Diving Deeper - The Giver

In the novel The Giver, Jonas lives in a community that is supposed to be perfect. No conflict, crime, sickness, pain, or any of the common problems that plague our society today. To a casual observer, it is perfect, but when looking beneath the surface, there are troubles found by Jonas everywhere - especially in the family structure that the community forces on its citizens.

 

The problem with the family is the lack of choice in creating it. Two similarly-aged adults are chosen as parents, then a woman whose job is to be Birthmother gives birth to a boy and a girl. The children are then assigned to that family unit. Adults don't get to choose their spouse, or when they have kids, or how many kids they have. This also causes all the different families to have no personality or individuality. Also, when kids turn eleven, they start taking pills for the rest of their life that diminish the "Stirrings" (hormones). This causes the people in the community to not feel love for anyone, including within the family. And because no one has feelings for each other, the word love is obsolete, and the whole point of creating a family is to feel that love. Now is the community perfect?

Other problems within the community are lack of freedom in choosing jobs, where to live, and just as a side note, killing innocent babies. The job solution solves the problem of unemployment, but makes people indifferent about their jobs, and they have to do that job for the rest of their lives! They also are unable to choose where they live, and all houses are exactly the same. This is good for matter of convenience, but not freedom or individuality. Killing mentally retarded innocent babies solves the problem of having to take care of them, but, pretty obviously, is considered morally wrong in almost every society on Earth. Although The Giver appears to be a utopian society at first, by the end of the book, it is revealed to be a dystopian society. Many problems that are solved by the restrictive community are overpowered by the troubles it creates – and Jonas is bound to change that.

Response to Ribbons

There are outstanding examples of symbolism and deeper meaning in the short story “Ribbons” by Laurence Yep. In Chinese culture, it used to be that when girls were five, they would bind their feet with ribbons, which would curl their toes under their feet, and in doing so, enable them to fit into the “cute” shoes. In the story, Laurence shows the clash between old Chinese culture and Stacy’s passion, which is ballet.

Throughout the story, Grandma shows tough love to Stacy, and although Stacy doesn't know it, it is because she doesn't want Stacy to go through the same pain she does every day. The ribbons also symbolize how something so innocent-looking on the outside can mean something so horrible to someone else – just like too many things in life.

Even if people seem mean to you at first, sometimes if you dig deeper, you’ll find their tough love is because they love and care about you. The story also reflects that some things in life aren't what they seem, and that so many things in life have deeper meanings – for good or for worse.