The Giver (government) 1

" Last night he had watched as his father bathed the newchild. This was much the same: the fragile skin, the soothing water, the gentle motion of his hand, slippery with soap. The relaxed, peaceful smile on the woman's face reminded him of Gabriel being bathed. It was against the rules for children or adults to look at another's nakedness; but the rule did not apply to newchildren or the Old. Jonas was glad. It was a nuisance to keep oneself covered while changing for games, and the required apology if one had by mistake glimpsed another's body was always awkward. He couldn't see why it was necessary. He liked the feelig of safety here in this warm and quiet room; he liked the expression of trust on the woman's face as she lay in the water unprotected, exposed, and free. From the corner of his eye he could see his friend Fiona help the old man from the tub and tenderly pat his, thin naked body dry with an absorbant cloth. She helped him into his robe (30-31)."

             The book The Giver by Lois Lowry is a dystopian book, everything in Jonas’s world seems perfect but in reality it is not. Jonas seeks the Giver for help and relies on him for answers, in this dystopian society that they live in. I interpret the Giver in this book as a higher power, almost like a “God-like figure” to Jonas, with that interpretation I feel like the Giver has all the answers and everybody in the society relies on him for answers almost like a “government figure.”

            This quote is from Chapter 4 where Jonas starts to realize that his community is not everything that he may think it is, he starts to realize that something is missing in his society. He realizes this when he was training to be a “receiver” when the Giver showed him what it was really like to live in a utopian society. In this quote we also see that Jonas has a strong relationship with the woman and the Giver. He feels safe with these people and he very much trusts them. My reaction to this quote is that I feel like Jonas has been limited to what he is allowed to see in the society. As a result it is almost as if he does not recognize what is real and what is fake in society. I feel like the Giver presents him with the real and factual information that is true about his dystopian society. Up to this point Jonas has been living in a fake world before he met the Giver, whether or not Jonas accepts the Giver, the Giver provides Jonas with what their society is actually like, unlike what Jonas makes it out to be. Jonas thinks his society is utopian but it is really dystopian.  

            The purpose of this passage is to show the Giver and his importance to the book, it is only the beginning of the book but we already see the affect that the Giver has on Jonas. The Giver and Jonas are forming a strong relationship/bond because the Giver is being real to Jonas and Jonas can’t believe what he is actually experiencing with the Giver. Also the purpose of this passage is to show how much power the Giver possesses in the society, it is almost as if the Giver is a form of “government” because of how powerful he is. He is accepted in the society and people come to him for advice in this dystopian world that they live in. The specific techniques used to achieve this purpose is the use of words that Lowry chose to use, the words “unprotected, exposed and free” are key words in this passage because Jonas liked the way that the woman laid their being “free” and free caring. Jonas is not used to this new world that the Giver has brought him to because he is so used to his society being uptight and strict, nothing like this would happen in Jonas’s dystopian society. The word “free” is the most important word because Jonas is not free in his society because of the strict rules and regulations unlike this woman who lives in a utopian society, she is the definition of “free” that Jonas wants to be. The word “free” suggests that Jonas does not like the rules and regulations that his society puts in place. This passage foreshadows what’s to come later in the novel, we can see by the Giver showing Jonas this new world that they are going to have a strong relationship with each other, he feels safe with the Giver and maybe he will be like Jonas’s father figure.

            In this novel so far the word “human” in Jonas’s cases means that you are living in a dystopian society and you do not get to see the real world and what your society is really like because of the strict rules and regulations that are in place by the government in your society. In Jonas’s case the word “human” is not used correctly because I believe that if you are a human you are free and nobody has to tell you what to do, you are capable of making your own decisions whether you are wrong or right. So far in this novel the word “human” is being incorrectly used in my point of view because Jonas is not living “free” like Larissa and the Giver.

            Our deceptions of the future reveal that the present is a time to cherish because it may not be there for long, you need to cherish the good things in life that are available and at your dispense now because one day they are not going to be there. In Jonas’s case he needs to go with the Giver so the Giver can guide him to the utopian society that Jonas envisions, not the dystopian society that Jonas is living in now. We use language and images to manipulate people’s minds by only showing what people want to see. People want to see all the good things, but do not want to see the bad so people often make it seem like everything is alright and good so people don’t get scared. In Jonas’s case he thinks his society is perfect because he is only seeing the good, not the bad. So the Giver introduces Jonas to the bad of society and then shows him Larissa who is actually living in a utopian society, unlike Jonas.