In The Giver there is an Idealistic Community in which a citizens life is chosen for them. Everyone is an active member of the community in which they live. They take care of it, and it takes care of them. The people are nave as to what is around them and look to the Elders for guidance. In The Giver the community plays an important role in everyones life with the day to day experiences, rules, and education.
In the community of this novel, there are many day to day activities in which the people are involved. A theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.(dictionary) This is the theory of Communism which is evident throughout the story of The Giver. For instance, when citizens of the community come across the feeling of pain, they are given immediate and excellent medical care. You have scraped your knees in falls from you bicycle. Yes, you crushed your finger in a door last year (Lowry 62). This care includes shots, pills, and other treatments of that sort. It is administered right on the spot, that way no one needs to suffer. The next thing that the citizens in the community receive is their meals. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all delivered and taken away by the maintenance workers. Wherever you reside is where you eat breakfast and dinner, but you eat lunch at work or in school. When comparing this to Communism, it is easy to say that citizens do not have a choice in what happens to them, as if the citizens are property of the community.
Citizens know what is to come of them, through the yearly ceremonies that happen every December. These start the day children are given to a family up until the day they become atwelve. At birth infants are taken care of at the nurturing center where children receive their comfort object; a stuffed animal. This is also where children learn small muscle control. At the ceremony of one, the child is named and given to a family unit. Then at the ceremony of three, females are given hair ribbons; ribbons that go in their super tight and super neat braids, which make the appearance of equality throughout the citizens. This is also when children start dream sharing and feeling sharing, in order to know what each citizen is thinking. Who wants to be the first tonight, for feelings. (Lowry 4) This occurs so there are no thoughts that are would be a threat to authority. At the ceremony of four, children get buttons in the back of their jacket giving them more articles of clothing. Even the clothes citizens wear in the community are controlled by the Elders. At the ceremony of seven, they get buttons in the front of their jacket giving them their first task of responsibility. The ceremony of eight is rather important, children hand in their comfort objects, to be recycled for others to use. This is an example of common property (dictionary). They also start volunteer hours, in fields of work that they are interested in. They also get jackets with tiny pockets giving them even more responsibility, allowing them to possess more objects. Until this point, children relied on their parent to take them places, but at the ceremony of nine citizens receive their bike for independent transportation. The powerful emblem of moving gradually out into the community, away from the protective family unit, (Lowry 41) This shows great responsibility and maturity, and at this point the females get their hair ribbons are removed. The ceremony of twelve is the most important, because citizens receive their life job. Everyone is given a job that appropriately fit them; chosen by the Elders, the leaders of the community. After they are given a job they go on to live their adult life. These ceremonies are ways to control citizens and maintain equality. This is very comparable to communism, because according to the Marxist theory, which is the political and economic philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in which the concept of class struggle plays a central role in understanding society's allegedly inevitable development from bourgeois oppression under capitalism to a socialist and ultimately classless society. (Daniels) a central power controls the life of all the citizens. This method is the basis to communism and can easily be spotted in The Giver.
In the adult years of life citizens train for the job assigned to them and eventually start a family. Citizens also usually stop counting their age because after Twelve, age isnt important. Most of us even lose track of how old we are as time passes. (Lowry 6) Though it can easily be looked up in the hall of open records, this is also another way in which the citizens life is kept under control. Once citizens are farther into their adults lives they can apply for a spouse. The Elders choose whether citizens are ready and who their spouse will be. Once spouses are settled in and have a functional house, they may apply for children. Again the Elders choose whether citizens are ready and give them a child. This sets up the Family Unit. Within a family unit citizens may only have two children; one male and one female. This rule allows for population control; yet another way that this community has communistic aspects. Citizens cant even choose who they love and care about. Even though these people are labeled spouse and children, there is no real emotion of love. Do you love meYou of all people precision of language, please. (Lowry 127). This is from when a child asked their father if he loved them. And since precision of language is one of the rules, the father had to correct him, for love is too strong of a word and none of the people in the community have ever felt love before. After the children are all in their own family units, citizens move to the house for childless adults. They will live here for the rest of their adult life until they move to the house of the old. Once citizens are in there they are highly respected and no longer need to work. In fact the community takes care of them.
