Andrew Yao
Humanities 3A/4B
Ms. Parker
February 4, 2013
A Community Without Freedom
People in some of the countries are still struggling to obtain freedom. This
also happened in the community in Lois Lowry’s The Giver (1993). The community
in this novel may first be seen as a utopia, but as the story continues, the gloomy
secrets are revealed the breakable perfection of his world. The community violates
many basic human rights as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Right
(1949). This novel violates human rights such as having the right to life, liberty and
security of person, having the right to work, to free choice of employment and having
the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
First, the community in The Giver (1993) violates Article 3: everyone has the
right to life, liberty and security of person. “… Had explained that a Pilot-in-Training
had misread his navigational instructions and made a wrong turn… NEEDLESS TO
SAY, HE WILL BE RELEASED, the voice had said…” (2) This demonstrates how
Article 3 of the UDHR is violated and also shoes the cruelness of this community. In
our society, everybody makes mistakes but if it was a tiny mistake like misread the
navigational instructions and made a wrong turn, people would forgive you. In
Jonas’s society, it is totally different, they would kill you if you make mistake like
that as even a tiny little mistake will be recorded. “To his surprise, his father began
very carefully to direct the needle into the top of newchild’s forehead, puncturing the
place where the fragile skin pulse. The newborn squirmed, and wailed faintly…the
little twin lay motionless. His father was putting things away.” (149- 150) This quote
shows how Jonas’s father killed an innocent baby. A baby did nothing wrong, he
shouldn’t be dead just because the society doesn’t want two identical babies. This
society also violates Article 23.
Secondly, the community violates article 23. This Article states that everyone
has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions
of work and to protection against unemployment. “ ‘Asher.’ She lifted her voice to
make the official announcement. ‘We have given you the Assignment of Assistant
Director of Recreation.” (56) This tells us that you don’t choose your job in Jonas’s
community. You don’t have the right to work, to fee choice of employment. The
committee chooses the job for you. “ ‘Jonas has not been assigned,’ she informed the
crowd, and his heart sand. Then she went on. ‘Jonas has been selected.’ He blinked.
What did that mean?” (60) We can see that even though Jonas wants to be a nurturer
and spend most of the time nurturing babies, he still can’t become a nurturer. The
committee chooses the job what they think it fits you, not the job you really want. The
community not only violate article 3 and 23, but also article 19.
Lastly, Jonas’s community violates article 19. It states that everyone has the
right to freedom of opinion and expression. This right includes freedom to hold
opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers. First of all, people in that community
must share their feelings, as it was one of the rituals. “It was one of the rituals, the
evening telling of feelings.”(4) This violates the Article as people have the right to
have freedom to hold opinions. They can keep their thoughts and opinions if they
want. It is probably because the committee thinks if they keep their false feeling, they
will make a wrong choice. Even though they think it’s right, they still have no right to
do it. “ATTENTION. A REMINDER THAT STIRRINGS MUST BE REPORTED
IN ORDER FOR TREATMENT TO TAKE PLACE… If you forget, the Stirrings
will come back.”(37) This explains the difference between our society and theirs.
People should have the expression of the Stirring, as it’s our nature. This right is
violate as their community doesn’t want you to have “the wanting” feeling as it will
turn out into love, and this can lead to making wrong decisions.
In conclusion, we can tell that the community in the novel The Giver (1993)
violates to most of the human rights about freedom and the rights to life. Without
freedom, it’s no difference with living in a prison. You can do things you want but it
is limited and you can’t get out of it. Sometimes making a utopia is no that easy. It is
about making more and more sacrifices. In the novel, even though the committee had
already taken away the ability to see colors from the people so that they won’t make a
wrong choice, they also have to take happiness from them. Even if they won’t make
the false decision, the community won’t be perfect without happiness and freedom. In
the final analysis, we can say that there will never be such thing as a utopia except for
in novels, not in our society.