My Essay/ Book of
The Giver and
“Harrison
Bergeron”
The Omar
Productions
By Omar A. Batista
Table of Contents
Introduction…
1
Harrison Bergeron…
2
The Giver…
3
My Opinion…
4
What Comes With Choices…
5
What Both Characters Did…
6
What People Need…
7
Conclusion…
8
Introduction
Both The Giver and “Harrison Bergeron” are stories about the
power of freedom and choices. But they are also about beauty
and taking risks,
and also about wishes.
They can show
you a whole new world
and a whole
new set of opinions. I
hope you enjoy
this essay about the difference of utopias &
dystopias. You’ll learn what
these words are (if you
don’t already know them) in my
long, long essay, because this is nothing like our community in
Connecticut.
Harrison Bergeron
In the book, “Harrison Bergeron”, Harrison takes a risk
and show people on television how amazing people
can truly be. He shows them the truth of life, and people, even though he might get shot to death and die.
But at
least he
would die
with
something powerful in his heart, which is beauty, and
helping and showing the world what the world was
supposed to be like, until sameness happened. I know
that he would go to heaven even though he broke the
rules of a community and wanted to rule it, but he only wanted to do this to stop the monstrous things the
community does to people.
Sameness: When somebody (or a community in this case) wants
everything or every body to stay how it is, like if a community wants
people to be the same forever, even though the rules the people follow might be unfair, which is what’s happening in these 2 stories.
The Giver
Also in the book ,The Giver, Jonas runs away to
find a beautiful city where there are more
choices and freedom, even though he knows
helicopters
will start chasing
him and
maybe try to
shoot him
down, but he took
a risk. He
even saved a baby
toddler named Gabriel when he didn’t have to.
He is already learning about good choices and
free will. And if Jonas didn’t save Gabriel, he
would have died like all the others, he
would’ve sort of been like Rosemary in a way.
Jonas’s
world is
Utopia: a free world, where every
body would want to live in, how peobarely
a Utople would picture heaven. It is the topia.
tal opposite of a dystopia (you’ll learn
about that in the next page).
My Opinion
What’s different about both books is that one person succeeds and another person dies, but they both got what
they wanted, at least for a small amount of time. And it was
smart of them to try because both of there world are dystopias, they kill people to keep their community the same.
But I still think it was worth it, and that it was always worth
to try. I’m sure the characters would also agree with me, I
know this because in the book, The Giver, it says “If he had
stayed, he would have starved in other ways. He would
have lived a life hungry for feelings, for
color, for love.” Also in the text,
“Harrison Bergeron”, it says “ not only
were laws of the land abandoned, but
the law of gravity and the laws of motion as well.” It also says “ neutralizing
gravity with love and pure will.” Dystopia: A world you would
Sneak Peek from the book, The Giver:
Some people get released in the community for breaking rules.
not want to live in, A bad,
mean, cruel world that you
don’t want to know about.
What Comes With Choices
There is just one thing that comes with freedom and choices. That thing is love. An example is when Jonas brings Gabriel with him to
find freedom (since Gabriel was going to be
killed). Did Jonas have to bring Gabriel? No,
but he did it anyway. This is called friendship
and love. An exact quote from the book is “he
had taken Gabriel, too.” Also from “Harrison
Bergeron”, it says “ they reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun.
They leaped like deer on the moon”. This
makes me think of a romantic dance, even
though it was just an example of choices, it is
still a powerful thing.
What Both Characters Did
Harrison didn’t show much love of his family or
anything in the book, but he did show the freedom to dance and to have fun. He did what
other people couldn’t do. He was also kind of
showing friendship, because the girl he was
dancing with,
maybe felt good. In the article, it says “now,
said Harrison, taking her hand. Shall we show
the people the meaning of the word dance?
What People Need
Some people don’t even know about freedom
in Harrison’s
and Jonas’s, because
they are so
used to the routines
in their world,
they think it is normal to do
them. Like in the
text, “Harrison Bergeron”, his parents didn’t
even care that Harrison died, they thought it
was normal to kill someone that was having
freedom.
Also in the book, The Giver, Jonas’s dad killed
the baby twin and just said “bye, bye” in a baby
voice like he didn’t even care. And Jonas was
furious when he saw his dad, so that’s why he
couldn’t keep Gabriel there, Gabriel had to run
away and find a place some where else where
there’s at least no killing. It wasn’t like a
choice, unless he wanted to die.
Conclusion
What I learned from these two books is that you
should not give up and you should stand up for people
and take risks for others even though it might be so
dangerous and you could, sometimes it is not worth it,
but other times it is. I would follow these character’s
paths, and I know some of you would also.
If you want to read The Giver, you can get them at
Walmart, Christmas Tree Shop, and maybe target.
And just so you know it is the right book, the author is
Lois Lowry, the one from Number The Stars.
For “Harrison Bergeron”, you might have to find
online because it is an article, but I hope you try to
find it, because it can teach you the meaning of life
and lessons.
I hope these books bring
you to a new world!