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Thursday, July 8, 2010
Discussions
Over these past few weeks, The Giver has been our main topic of discussion and something brought up on the idea of sameness caught my attention. Throughout The Giver, it is shown that the society strives for every one to be equal and treated the same. This is reflected through the strict rules that the society has implemented whereby an individual would be seen as rude if they were to talk about others being different in one sense or another, showing how much emphasis is being placed on being the same throughout society.
However, through these discussions, I have come to realize that we will never ever be able to achieve this idea of sameness, no matter how much we try to bring this idea about. For example, as seen in The Giver, the job of being a birth mother was looked down upon by other members in society. This was brought to an extent when Lily was scolded for hoping to be a birth mother when she was given her assignment. This simple example shows that there will never be true equality in society. Another example which hit me, was how Jonas was chosen to be the Receiver because this assignment was different from any other assignment. He was isolated from his peers and had to lead a different life of loneliness because of his assignment, which is ironic being that Jonas was living in a society that hoped to achieve sameness.
Therefore this idea of sameness is one that is very vague and idealistic because the truth of the matter is that we will never be able to achieve this. Being different from everyone is not necessarily a bad thing, but rather it just makes up who we are as people. No doubt, the idea of sameness is something good to have so as to prevent things like discrimination, but I personally believe that being different is perfectly fine. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions about certain matters, and we are in no position to dictate that, but rather, just learn to accept people's differences as an individual.
However, through these discussions, I have come to realize that we will never ever be able to achieve this idea of sameness, no matter how much we try to bring this idea about. For example, as seen in The Giver, the job of being a birth mother was looked down upon by other members in society. This was brought to an extent when Lily was scolded for hoping to be a birth mother when she was given her assignment. This simple example shows that there will never be true equality in society. Another example which hit me, was how Jonas was chosen to be the Receiver because this assignment was different from any other assignment. He was isolated from his peers and had to lead a different life of loneliness because of his assignment, which is ironic being that Jonas was living in a society that hoped to achieve sameness.
Therefore this idea of sameness is one that is very vague and idealistic because the truth of the matter is that we will never be able to achieve this. Being different from everyone is not necessarily a bad thing, but rather it just makes up who we are as people. No doubt, the idea of sameness is something good to have so as to prevent things like discrimination, but I personally believe that being different is perfectly fine. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions about certain matters, and we are in no position to dictate that, but rather, just learn to accept people's differences as an individual.