In The Giver the rules, along with the discipline, play a major rule. From a very young age every citizen is taught the importance of the rules. They all know that they must fallow them or they will be disciplined. The first rule is there is no lying. This rule is crucial and is taken very seriously. Unlike in the world we live in where people get away with lying, in The Giver you are publicly reprimanded, through The Speaker. This is one of the occupations throughout the community in which you make all the announcements over a large speaker. Its just the pills, thats all. Thats the treatment for Stirrings (Lowry 38) This is explains another rule, you must take pills for stirrings. These things called stirrings are really the attraction to the opposite sex. By taking these pills the stirrings go away, depriving citizens of this emotion. It also way of preventing unwise decisions. The next rule states, there is no fighting, this includes little bickering, because the community could not be perfect if any argument came about whether it be fighting over whose turn it is or fighting against a rule. This keeps control over the community. It was against the rules for children of adults to look at anothers nakedness; but the rule did not apply to new children of the old (Lowry 30). This prevents people from feeling awkward and to avoid stirrings. That is another rule; no awkwardness. For instance when one citizen was pondering on asking his friend about the pill he thought that it was the sort of thing one didnt ask a friend about because it might have fallen into the uncomfortable category of being different (Lowry 38) The next rule states, respect elders and a rule following that says to be respectful. Obviously respect is taken very seriously in this community. Once citizens are an elder they deserve respect. And without respect towards each other, the community would never survive. The next rule states that you must get a life assignment at ceremony of twelve. This is so everyone within the community is an active citizen otherwise they could be released. The final rule is that you must apologize for bad things. This includes running late along with taking things that do not belong to you. For example when a child is running late to school they must proceed with the customary apology. I apologize to my classmates (Lowry 4) and they must respond with we accept your apology (Lowry 4).
Some of the discipline methods used in the community are a little controversial. As a child, they use a discipline wand and reprimand through a speaker. But as an adult, they us a form of punishment known as release, which is comparable to euthanasia. This is the practice of ending life in order to give release from incurable suffering. The term can refer to suicide or to the act of ending another person's life. It is also used more broadly to cover the painless killing of an individual whose life has either ceased to be agreeable or been deemed no longer useful (Wasmuth).. The last part that states the killing of an individual whose life has either ceased to be agreeable or been deemed no longer useful is exactly what release is for in The Giver. There are two reasons for release in this novel one is a punishment and the other is for the old. When a child misbehaves they use the discipline wand, but once an adult it is not that easy, three strikes and youre out. If adults violate the same rule three times or if they commit a major offence needless to say, he will be released (Lowry 2) When citizens are released for this reason, it brings great shame, but when the old are released it is an honor. This morning we celebrated the release of RobertoIt was wonderful (Lowry 31). This is when an elderly women is telling a volunteer about the release that happened earlier that day. When the old are released they receive a big ceremony and are taken away through a special door to the release room. Little did they know that they were going to be injected with a lethal dosage of poison, enough to stop their heart. Although this sounds horrible there are some who look at it as taking people out of the horrible pain they are in. As well as a punishment euthanasia is used as population control and sameness control in this novel. When there is a set of identical twins one must be released because they do not want two people who look exactly alike. They also use it when a new born child is failed, because they dont want a citizen who isnt beneficial to the community. This is rather communistic because now the citizens are being controlled through the use of physician assisted suicide, euthanasia.
In The Giver everybody is also given an equal education. All citizens are taught the same material at the same level. Thought some excel in one subject while others excel in another. In school they learn the fundamentals of the community thats why the instructors are so important. The children learn how to take turns and speak properly. This is also where the children learn to be active members of the community, by helping out each other, taking turns, etc. They also get the fundamentals as to what career they might be interested in. And even though citizens do not pick their career the Elders observe them in school to see what they would be best at doing. This is also a way that the citizens lives are being controlled because they are taught only what needs to be taught. Some of the curriculum in this school system makes the citizens even more nave then they were before.
Overall the community of The Giver sounds almost communistic. The community is set up like a social organization, and all the buildings are open for all to use. The family unit houses are passed down to the next family to use them. All in all, the day to day life, the rules and the education all hold some communistic traits. But more importantly, the people of the community are so nave and frightened that they would never even fathom the thought of another form of life; our way of life.
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