Feedback On The Giver: 5 Key Ideas

1. Security: The central concern that the Community has in The Giver is of security. Security is what is provided by the Community, a safe life, enough food, a place in the Community without the need to worry about much of anything. This trade of independence and privacy for security and convenience is often used to justify control and repression. By not permitting any form of life alternative to the system, what is ultimately secured by this fool's bargain is the health of the system.

2. Scarcity: Any system of control is inherently paranoid, and rightfully so for it secure's it's own fate. In rereading The Giver for this class what sticks out to me is that this community seems to have possibly come out of a massive population die off, species extiction and ecological collapse. Hence the emphasis on having enough to eat and providing a secure life and population growth being tightly monitored. There must have been some reason why people thought it was originally a good idea. Why does there seem to be such a scarcity of resources?

3. Control: All aspects of life are under control to serve the functioning of the system. Each individual plays a specific role in the community and has a specific place to be at all times. Individuals are produced to serve the needs of the system and be compliant and productive. Extensive research is done to determine a person's best fit in the community even when it comes to selecting a mate. Almost nothing is left up to the individual.

4. Repression: The only good is the system's good. There is no alternative allowed. People are confined to the rules and regulations of the community. Individual desires and drives are repressed. One cannot do as one pleases with their own time. One's time is not their own. There is no way for one to go against or even go another way from the community.

5. Fear: There is the constant fear of release from the community for breaking the rules. The individual place in society is not so secure after all.