The Giver question

Aside from the fact that they kill their sick children and the elderly, without free will that society is entirely solless. Material comforts and contentment are not nearly enough to sustain a normal human being. Just because they don't know the concept of freedom (or for that matter the concept of true love or family ties) doesn't mean they don't need it.

This setup actually reminded me of Ayn Rand's Anthem, esp. the part where they assign jobs.

YES!

That should answer your question if even you can't live there.

You can never really know... Even if you are told that you are free you never know if its really there or just the grand illusion of a sense of liberty. After all, it is possible that we are taught that we are free just as another effect of fascism, or it could be that we create our own imprisonment. They are taught nothing of freedom, mentioning it would be like mentioning a color that we can't see, so they have no need for it. If you were to grow up there you wouldn't find anything wrong with the system. But we are taught about freedom therefore we need it.

We had a really long disscution ( I know I can't spell) about this in my English class....

I thought the story was creepy. Of course I want freedom, we all do.

I thought the story was creepy. Of course I want freedom, we all do.

i believe this community is the example of extremely successful socialism. no person has more or less, everything is equal and politically correct. once it gets that far, the need for being able to distinguish ones self through individuality like with colors or different styles of home or cars are removed from society. the need for absolute safety as well to prevent people from getting hurt i think led to such a grey bland life with no distinguishing differences.

It it sad how lying is like illegal, yet Jonas's 'dad' lies to him about killing the other twin. It's not fair how they kill twins and elderly and sick babies. They deserve the chance.(Or for elderly see how long they live and celebrate properly)

One part that made me really sad was when I learned that the people had no idea what color was. Averagely few people are comppletely color blind, so it wouldn't make sense to make an entire community color blind for the sake of the few...

At the risk of hating myself for quoting a Lady Antebellum song:
"Yes, I'd rather hurt than feel nothing at all."

By taking away their freedoms, they ensured the people of that society could never cause or feel any sort of pain. They didn't let old people die of natural causes and "released" them so people didn't have to experience the grief of death. But wouldn't you rather your loved ones die with dignity than some guy saying "HEY LADY ITS TIME TO GO?". Also, they weren't allowed to love someone because some of the greatest heartaches comes from your significant others. But I'd rather get hurt than never have felt real love.

Do you think our society is changing to "their" society"

I don't think it would be bad if you were used to it. I think how much freedom people think they need is based on how much freedom they already have. To us, the people in this book are living with the illusion of freedom. However they thought that they had all the freedom they could ever need. We also think that most people now a days have all the freedom they could want. So how can we say that we are any more free than them when freedom is based on exemption from external control. The people in the book were never forced to do anything, they just did what they were told because they felt it was the right thing to do, which is the same reason we follow any order we are given.

Freedom brings love. Freedom brings joy. Yes, there are those who choose evil, but without choice, love does not exist. Love must be freely given or it is obligation or duty, not love. Thus, yes, that world was terrible. It was void of love. And that is why when Jonas asked his parents if they loved him, he was shot down for "precision of language." They had no concept of love beyond "enjoying your company. Proud of your accomplishments." How sad!