Stevo0880@wiki!!!
in short i find wiki to be one of the best resources on the internet, and i hope i can contribute some to it.
any documented essays i have written will be posted so that they may be used as resources, and to students, if you are going to copy any of it at least paraphrase and move the paragraphs around.
The Giver analysis and opinion of sameness.
The world as we know it is a fragile thing, we have the choice to do whatever we want, good or bad. Those choices can directly affect the world around us, for example war harms advancement in the human mind and restricts our growth. So with all the terrible things that can result from choices they should be taken away correct? But what about the freedom and individuality that choices also offer? In The Giver, by Lowis lowery, those choices don’t exist. The sameness that every one in the community is restricted by, forces life on them without allowing any individual choice, therefore preventing any bad choices. Jonas, the protagonist, sees that there are other choices besides sameness, but doesn’t know if they are safe.
Sameness in the community is what protects the members of the community; it is also how they live their lives, what gives them their jobs and families, and every other aspect of their lives. Sameness was a choice that the community made long ago; they chose sameness, which is rather ironic in a society that restricts choice, so that they may never make another bad decision. Every member of the community lives exactly like every other member of the community, they are born, nurtured, assigned a family unit, age, get a job assignment, work, apply for a family unit, raise two children, grow old, and is released from the community. However one of the most prevalent aspects of their lives is the job assignment, in the community you get your job assignment when you are twelve years old or “a twelve,” as they say. But you don’t get to choose your assignment, no the committee of elders decide it, and you do your job no matter what. Another very important part of life is family, parent’s siblings and other relatives are very important. In the community once you have your family unit you never see your parents again, now you have a new family. But you don’t even get to chose who you marry. Yet again the committee decides that also, so no one who is incompatible will be married. Sameness is how the community is run and without it the community could fall into chaos. When the community achieved sameness it was because they were afraid of wrong choices, and if there were no choices they could not make wrong ones. For example the rule of looking at ones nakedness, if they saw this it could make them attracted to people which would ruin the idea of arranged family units. Or another example would be the rule of pointing out others differences, for if people were ridiculed for being different then they might do something rash or insensible out of rage and fear. Sameness controls every aspect of a person’s life in the community, choices were deemed to dangerous so they had to be abolished.
Sameness is a kind of a devils advocate, in general it helps the community by not allowing anyone to, frankly put, screw up. However life in the community has no real meaning, you live your life and then die, that’s about it no greater meaning or true joy. But do the bad things that could happen with sameness really outweigh the good ones? Sameness has some negative effects such as, people can’t make their own choices, and if you don’t fit in you are released from the community. But sameness does prevent war and it keeps people from feeling sadness or the pain of death. The idea of utopia, because that is all it truly is, is an idea, is so twisted from what we consider a society. We can make our own choices through out our lives. Is utopia even logical, when everyone is equal, that doesn’t happen hence the name Utopia or in its Latin roots, nowhere. Utopia even means no where, as in it will never exist, and to try to achieve utopia so much must be given up or lost along the way that it really isn’t even worth it.
Today the idea of utopia seems so absurd, with all of the violence in the world and all of the corruption in our government, how could we possibly achieve a world that would make everyone equal when you would be killed before you could achieve your goal. However think if we did live in a utopia, there would be no economic instability, no one person would be more important than anyone else’s. The violence associated with religious wars and nationalistic ideals would be completely abolished. Sounds pretty nice right, utopia where we are all equal. But what about choices, red or blue, up or down, yes and no, these things make up our daily lives, but not in utopia. There are no choices in utopia, yes there is no pain and suffering but life also has no meaning, everyone is dead inside. Furthermore, everything is relative so what one person might consider a bad choice could be considered a great choice in the eyes of someone else. This could not be truer when it comes to something that will never exist, it will always be good and bad, and it will never exist.
fake copy right stevo0880 2008
 | This user is a participant in WikiProject France. |
Stevo0880 (talk · contribs) || 8 March 2009 || || french cuisine, the language and general sociology