Rigid Rules Result In Rebellion

Improved Essays
Rigid Rules Result in Rebellion
Are following rules easy for you? What if they controlled your life, like rules that told you when exactly you could get a new jacket or that one was not to step outside unless under certain conditions? This essay is about characters who rebel from the novels Journey to the River Sea written by Eva Ibbotson and The Giver by Lois Lowry. The kind of rebellion I’m addressing means resisting or acting against the rules. Although these characters may be disobedient, they do have a valid reason.
When the main character, Maia, in Eva Ibbotson’s novel, arrived at her uncle’s place, the Carter family lived under very ridiculous set ways and rules. Most of the rules consisted of having zero interaction with the natives and nature. Yet, the Carters lived in the middle of a vibrant and flourishing tropical island in Manaus, South America, with high heat and fresh, juicy fruit just inches from their fingertips, and so it was hard to follow the rules.
…show more content…
When Maia arrived in Manaus, plenty more rebellion sparked. When the twins earned their prize money for turning in a wanted boy, that Maia had to do with, they disobeyed their parents who told them to put it in the bank. The Carters ate nothing native, and so their servants were not to to serve them native meals nor fresh fruit. One day, a servant bended the rules and gave Maia, two pieces of fresh fruit. On top of that the family’s governess, a proper and mature adult allowed Maia to run away with her wanted friend. The governess even went with them and removed her corset, which was a rule set in stone by Mrs. Carter and would have gotten the governess immediately fired.
All citizens in Lois Lowry’s book, The Giver must follow a plan set out before them with very little say. They live in a world with no pain, yet no happiness. This means, there are no holidays or celebrations. Even though we may think they are living in an unjust dictatorship, but since, being the case that the citizens in the book couldn’t remember or were never told of another way of living, they accepted it. However, with rules so rigid, it would be practically impossible to not have people breaking them. For instance, in the community, there is a specific age before children are granted a bicycle and allowed to ride one. Nevertheless, the older siblings have already taught their younger siblings how to ride. Regardless of these small actions that disobeyed the rules, most of the rebellion in this book, comes from the protagonist, Jonas, himself; being the case that he was chosen to receive memories from the past. On account of that, he experienced both sorrow and joy. Before that, his first observation that helped him get chosen was an apple that he saw change from his colourless world to red while tossing back and forth with his friend. He then, puzzled and confused, took the apple home, which was not allowed. That was only the beginning of his defiance towards the community and the elders, who were the dictators. After a while, he started to skip his injections. These pills were to stop feelings and dreams of love, but because Jonas had experienced this emotion through memories he

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    There are so many rule and regulations of our society that we follow without questioning. It becomes the routine of our life and passes on from one generation to the next generation. However, the society demand change with time. Mostly, the change starts with younger generations who want to explore new way of life and challenge the customary rules of culture to seek freedom. Freedom highly motivates us to rebel against the authorities and do everything in our power to gain control of our life.…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Island Possessed: Presentation Paper Island Possessed by Katherine Dunham is a beautiful introduction to Haiti. The book is comprised of stories, recollections and historical facts about the island that spare no details; good or bad. But the book causes the reader to reevaluate the definitions of good and bad while reading. Is good really good and is bad just different? Her articulation of emotions toward the historical Haitians, Haitian Vaudun culture and the people put into perspective how uniquely possessed this island really is.…

    • 2531 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Can you imagine a world in which there’s no color, weather, or sunshine. Imagine you not being able to have your own children, well in the dystopian novel The Giver by Lois Lowry. The protagonist, Jonas has to deal with this for 12 years and doesn’t begin to realize that something in his society is wrong until he is chosen to be the next Receiver for his community. This is very different from our modern day society. While Jonas’s society is emotionless, experiences sameness, and doesn’t have the freedom to choose, modern day society is free to love and celebrates individuality.…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A rule is a set of explicit or understood regulations or principles, governing conduct within a particular activity or sphere. Rules are necessary to maintain peace and order in a society. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, and Antigone, a play by Sophocles, portray events in which rules in societies may be rightly imposed or broken under certain circumstances. In Fahrenheit 451, a futuristic society has assigned firemen to burn books in order to rewrite history, and a naive adolescent attempts to uncover the truth behind it. In Antigone, a king has denied the right for a woman to bury her brother, and she seeks help from her sister.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Equality 7-2521

