In America, there is currently a thick air of division between a man and his neighbors. People are divided over politics, beliefs, races, and just about anything else that separates someone from the person next to them. While the United States of America allows it’s citizens to have their own opinions and the ability to say what they desire – which can be both a blessing and a curse, – many other countries are not gifted with this luxury. That gift is more commonly known in today’s culture as ‘freedom.’ As a logophile might be able to tell you, the word ‘freedom’ has many different meanings in the English language. According to dicitonary.com, freedom is the “state of being at liberty rather than in confinement,” along with around sixteen other options of definitions. Ever since around two years ago when I read one of the most thought-provoking books I’ve ever set my eyes on, freedom has taken a new meaning to me beyond what any dictionary could try to define.
“The Giver,” by Lois Lowry, was published in 1993. It has since gone on to win a Newberry Award as well as to be classified as one of the Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Association, a title it richly deserves. As for me, I picked up the book due to a film adaptation I had heard was coming to theaters in 2014, however, I cannot stress enough the night and day difference between the film and the novel. While the film is well made and thought-provoking in its own right, the book has a certain magic about it which the film was lacking, and the novel stresses different main ideas than the film.
The book centers around twelve-year-old Jonas, whose life is about to be forever changed as the annual Ceremony of Twelve is fast approaching, and this ceremony will determine Jonas’s future. Unlike other young adult novels with similar themes where the main protagonist is allowed to take a test to determine their fate such as Divergent or The Testing, however, there is nothing Jonas can do about what he is assigned. He is to have his fate decided for him at the young age of twelve with no say from him.
Jonas’s world seems like a utopia at first – everyone is happy, there are no wars, no anger, no resentment. Everyone respects others around them, and youth apologize for any wrong-doings without hesitation. Families share their feelings with one another each night and comfort one another when these feelings are anything but happiness. People volunteer many hours a week. The first thing to tip a reader off that something is seriously wrong with Jonas’s world is when a teacher scolds a student for using a word that is “too strong” – ‘distraught.’ Pages later, a child discusses her stuffed toy – “an imaginary creature called an elephant.” A third time that confirms in a reader’s mind that there is something very peculiar about the world Jonas is in is when an apple is described as “a perfect sphere” with a “nondescript shade.”
As many people in the real world are aware, teachers rarely scold students for using large words, elephants are not imaginary, and apples are not spheres and have a shade of either green or red, which is easy to describe. The author does a fantastic job at throwing these details in so nonchalantly that they are almost accepted as facts. It becomes evident as the book reads on that Jonas’s world has been stripped of life and left with a boring blob of sameness. The perfect children that will happily apologize to you all wear their hair the same way as others their age; the families tell their feelings to each other and provide comfort because negative feelings are forbidden; volunteer hours are forced on citizens, not a true act of service. The climate is controlled so that every day the weather is exactly the same, and even the terrain is boringly flat in order to keep everything orderly and ‘normal’ without any distinguishing features. Even the sunshine is missing from the community.
Freedom is described near the beginning of the book as children being able to pick what they where they want to serve during mandatory volunteer hours from a small list of options. It is interesting to note that in a world where everything is chosen for you, this small act truly is considered freedom. Freedom is so restricted in this world that when Jonas encounters a dream about a young woman whom he finds attractive, he is forced to take pills in order to stop further thoughts of love or desire from entering his mind. Like the rest of the book up to this point, these pills are presented to Jonas as a positive thing, and he doesn’t know enough of freedom to realize it is being taken from him. Jonas, despite the pills curbing his desires, wants to continue to feel love, which again is sabotaged by his community as his family begins to house a new baby but they are required to sign papers indicating they will not grow attached to the child. This, once again, is presented to the family as a positive thing, that it would be bad for them to grow attached and the baby to be taken away, but the true desires of the community are to cease any feelings towards other human beings.
In Jonas’s community, each December there are twelve ceremonies held over a span of two days; one for each year of what is considered childhood. At these ceremonies, as children do not have their own special birthday as that would differentiate them from one another, they are, in essence, ‘aged up’ a year and receive a new clothing item or other tell-tale sign of age. Jonas’s sister Lily turns eight and receives a jacket with pockets in it to distinguish her age. Other children may receive a bicycle, a new hairstyle, or other ways to be able to distinguish similarity.
This community is so controlled and in perfect order so that chaos can be avoided that even marriages are arranged based on aptitude towards others. Spouses are not allowed to show affection to their arranged ‘love,’ and children are all adopted from women whose only jobs are to produce offspring. Affection in any form is frowned upon, as love can make people do uncontrollable things, and uncontrollable is simply not an option in this community. Jonas reveals that he has heard rumors that people are allowed to leave if they don’t believe they fit in, but no one has ever done it, as they are all conditioned to believe that by being the same as everyone else, they fit in perfectly. This goes so far that even children are given numbers instead of names until they are adopted into a family, as they are all essentially the same to the community.
Jonas approaches his new, special job after the Ceremony, and amidst all the change, one of the most peculiar things to him is the locked door as he enters his workplace. In the community, there are no locked doors and no privacy for citizens. It is also stated that every dwelling contains a speaker that families are unable to turn off, similar to a concept in George Orwell’s 1984, prohibiting citizens from saying what they want even in the comfort of their own home. This, combined with the lack of locks on doors, would be considered terrifying in today’s American culture, but in Jonas’s world is considered as completely normal, to the point where he is worried when his new, secluded workplace has a speaker that may be turned off at will. Additionally, Jonas is amazed by the number of books in this locked-away office, as he had seen only books of rules and reference in his life. This alludes to the infamous Nazi Book Burning as a means to control citizens, as uninformed people will more easily follow any information that is fed to them, even if it is false.
As the book reads on, Jonas begins to realize that this lack of freedom he has experienced throughout his life is not the way things are supposed to be. As he opens his mind to new ideas, he quite symbolically begins to see color in the world again. He sees people differently, experiences love and affection for the first times in his life, and begins to dream of a brighter tomorrow for his little controlled community. Eventually, this dream prompts him to take action, and the end of the book is infamous for its ambiguity as to whether he is successful in this task or if his risk was fruitless.
In Jonas’s world, choices are limited beyond comprehension, but since the people have never experienced the ability to choose whatever they desire, the few little choices they have are considered luxuries and freedom. Doors are left unlocked, and citizens constantly monitored to the point where it seems odd if they are given the freedom to not be watched. Books are considered bountiful and informative until it is revealed that there are thousands unavailable to the public. The world in “The Giver” is presented at first as being so perfect that no one would even desire to change it, but once Jonas gets a glimpse of how limited his world is, the world outside of his community seems like perfection in beautiful symbolism of how what is seen as perfection might actually be far from it until it is looked at with an open and questioning mind.
So what does freedom mean? Is it an ability to act in any way that is desired? Is it not being an unwilling captive? Or is it as simple as a choice? Since reading this series, my definition of freedom is simple; individuality. Freedom allows it’s partakers to be who and what they want to be. It is the ability for someone to think for themselves instead of being told what to think by others. It is choices, it is actions, it is the ability to roam, and it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, as often, it is easy to get roped into an idea of being free and still conform to society. It is easy for one to say she thinks for herself as her friends shape her beliefs; easy to think plenty of options are presented when truly there are few, and they are controlled.
In the world of “The Giver” and the world as it is known, freedom is a captor, and until that is realized, there is no escaping it.
Amanda Roach 