The Giver In the Curriculum Essays - The Giver, Jonas, Lois Lowry

The Giver In the Curriculum Essays - The Giver, Jonas, Lois Lowry The Giver In the Curriculum Mrs. Vore English CP II October 15, 2013 The Giver In the Curriculum The Giver by Lois Lowry is about a boy named Jonas who lives in small town. The people of this town are enforced in sameness. The leaders of the community regulate sameness by having no color, no memories of the past, plus, the people do not choose their own occupation, and the townspeople do not know their birth family. By having sameness, the superiors of the town can control everything to a point where there is no pain. The Giver by Lois Lowry should be added to the curriculum of the school. The reader can ask questions or debate a subject with someone else. The book makes the reader think about the book and what is saying about the world. The novel can be used as a way introduce literary devices to students. While reading The Giver, there will be items that will come up that will cause the reader to ask questions. While reading alone or at home the reader cannot ask someone for help or to clarify something they do not understand. For example, in this quote Jonas is walking with a friend and he sees something happen to her hair. He looked up and toward her going through the door, it happened: she changed, (24). The people of this town see in black and white and so does Jonas. At this time, Jonas is seeing his friends hair change to a color. Lowry had never said that the characters saw in black in white. This rises up a question of what is happening to the hair, or to why would the author put this in the book. We, as the reader, would have had to keep reading and would not be able to ask the enquiry to someone, but if reader was reading for the school they could go and ask about their question to a fellow student or a teacher. This question then could lead to a discussion, which in return could cause the reader to ask a greater meaning of what is happening and relate it to the their world. The Giver by Lois Lowry has many deep and thoughtful messages with in it. These messages make us rethink our lives and what is going on in the world. One theme that shows up in The Giver is the idea of conformity and nonconformity and what comes with these ideas. In the book, all of the townspeople conform together so that they have the same thoughts, clothes, transportation, living environment, and family. Jonas, is a non-conformer. He does not follow these ideas that people in the community do. Jonas, because he does this, suffers and goes through agony, but in the end he ends up at a better place where people are full of joy. In this quote Jonas is just at the edge of his old community and is entering another town. In this other community the people are all different and have their own ideas. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too, (179). In this quote the reader sees that non-conform ing his hard to do, but you will be rewarded in the end, like Jonas was. The reader can then take this concept and apply it to his or her own life. Maybe he or she will not conform then so they look different from everyone else in their grade, which allows them to get into a better collage. If the school adds this book to the curriculum, the students are exposed to this idea, which will make them a better student and or human being. The Giver by Lois Lowry is filled with literary devices. If a teacher reads the book in class she or he can expose the students to new exponents of writing. One example that is found in the book is color imagery. In the story there is no color or memories. Jonas learns memories for his job that he is assigned. One memory he learns about is color. Jonas, because he is learning about it, starts to see