The Giver is an award winning novel about a utopian world. It was created by its creators. It has eliminated fear of pain, hunger and illness. This is something most people would love to see in their own society. Although rituals in Jonas society seem perfect, we have many that aren’t. Euthanasia (the term used to refer to the novel’s title) is a ceremony in which a person dies by giving him or her lethal injection.
The act of being released in society was seen differently depending on who it is and what the situation is. Release is a ceremony that all the older members of the community participate in. It tends to be happy because people believe or know that the old were sent somewhere to spend their final years. A release of a child or someone who has broken the rules is considered sad. People feel sorry or sad when someone releases a child or breaks the rule. It is unfair to let someone go for one’s own selfish reasons. As he wasn’t familiar with the meaning of “release”, he thought it was something that everyone else knew. But he remembers a lot about what release means after being assigned to The Giver. He realized that it wasn’t a release, but a punishment.
My society also practices Euthanasia, but it is not used when someone commits a crime or a baby isn’t growing properly. Doctors perform it when someone becomes too sick or old. Although people don’t know, it’s done secretly by doctors when the patient is too sick or too old to recover. They have no bad intentions, but they don’t want the patient to be in pain.
Jonas believes that people don’t understand what release means. Jonas was at first the same view, but he realized the true meaning and felt it was unfair and wrong. It is practiced differently in my society. Doctors do not kill patients to make a profit, but to save them from pain. Both societies practice euthanasia. They only differ in the way people view them. The novel, according to me, does not encourage but accepts these practices conditionally.
