Tragic Or Not Essay, Research Paper

New LifeTragic or Not was a very inspiring and unique essay. The book, The Giver, is a very inspirational and at times could become a cliffhanger. I always dream of a utopia or a world nearing a utopia because of all the difficulties of life and I would wish for these difficulties to just disappear. Even though I know it will not happen for a very long period time if ever, but you can always dream and perhaps when I grow older I could assist in the creation of my utopia.

During the revision of Tragic or Not, I fixed some problems I had in the grammar and corrected some mistakes I made such as confusing Jonas as a female when he is actually a male. Because the name Jonas is usually used for females, I concluded with the fact that he was a female, which threw me off-track when I was writing the essay. I also added more details and revised some sentences adding more emotional depth and length.

The novel The Giver represents a futuristic society, which hides much of the evils of society now. Because of the technology shown in the novel, the genetic engineering, it shows it?s in the future because it?s not possible yet to re-sequence the genome of humans without making severe complications. The community was most likely created after something devastated the world, which explains why other humans do not disturb the society. There was most likely a few people who survived the disaster and created a society based on their dreams, which masks horrors as commonplace.

Tragic or NotImagine a place where there is no terror or love. A place in which nearly everything is the same, the grass and the color people view certain objects. Imagine feeling no pain or suffering, would you like to live there? Would you consider it a utopia or dystopia? Lois Lowry who is known for writing young adult fiction novels wrote the novel known as The Giver. In this novel there is very little suffering or pain. Everybody is shielded from life, emotions as well as history; they have little knowledge of the world they live in and completely no knowledge of the history before the community was created except for a few select people. For this novel, she has won the Newberry Medal Award and has also won the award for another novel she wrote, Number the Stars.

Lois Lowry uses her previous memories and knowledge to create a society in which almost all knowledge of the past is forgotten by the society. She received her inspiration for this when she visited her father in a nursing home and he had lost his long-term memory. He couldn?t even remember whom his children were for which he helped them survive for the first part of their lives. Lois Lowry then thought of a society in which there is no knowledge of the past, which is the theme of The Giver.

Lois Lowry?s main inspiration for the end of this novel was in 1948 when she was eleven years old and joined her father when he moved to Japan. She lived in a town where everything was American, the schools, the library; the restaurants are all American so she wouldn?t miss America. She always wishes to see the outside world but her mother denied her the right to see it. On many counts, she rode her bike outside the community walls to visit and learn about the outside communities. On one occasion a woman touches Lowry?s hair and confuses the woman for saying that she disliked her but the person actually said she?s pretty. This relates to The Giver because she traveled outside the community like Jonas did when he escaped the community.

Another memory was when Lois Lowry was a college freshman and living in a dorm with approximately 14 other girls, one of the girls was an outcast and everybody ignored her. In the dorm, everybody made herself feel comfortable by shutting the outcast out. In The Giver, the community forgets about the past and pain to make them comfortable and safe like Lois Lowry did when she lived in the dorm room in her freshman year of college. A quote from the book that explains this is on page 153, ??I will take care of that, sir. I will take care of that sir,? Jonas mimicked in a cruel, sarcastic voice. ?I will do what ever you like, sir. I will kill people, sir. Old people? Small newborn people? I?d be happy to kill them, sir. Thank you for your instructions, sir. How may I help y-? He couldn?t seem to stop.

?The Giver grasped his shoulders firmly. Jonas fell silent and stared at him.

??Listen to me, Jonas. They can?t help it. They knew nothing.? This quote states the community is unaware of most of the outside world. They euphemized killing people by saying they released someone when they don?t meet the community?s standards or became too old. The community is therefore unaware of the outside world and most things that do not involve usual day-to-day living.

Lois Lowry uses futuristic ideas like telepathy to show that a society without pain or knowledge of the past loses what makes them human. The term human is defined as, ?susceptible to or representative of the sympathies and frailties of human nature.? That means that they are able to feel sorrow and emotions much like humans are able to. Most other animals are not thought of having emotions, but humans are known to base decisions on emotions rather than logic in The Giver. Being human basically means to be able to feel pain and have emotions, which the society in The Giver does not have. Emotions are a human response and without them the person is not thought as being human.

The society in The Giver is a mix of dystopia and utopia because some values make them a utopia like most people enjoying their life and a dystopia because the women who give birth are not happy because after they give birth to three children, they have to be laborers until they enter The House of the Old. The novel is a utopia because there is almost no violence due to the Ritual of Sharing & Analyzing Emotions, which seems to minimize conflict within the society because it?s a constructive way to deal with frustration and other emotions. Another reason the society is a utopia because it doesn?t suffer from war and hunger, which is a common occurrence on some parts of the world at this present time. The society is a dystopia because they kill their own race if they don?t meet the community?s standards. They use a euphemism to minimize the pain in losing someone they care for or someone who is not allowed to live in the society because they are identical twins.

They also appear to be a dystopia because the citizens of the society aren?t allowed to make decisions for themselves. Their food is rationed and the Committee of Elders chooses their careers for them, which doesn?t allow for many variables within their lives. There are very few decisions if any the society is allowed to make. Overall the society is a dystopia because it?s not perfect which is the definition of being a utopia.

The Giver is a novel about a society, which appears to be a utopia at first but later turns out to be a dystopia. Only two people in the community were aware of the outside world and the past, which later turned to three then back to the original one person. The community is shielded from danger, anger, and many other emotions, which are thought of being ?bad?. These emotions can at times be appalling, but can also teach you many life long lessons, which the community does not have the pleasure to learn. At the end of the novel, Jonas confronts a major decision, either to leave the community or stay with his knowledge of the pains of the history. If Jonas leaves, then all his memories of the outside world and past would be unleashed upon the community, which could cause mass hysteria and disorder. If Jonas stays then he will have to live a life with knowledge of how the citizens of the society are being deprived of what makes life worth living. His verdict was to leave the community with Gabriel (the child his father was taking care of secretly). When he left, he used the knowledge The Giver gave to her so that he wouldn?t be discovered by the search planes and to survive for a longer period of time.