The essential question I chose from the book, The Giver, by Lois Lowry is, "What happens when someone is released?' My essential question tied in with the novel study because in the book Jonas talked about how old people and sometimes babies got released. In the story Jonas also asked questions to his parents about what exactly happens when someone is released. Jonas and I both thought that the people who were released were just set free to the outside part of the wall. Finally towards the end of the book Jonas is able to see a baby, who was the smaller baby in a set of twins, get released. The outcome or answer to the essential question is that when someone is released they are killed by a shot given to them. They then get released, literally, through some sort of garbage chute. I found this out when Jonas asked to see the baby get released and when the baby got injected he passed away. Jonas put two and two together, and determined that his father was a murderer and being released is not what people in the community thought. Overall, the outcome was sad and reading about it made me anxious.
The article that we chose that connects to our book is, "North Korea: Life in cultural isolation" by BBC News. This article relates to The Giver because in the story the people are forced to live in a small civilization away from other communities with no outside knowledge. In the article it states, "Our minders had probably never seen any other kinds of news item or documentary about their country or the rest of the world.They were not allowed to, and they could not, because no-one has access to the internet in North Korea."(Paragraph 18 & 19) This paragraph from the article connects to the book because it shows how North Koreans don't have knowledge on what's going on in the outside world, just like the people in The Giver. The authors use the same information but use it differently because the author for The Giver uses the idea of isolation to make the civilization seem more intact and the same. The leader of North Korea uses this information to make his civilization oblivious to the outside world so he is the center of attention and he wants to seem more in power.
In the book and the article they also focus a lot on controlling the community or people. In the book it states, "There was no way, really, to know in advance. It was a secret selection, made by the leaders of the community, The Committee of Elders, who took the responsibility so seriously that there were never never even any jokes made about the assignments."(Page 15) This paragraph is basically discussing how The Committee of Elders choose the year 12's jobs for them and they determine what they are going to be doing for the rest of their lives. This paragraph from the book connects to the article because in the article the leader of North Korea determines how his citizens are going to live just like the Committee of Elders. The authors use the same information but use it differently because in The Giver Lois Lowry uses the information to evenly distribute the community. The leader of North Korea uses this information by controlling the people to make sure they are all the same, and so they don't know the differences between other jobs around the world.
Overall, the article and the book follow the same guidelines in a way. Although, they do have many differences. The article takes place in the real world, which makes it more serious, but the book doesn't, making it less serious. Both the book and article have the same rules, but use it differently.
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