The community
The well-organized community
The community from Louis Lowry’s novel The Giver can be discussed as a collective character. The small community is a place cut off from its surroundings, with row houses, factories, offices, various community centers, and playgrounds (Chapter 4, 25%). Near them are a few communities for which the Receiver of Memory is also responsible.
The different groups live peacefully with each other and maintain trade exchanges. They are organized similarly, but follow different rules . For example, Lily is frustrated when she comes into contact with children from another community at school who exhibit a different behavior (Chapter 1, 45%).
The community has technological features that make life easy and also a large water supply: "He [Jonas] pressed the button on a nearby empty tub and watched as the warm water flowed in through the many small openings on the sides. The tub would be filled in a minute and the water flow would stop automatically" (Chapter 4, 63%). It also has excellent medical care.
People in the community are provided with food, which is delivered by cargo planes (Chapter 1, 9%) and distributed by food distributors (Chapter 1, 9%). It is forbidden to hoard and store food.
No one in the community goes hungry: "Jonas remembered, suddenly and grimly, the time in his childhood when he had been chastised for misusing a word. The word had been “starving.” You have never been starving, he had been told. You will never be starving." (Chapter 22, 75%).
There are no locked doors in the community. All houses are equipped with standard furniture. The means of transportation in the community is the bicycle. There are no animals and no books, except for rulebooks and explanations about the community in each house.
The perfect life
The community is run by the Committee of Elders. The leader of the community is the Chief Elder. She is elected every ten years. The text does not say whether the members of the community elect them or whether the Elders alone determine who will lead their committee.
The committee makes choices for the community, such as determining the profession of each of its members. Sometimes it also follows the advice of the Receiver of Memory, who is the only one in the community who holds all the memories of the world.
People in the community live an orderly life from birth to release, governed by rules and rituals. Birth rates are controlled. Several women give birth to 50 children in the Birthing Center every year. In the Nurturing Center, newborn children are raised by Nurturers. After their first year, the children are handed over to families who have applied for a child.
The children's lives follow a scheduled annual pattern, during which they attend a public children's institutions designated for each age group. At the Childcare Center, school children are cared for after school. The community is a safe place, especially for children, because all members look out for them. Therefore, accidents...