Mueller Charter Leadership Academy
Texts from the Media Paralleling The Giver
Xueying Zhu
Mr. Medina
Humanities
10-28-13
There are many examples of text from our media that parallel the book, The Giver. Some of these examples are articles about Edwards Snowden, U.S. incarcerating rates, Arizona’s ban on books, and songs such as Harrison Bergeron. All of these contents have strong evidence of how the Giver society links to our society.
The Edward Snowden situation and articles parallel to the Giver society. For that both societies explores secrets. Both group kept many secrets that only certain people know. For example, in the article it says, “Snowden was supposed to keep secrets as a technical contractor at the CIA and NSA.” Also in the Giver community, there are many secrets, for example the rules and guides for each job, people there don’t know only for certain people. These evidence supports that both societies have secrets. By keeping people away from secrets, they are making and keeping the people ignorant, and clueless of what’s going on in their world. This implies to control, since people don’t know what’s going on, it’ll be trouble-free to control us. In the document it says, “The exposure of the PRISM program under which the NSA monitors foreign terrorists on the Internet.” This verifies that in our community there is control, our government is monitoring what we’re doing on the Internet. Also this is a secret too, before Snowden released this secret, people didn’t know that was happening. There’s more, in the text it says, “The leak of a top-secret court order requiring Verizon to share calling data with the government.” This is another piece of proof that the government is snooping on us. Also in the book, The Giver, that society also has surveillance. They have cameras everywhere and check on people every day and all day. Certainly, in both society, ours’ and the Giver society there’s secrets, and control.
Similarly there’s another article which exposes control as well. The text about incarcerating the population of the U.S. corresponds the Giver because they both expose control. In the passage it says, “No country incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than the United States. At 716 people per 100,000 people, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies, the U.S. tops every other nation in the world.” Yeah, the U.S. is jailing more percentage of people of the population than anywhere else in the world. Also another piece of the text says, “The U.S. prison population was 1,571,013 at yearend.” So for the year of 2012, there’s about 2 million prison beings, 2 million! In the Uprising song, it says “They’ll try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down, / And hope that we will never see the truth around.” This piece relates to the incarcerating article because our society is trying to push drugs, they’re trying to keep us in prisons, and still so people are ignorant enough to fall for that. Same thing with the Giver society, even though they don’t jail people, they’re still keeping them in one place and not allowing them to go to places! Truly in both societies they incarcerate and control people.
On the subject of this, there is also another article called Arizona’s ‘banned’ Mexican American Books. It similar the Giver society because they both don’t allow various books. Not bad books, but books that are knowledgeable and helps you understand the world better. In the Giver, their people don’t have books that provide you education, and experience. Now, so is our community. Arizona are now forbidding Mexican American books. In the script it says, “First, the Tucson school district came for the Mexican American studies program. Now, it’s come for its books” Not only they are closing down Mexican American studies program, but now there are also confiscating books! When the students marched out to protest the removal of Mexican American studies program, they were instantly directed to do janitor duties. This proves that the state and the district doesn’t want their students to study, instead they do want them to scrub toilets. Like wisely in the Giver community they have assignments, and they assign people to do different jobs. So there’s jobs that relates to cleaning the toilet, sweeping, and washing dishes. Also an administrator had rudely said, “Racism has nothing to do with color and that Mexico is where Mexican studies is taught, not America!” This can relate to the Giver because in that society because the most people there just follow the rules, and doesn’t try to challenge it or change it for the better! The situation where Arizona is confiscating books and banning Mexican American studies program parallels the Giver.
In this song, Harrison Bergeron parallels the Giver society. In both communities, they are holding people back, confiscating all their gifts and make them all the same. The song says, “So they weighed us down and kept us handcuffed.” In the Giver, they make people all equal and same. They kept them boring and made their life meaningless. Also another line in the song says, “ I used to be a dedicated and avid runner/ They put a chain around my leg and added another.” Both sides are keeping people from doing what they want to do. Another line that points out that the Giver and our society parallels is, “They instituted and set up new rules that/ Made pretty kids ugly, and skinny kids fat/ Then they took away and confiscated/ The books; it was not debated.” This is similar to the Giver because they instituted sameness, and they also confiscated books without even debating about it. Well yeah there’s equality but do we really need to give up freedom for fairness? The song, Harrison Bergeron connects to the Giver.
There are countless articles and texts that relates to the Giver. Snowden reminds us that in both communities they explore control and secrets. Incarceration rates in the U.S. shows us that in both communities they also discusses control as well. Arizona banned books defends that both communities are trying to keep us all dumbed down, and is forbidding knowledge. Music, like Harrison Bergeron critiques that both groups are taking away freedom for equality. These are all texts that relates to the Giver.
Works Cited
Park, Allen. Hero or Traitor? The Guardian. Print. 26 October 2013
Wing, Nick. Politics. The Huffinton Post 13 August 2013. Print. 26 October 2013
Rodriguez, Roberto. Arizonas’s “banned” Mexican American books. The Guardian 18 January
2012. Print. 26 October 2013
Muse. “Uprising” 7 September 2009
Zimbler, Suzanne Stephanie Kraus. Top Secret? Time For Kids. Print. 10 June 2013. 26
October 2013.
