over individuality and security over freedom, both major themes in the novel. After a person reaches the age of twelve, birthdays are no longer observed. Birthdays are not exact: A child's age always increases each December, even if the child's birthday is not in December. When their application is accepted and they have been matched with one of the babies born during the year (only a maximum of fifty babies are born each year to control the population), they receive a newchild at the December Ceremony, when the infant is named and becomes a One (one year old). Parents in a family unit must apply for each child. Each family is called a family unit and is made up of a mother, a father, and two children - one male child and one female child. Adults do not choose their own spouses instead, they are matched according to their personalities. We find out that everyone in the community lives by rules contained in the Book of Rules. Jonas' comfort object was a bear, and Lily's is an elephant.Īs Lowry discloses other meaningful details about the community, tension builds because something doesn't seem quite right. Each new-child (infant) is issued one comfort object and can keep it until the age of eight, when it is turned in to be recycled for use by another newborn. Comfort objects are stuffed animals that represent actual animals. That people in the community, because they have never had contact with animals, believe that animals are imaginary can be seen in the comfort objects which Sevens and younger sleep with. The visitor behaved differently, so Lily and Jonas call him an "animal." To them, the word "animal" means "someone uneducated or clumsy, someone who didn't fit in." However, Lily and Jonas don't really know what an animal is because apparently animals do not exist in their community. For example, during the evening sharing of feelings, Lily explains her anger at a boy who visited her school that day but who didn't understand the playground rules. Many times, the meaning of a word is other than the dictionary meaning. Precise language, however, is not always precise. ![]() Each school day begins with a patriotic hymn - a "chanting of the morning anthem" - and citizens of the community encourage the use of precise language. The elderly people in the community are honored for a life well lived and are released at celebrations of their lives. Children eight years old and younger are not allowed to ride bicycles until they receive their own at the age of nine, but, like most children, they secretly practice. Everyone who is at least nine years old rides bicycles because they seem to be conscious of improving their air quality by not using vehicles. Not only Jonas' family but the entire community appears to be a utopia, a perfect place where nothing bad happens. Each evening at mealtime, the family members share their feelings about that day's events and then comfort and support each other. Jonas and Lily argue and tease each other. Jonas and his seven-year-old sister, Lily, attend school, and Lily goes to the Childcare Center after school. His father is a Nurturer, a caretaker of infants, and his mother has an important job with the Department of Justice. Through Jonas, we know that a release is a "terrible punishment, an overwhelming statement of failure." The irony of the Speaker's amused tone and the pilot's serious punishment creates a sense of foreboding - a threatening feeling that something bad is going to happen - because Lowry does not explain what "release" means. At the conclusion of the plane incident, the Speaker uses an amused tone to announce that the pilot is going to be "released" from the community. As Jonas remembers an incident a year earlier when a pilot mistakenly flew over the community, it becomes evident that the people in the community unhesitatingly obey instructions that the Speaker blasts over loudspeakers placed throughout the community. ![]() This viewpoint is limited omniscient because the thoughts and feelings of only one character, the protagonist, are revealed.Īlthough Lowry doesn't provide geographical details of Jonas' community, she does disclose certain characteristics of the community through Jonas' point of view. Lowry uses the third person, limited omniscient view-point - that is, she tells us what Jonas thinks and feels but not what the other characters' thoughts and feelings are. She also alludes to future, fearful situations because Jonas' fear - apprehension - has just begun. The setting is an unknown future year in "almost December." Lowry uses the word December to symbolize short, dark days, cold weather, and end-ings - a time when nature seems dead. In the first sentence of The Giver, Lowry creates suspense and foreshadows the outcome of the novel. ![]()
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