Lit Circle #2

Question: Why does The Giver say that making choices would be frightening for people?

Answer:

I think that the giver says that making choices would be frightening for people because of a few reasons.

First of all it is because the people are afraid to make a mistake. In the community that Jonas lives, they do are not allowed to make choices on their own so they do not make mistakes. From when you are born you are assigned a role in the community so you don't make mistakes and choose jobs that you regret choosing. With out choices it means they have a perfect community because there would not be mistakes. If people had choices, they will make some good choices but sometimes they might make horrible choices like smoking or killing someone or choosing a stupid job that after a while you want to quit. I think that is one of the reasons why people are frightened about making choices.

Second of all it is because this concept of making choices on you own is a new thing for the society so they do not want to try it. If there were something that the community has never done before than would you do that thing? You probably wouldn't because you don't know the out come and plus the community might tell you that if you do that than horrible things might happen to you. Ok let's say that you are in a community where they have never ever jumped out of a plain before. Everybody you know, parents, teachers, friends, is telling you that if you do it than you will get hurt or mess up. Than would you still do it? No, because you don't know the out come. You know what is the theoretical out come but usually it is different to the experimental out come so you probably won't want to take the chance.   

Finally it is because they think not making decisions for you self is better than making choices for your life. I think this because I think that they think that other people knows what is best for you which is wrong because you know whats best for you. The people in the community thinks that the elders are always right and don't make mistakes, so that means for the people in the community the elders will make a wise choice for you. They think that they will make stupid choice because they are not the Elders. I think that is one of the reasons why people in the community that Jonas lives in is frightened of making choices for themselves.

Images from:

http://www.google.com.my/imglanding?q=right+or+wrong&um=1&hl=en&sa=X&tbs=isch:1,isz:l&tbnid=WFFcLXID3r2pwM:&imgrefurl=http://hrringleader.com/2010/05/28/right-and-wrong-what-do-you-think/right-decision-wrong-decision-road-sign-3/&imgurl=http://hrringleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/right-way-wrong-way2.jpg&ei=VuCRTc7RG43qvQP-wJnzBw&zoom=1&w=1690&h=1124&iact=hc&oei=VuCRTc7RG43qvQP-wJnzBw&page=1&tbnh=146&tbnw=195&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0&biw=1279&bih=676

http://www.google.com.my/imglanding?q=people+thinking&um=1&hl=en&tbs=isch:1&tbnid=FAWNwV6wEUnXPM:&imgrefurl=http://www.irr.org/seminars.html&imgurl=http://www.irr.org/images/Image13.jpg&ei=6uCRTemDAom4vwPrkpTzBw&zoom=1&w=299&h=383&iact=hc&oei=6uCRTemDAom4vwPrkpTzBw&page=1&tbnh=169&tbnw=128&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0&biw=1279&bih=676

http://www.google.com.my/imglanding?q=which+is+better%3F&um=1&hl=en&tbs=isch:1&tbnid=4qU-EuEcefBFWM:&imgrefurl=http://www.dedoimedo.com/life/whitelist-blacklist.html&imgurl=http://www.dedoimedo.com/images/life/whitelist-blacklist-scales.png&ei=8eKRTe7MEJHWvQOwxLDzBw&zoom=1&w=400&h=354&iact=rc&oei=8eKRTe7MEJHWvQOwxLDzBw&page=1&tbnh=128&tbnw=145&start=0&ndsp=26&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0&biw=1279&bih=676