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Laural Leaf, 1993.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Harrison Bergeron. The Word Up Project. Print. 1961. 26 October 2013
Texts from the Media Paralleling The Giver
Xueying Zhu
Mr. Medina
Humanities
10-28-13
There are many examples of text from our media that parallel the book, The Giver. Some of these examples are articles about Edwards Snowden, U.S. incarcerating rates, Arizona’s ban on books, and songs such as Harrison Bergeron. All of these contents have strong evidence of how the Giver society links to our society.
The Edward Snowden situation and articles parallel to the Giver society. For that both societies explores secrets. Both group kept many secrets that only certain people know. For example, in the article it says, “Snowden was supposed to keep secrets as a technical contractor at the CIA and NSA.” Also in the Giver community, there are many secrets, for example the rules and guides for each job, people there don’t know only for certain people. These evidence supports that both societies have secrets. By keeping people away from secrets, they are making and keeping the people ignorant, and clueless of what’s going on in their world. This implies to control, since people don’t know what’s going on, it’ll be trouble-free to control us. In the document it says, “The exposure of the PRISM program under which the NSA monitors foreign terrorists on the Internet.” This verifies that in our community there is control, our government is monitoring what we’re doing on the Internet. Also this is a secret too, before Snowden released this secret, people didn’t know that was happening. There’s more, in the text it says, “The leak of a top-secret court order requiring Verizon to share calling data with the government.” This is another piece of proof that the government is snooping on us. Also in the book, The Giver, that society also has surveillance. They have cameras everywhere and check on people every day and all day. Certainly, in both society, ours’ and the Giver society there’s secrets, and control.
Similarly there’s another article which exposes control as well. The text about incarcerating the population of the U.S. corresponds the Giver because they both expose control. In the passage it says, “No country incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than the United States. At 716 people per 100,000 people, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies, the U.S. tops every other nation in the world.” Yeah, the U.S. is jailing more percentage of people of the population than anywhere else in the world. Also another piece of the text says, “The U.S. prison population was 1,571,013 at yearend.” So for the year of 2012, there’s about 2 million prison beings, 2 million! In the Uprising song, it says “They’ll try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down, / And hope that we will never see the truth around.” This piece relates to the incarcerating article because our society is trying to push drugs, they’re trying to keep us in prisons, and still so people are ignorant enough to fall for that. Same thing with the Giver society, even though they don’t jail people, they’re still keeping them in one place and not allowing them to go to places! Truly in both societies they incarcerate and control people.
On the subject of this, there is also another article called Arizona’s ‘banned’ Mexican American Books. It similar the Giver society because they both don’t allow various books. Not bad books, but books that are knowledgeable and helps you understand the world better. In the Giver, their people don’t have books that provide you education, and experience. Now, so is our community. Arizona are now forbidding Mexican American books. In the script it says, “First, the Tucson school district came for the Mexican American studies program. Now, it’s come for its books” Not only they are closing down Mexican American studies program, but now there are also confiscating books! When the students marched out to protest the removal of Mexican American studies program, they were instantly directed to do janitor duties. This proves that the state and the district doesn’t want their students to study, instead they do want them to scrub toilets. Like wisely in the Giver community they have assignments, and they assign people to do different jobs. So there’s jobs that relates to cleaning the toilet, sweeping, and washing dishes. Also an administrator had rudely said, “Racism has nothing to do with color and that Mexico is where Mexican studies is taught, not America!” This can relate to the Giver because in that society because the most people there just follow the rules, and doesn’t try to challenge it or change it for the better! The situation where Arizona is confiscating books and banning Mexican American studies program parallels the Giver.
In this song, Harrison Bergeron parallels the Giver society. In both communities, they are holding people back, confiscating all their gifts and make them all the same. The song says, “So they weighed us down and kept us handcuffed.” In the Giver, they make people all equal and same. They kept them boring and made their life meaningless. Also another line in the song says, “ I used to be a dedicated and avid runner/ They put a chain around my leg and added another.” Both sides are keeping people from doing what they want to do. Another line that points out that the Giver and our society parallels is, “They instituted and set up new rules that/ Made pretty kids ugly, and skinny kids fat/ Then they took away and confiscated/ The books; it was not debated.” This is similar to the Giver because they instituted sameness, and they also confiscated books without even debating about it. Well yeah there’s equality but do we really need to give up freedom for fairness? The song, Harrison Bergeron connects to the Giver.
There are countless articles and texts that relates to the Giver. Snowden reminds us that in both communities they explore control and secrets. Incarceration rates in the U.S. shows us that in both communities they also discusses control as well. Arizona banned books defends that both communities are trying to keep us all dumbed down, and is forbidding knowledge. Music, like Harrison Bergeron critiques that both groups are taking away freedom for equality. These are all texts that relates to the Giver.
Works Cited
Park, Allen. Hero or Traitor? The Guardian. Print. 26 October 2013
Wing, Nick. Politics. The Huffinton Post 13 August 2013. Print. 26 October 2013
Rodriguez, Roberto. Arizonas’s “banned” Mexican American books. The Guardian 18 January
2012. Print. 26 October 2013
Muse. “Uprising” 7 September 2009
Zimbler, Suzanne Stephanie Kraus. Top Secret? Time For Kids. Print. 10 June 2013. 26
October 2013.
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Laural Leaf, 1993.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Harrison Bergeron. The Word Up Project. Print. 1961. 26 October 2013