On the twenty-eighth of July, Tuesday, just a day before this post was published, we discussed the Giver during our Literature lesson. As usual, we had to view it in unusual depth, but the questions we discussed got me thinking.

We did three questions in all, but one that got me thinking was the last question, which was, "The Chief Elder claims that the Assignments are a way of honouring differences. Does this ring true? Based on your knowledge of other parts of the novel, is Jonas's society one that values sameness or difference?"

The first thing that came to my mind was that Jonas's society does NOT respect nor value individuality, no matter how much they claim to do.

The society begins from the young children. The children are given the same objects like jackets, bicycles and comfort objects at the same age. No matter how much this helps to remove jealousy and envy, this removed individuality and freedom of choice at the same time. These two things are further lost in the absence of colours in Jonas's society.

As the children grow up, they have the same ceremonies at the same age, and together they receive Assignments. Everything is stereotyped and the children grow up not as individuals, but as a group, for when they were referred to in the Giver, they were referred to by their ages.

When the children grow up, they are then labelled by their jobs and are stereotyped.

They are known by their occupations and not by their names by people who do not know them personally.

The thing that struck me the most was the heavy irony in the Chief Elder's words. This made me relate this irony to other things, like the equality of jobs and Release, as they appear to be like what they claim to be on the surface at first, but under the test of time, things and the truth reveal themselves slowly but surely.

As a result, I felt so disturbed after that Literature lesson.

It ran a shudder through me whenever I visualised the world without individuality and freedom of choice. Had the people had no individuality, there would not have been so many advancements, as the people would be content and happy to stay in the "status quo", and remain among the crowd and not in front of it forever. There would have been no inventions, or differences.

I'm a Christian, and even though I do not go to church, one of the bible verses state that each and everyone of us is unique in our own way. No matter how ugly, slow, stupid or dishonest we may be, we have our own individual preferences, personalities and lifestyles, and that is what makes the world beautiful.

No matter how imperfect we may be, our own differences set ourselves apart and that's the most important thing, to me, at least.

It is individuality that makes us all the same, in the sense that all of us have differences.

I felt so strongly about this aspect of the Giver that I really felt that the more the society oppressed and tried to squish out differences and individuality, the more the situation would worsen. This happens in another case in the Giver, which is the removal of strong, potent emotions like jealousy, hatred or anger.

Although the blunt and brusque removal of such emotions decreases the crime rate and misunderstandings, this also creates blandness and dilution of human emotions, as the people of Jonas's society no longer experienced such emotions. Furthermore, by abolishing and removing such emotions, the society also banished love, as well.

Although each decision's impact was large, it seems to me that only the pros of the decisions had been scrutinised.

Therefore, the Giver made me appreciate our world even more, as, despite of all its imperfections, I love it, because it is not perfection that makes our world beautiful; it is our individuality.

On the twenty-eighth of July, Tuesday, just a day before this post was published, we discussed the Giver during our Literature lesson. As usual, we had to view it in unusual depth, but the questions we discussed got me thinking.

We did three questions in all, but one that got me thinking was the last question, which was, "The Chief Elder claims that the Assignments are a way of honouring differences. Does this ring true? Based on your knowledge of other parts of the novel, is Jonas's society one that values sameness or difference?"

The first thing that came to my mind was that Jonas's society does NOT respect nor value individuality, no matter how much they claim to do.

The society begins from the young children. The children are given the same objects like jackets, bicycles and comfort objects at the same age. No matter how much this helps to remove jealousy and envy, this removed individuality and freedom of choice at the same time. These two things are further lost in the absence of colours in Jonas's society.

As the children grow up, they have the same ceremonies at the same age, and together they receive Assignments. Everything is stereotyped and the children grow up not as individuals, but as a group, for when they were referred to in the Giver, they were referred to by their ages.

When the children grow up, they are then labelled by their jobs and are stereotyped.

They are known by their occupations and not by their names by people who do not know them personally.

The thing that struck me the most was the heavy irony in the Chief Elder's words. This made me relate this irony to other things, like the equality of jobs and Release, as they appear to be like what they claim to be on the surface at first, but under the test of time, things and the truth reveal themselves slowly but surely.

As a result, I felt so disturbed after that Literature lesson.

It ran a shudder through me whenever I visualised the world without individuality and freedom of choice. Had the people had no individuality, there would not have been so many advancements, as the people would be content and happy to stay in the "status quo", and remain among the crowd and not in front of it forever. There would have been no inventions, or differences.

I'm a Christian, and even though I do not go to church, one of the bible verses state that each and everyone of us is unique in our own way. No matter how ugly, slow, stupid or dishonest we may be, we have our own individual preferences, personalities and lifestyles, and that is what makes the world beautiful.

No matter how imperfect we may be, our own differences set ourselves apart and that's the most important thing, to me, at least.

It is individuality that makes us all the same, in the sense that all of us have differences.

I felt so strongly about this aspect of the Giver that I really felt that the more the society oppressed and tried to squish out differences and individuality, the more the situation would worsen. This happens in another case in the Giver, which is the removal of strong, potent emotions like jealousy, hatred or anger.

Although the blunt and brusque removal of such emotions decreases the crime rate and misunderstandings, this also creates blandness and dilution of human emotions, as the people of Jonas's society no longer experienced such emotions. Furthermore, by abolishing and removing such emotions, the society also banished love, as well.

Although each decision's impact was large, it seems to me that only the pros of the decisions had been scrutinised.

Therefore, the Giver made me appreciate our world even more, as, despite of all its imperfections, I love it, because it is not perfection that makes our world beautiful; it is our individuality.