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages

    There are disbenefit of living in a society full of rules and…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In society, there are several rules that need to be considered. However, there are some who try to challenge the system. In the short story “A&P” by John Updike, the main character Sammy is a nineteen-year-old boy who works as a cashier in a small grocery store. After seeing a couple girls walk in who seem to be rebellious in many aspects, Sammy seems to change his ways to try to impress them and be seen as what we call a “hero”. Throughout the story, we see how the aspect of rebellion is demonstrated through the social background of the main character.…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Re-Viewing Marquesan Art Carol S. Ivory Carol Ivory's article Re-Viewing Marquesan Art focuses on the need for a renewed study of Marquesan art. The factors of her study is not just reviewing Marquesan art, but also the history of the research and what is up and coming. Ivory gives a distinct history of the Marquesas Islands art and culture and how it has not received proper research and data collection. The intent of the article is to give reason to learn more about Marquesan art and give it the deserved recognition from both a historical and cultural perspective. Ivory begins with a brief overview of the Marquesas Islands culture and describes the complexity of their social and political organization.…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Lois Lowry’s engaging novel The Giver, we meet a young boy named Jonas who lives in a restricted community where everything is planned out perfectly, when Jonas turns twelve his world is turned upside down when he receives the job, the Receiver Of Memory. As entitled Jonas receives memories and this changes his life forever, he receives memories of joy and pain, this drastic change shows Jonas what him and the community had missed out on for so long. “ Life is meaningless without memories” memories provide joy, pain, and resilience and provide individuality so life with no memories would truly be, meaningless.…

    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Could you ever imagine a life of having everything chosen for you? The Giver is a book where the leaders of a futuristic community want everyone to be as similar as possible. They ensure this by having everyone wear the same clothes and have the haircuts. To keep safety and peace in the community the citizens are given no freedoms. Citizens are given their spouses and jobs based on observations made about them.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Giver Research Paper

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Imagine a world without color. Imagine living the same life everyday. Imagine living without emotion. In The Giver, by Lois Lowry, Jonas’s society differs from our society because we have Love, Freedom of choice, and a variety of differences, but in Jonas’s society they have no choices, sameness, and no love /and emotional connections. For these reasons, Jonas’s society is predictable and you know what will happen the next day,while modern day society is not predictable and people…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gonzalez proceeds to tell the tale of his family members such as his grandmother and grandfather, the hardships his grandmother as to ensue after her late husband perished, and the children that were left standing after their siblings perished due to diseases. The chapter also serves the purpose as it recalls the history of Puerto Rico that many of us hadn’t heard of,…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, is a dystopian novel narrated by a handmaid named Offred who’s one purpose in life is to conceive children. Atwood is known for including bits of feminism in her work, but The Handmaid’s Tale takes things to the extreme. Feminism is an ideology that promotes the equality of both men and women, and it has been an issue for centuries. In Canada, women did not get the right to vote until the early 1920’s and women were not accepted into the workforce until the late 1950’s (Statcan). The Handmaid’s Tale represents feminism in an antifeminist environment through male supremacy, restrictions on women, and point of view.…

    • 1675 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    LOTF Essay Could modern day society function without clear rules, laws, and enforcement of those rules? In Lord Of The Flies, William Golding uses symbolism and characters to show that humans need rules and enforcement of those rules in order to function effectively. Without them, humans naturally become savages, which leads to an unsustainable and dangerous society. The diminishing power of the rules, and the results of this is shown through the fire, the power and respect towards the conch, and Jacks changing attitude.…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Life can be compared to a battle, a battle to find our own place in the world and continuously trying to fit in with other people so we are not ridiculed for being different .A lot of people even hide from their true selves just so they don’t have to have grief from others. It’s like every human is programed to attack things that are different and if we don’t attack that person then we will end up being the one getting attacked from everyone else. There are, however, a few that stand bravely and stand behind what they did and not hide from it. These people the brave ones that fight for themselves do and not get oppressed by others. This is just like one character in each of these books, the Scarlet Letter and Article 5.…

    • 734 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Anarchism is against all of government and the rules of society. It stresses supreme freedom from whatever power or authority and control that exist within society. Anarchism suggests that all of mankind should break away from all structures of power control and live in unity on our own. By separating from government, people would be able to live at peace without having to concern oneself with responsibilities and commitment towards a legislative organization. This in a way goes along with Rousseau’s theory that proposes human nature being peaceful.…

    • 339 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays