The_Giver

Opposing Sides of Communities In the book called The Giver the author created a community that is very different to many lifestyles but it does share some similar traits to my community. Similarities between Jonas’s and my communities are family life, jobs, and death which are more of the focused topics. Although the communities are similar they differ in many ways. Jonas community has family units instead of families, jobs are selected for each person instead of choosing from a variety. They also, “release” the citizens and those who chose to disobey the rules. If a citizen is lost, they have a ceremony of loss. But in my community our members die from natural deaths or various other reasons. My community and Jonas community share some differences and a few similarities. In my community we live together as a family, some parents usually have their biological children unless they adopt and we can have as many kids and different genders as necessary. Meanwhile in Jonas’s community they have a family unit, in which the community creates a family, two parents of a different gender and two children of a different gender. Also, Jonas community has a ceremony called “Matching of the spouses” where the community balances the variety of a male and female so that they can be successful as a pair and married. While in my community we choose our own spouse and sometimes some marriages are not with two the same gender. Although the communities are very different they still share the same similarities of a family. The differences of choosing jobs are very different. In my community jobs are based on a person’s education, talent, and particular interest. Meanwhile Jonas community has their jobs selected that best fit their personality. Although when a job is selected for you, you may not change the job because it is counted as rudeness. But for my community you can go back to college and get a degree for the profession you want to succeed in, or not get an education at all. But when the time comes when you are no longer able to perform your job then you retire. Though both communities share differences they both have a retirement for elderly citizens who can no longer do their job. But in Jonas’s you don’t always have to be an Elder. In both communities each citizen has a time to die. Though it isn’t the same idea, Jonas and my community differs in the ways that people die. In Jonas community, the people are put to death by a deadly poison that is given in the veins. In Jonas community the process in which an injection ends someone’s life is called “release”. In my community people are killed by others, suicide, or a natural death. My community and Jonas community both have citizens that die of natural deaths, which would be called a loss in Jonas community. And like the funerals that my community performs for the loss of a person, Jonas community also has ceremonies much like ours which is known as the “Ceremony of Loss” in their community.