The Giver: An Opinion on Emotions

Turn on the news, and you’ll find a long list of problems in the world. Higher divorce rates, suicides and fights among the streets are just a few of the many problems we have in this world. Nowadays, people are more vocal, thus, they are easily provoked and would react accordingly. Thus, we hear a lot more of conflicts. In The Giver, Jonas’s community tried to get rid of these problems by creating controlled and isolated communities; and alternating human’s character. However, their attempts weren’t permanent and eventually, their troubles resurfaced and they would still need to deal with the root of their problems. In Jonas’s community, everyone’s emotions seemed to be watered down. They don’t display deep emotions. They are also educated to always use precise language to avoid misunderstandings that might result in problems. It’s very clear that they consider emotions as one of the cause of unrest, which is a valid point. People can’t always control their emotions. When there is a problem, sometimes emotions will get in the way of resolving it. Instead of discussing calmly, the involved parties lash out in anger, which resulted in fights.

A very inventive method to understand and deal with emotions is to share and discuss them with others. It was a method that was implemented in Jonas’s community. It is required for every family to have a “Sharing of Feelings”. Everyone is encouraged to share their feelings, and all the members will help to resolve any problematic feelings. This is a good practice, as it helps us understand and deal with our own feelings. Inability to do so, might lead to an individual not being able to function properly. Thus in our world, would require counselling.

Another way Jonas’s society use to control feelings is by a pill. All adults take it every day to suppress emotions. In real life, we also have our own kind of “pills”. They are drugs that psychiatrists use to calm their patients’ emotions. These drugs allow patients with depression and anxiety issues to be able to have a decent life. Most importantly, in Jonas’s community, there is a role called The Receiver of Memory. That chosen one holds selected past memories and emotions, so that others won’t have to. War and starvation were just some of the most unpleasant memories, while some pleasant memories that might invoke vivid emotions were colour and parties. It could seem useful as the society didn’t need to face all those unpleasantness. But it’s only a temporary solution. If anything happens to the Receiver of Memories, all the memories and emotions he or she kept would return to the society, and they wouldn’t be able to cope and the society became chaotic.

The real gist of the problem is that people don’t know how to handle and control emotions well. As we learned in the story, hiding or forgetting feelings and memories that might invoke those particular emotions don’t really work. It’s only a temporary solution. A more permanent and effective ways to deal with emotions is to identify, understand, and accept them. Others are there to help and support you. Nowadays we have counsellors and psychologists who can help guide you to explore your feelings. Unpleasant emotions will always exist. If you can resolve them, they will not cause negative impact on both individual life and the community.