Familiar Ideas In The Giver and Into the Wild
John F. Kennedy once said, "Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth." In other words saying that limiting yourself to society's expectations acts like a prison, holding one's freedom of choice and hindering one's ability to better understand and accept themselves, thus disabling them from moving forward. This concept is clearly expressed as true in both the books "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer and “The Giver” by Lois Lowry. “The Giver” by Lois Lowry shows the story of society whose lives, behavior, and thinking is totally controlled by a council. The council comes to their decisions on how the people should think from one person who has their own thoughts and has knowledge of his or her own, the giver, in this book, Jonas. In “Into the Wild" tells the story of a young man, Christopher McCandless, who found the whole idea of going to college and having a career after as pointless and a waste of time. Instead of conforming to the idea of society as what was believed as a fulfilling life, he decided to leave and set out into the wild, and live on the road and became free to do as he pleased.
In “The Giver”, through use of plot, chain of related events that explains what happens in a story, Lois Lowry shows the dangers that exist when people conform to society rather than their own individual thinking. Originally in the book, the people who lived in Jonas' community intended to create a perfect ‘utopian’ society. They thought that by protecting the citizens from making wrong choices, by having no choices, that the community would be safe. Eventually the utopian ideas went wrong, and people living in that community became completely controlled and manipulated through social conditioning. The members of that society were unable to think for themselves, blindly accepting and following all rules. For example, they never question the fact that they are killing certain babies simply because some babies are different, or that they are killing the elderly only because they deem them to be no longer productive to the community. The community members unquestioningly follow rules, that disable them from growing not only as individuals, but as even a normally functioning society. This goes back to the quote saying that “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth”. This book shows this in the truest sense, if everyone conforms to all rules and routines given to them without question, they will stay stagnant in that life for as long as they live.
“Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer displays an interpretation of the quote through use of plot, chain of related events that explains what happens in a story. Christopher McCandless was unhappy with his luxurious living styles. He has just recently graduated from college, which he believed was a waste of time. He believed that the socially accepted road to success of graduating and having a family and a career wasn’t for him and he would not be happy doing it. He left home and traveled throughout the country, eventually leading to Alaska because he wanted to do what he wanted and not what society would normally do. This shows that McCandless is a non-conformist. He broke free of the chains of society and did exactly what he wanted to do. This allowed him to grow as an individual and enabled him to do things he would’ve otherwise never done if he conformed to the accepted life given to him by society.
From the two examples given in the two books, it shows the dangers of conformity and how it hinders growth in more ways than one. Also, not only does it disable growth but it also restricts individuality and freedom.
