To get the picture for this blog, I typed "perfect family" in a google image search and these are the first two images that appeared. I wouldn't have expected anything different, yet at the same time felt somewhat disappointed. We see societal views haven't changed much in the past, oh, 50 years.
Is society right? Do these images capture "family"? Do they capture the "family unit" in the "perfect world" of The Giver? Would you say the "family unit" was a "family"?
Think about all the times throughout the book we are asked to question the meaning of "family" and how this applies to real life. You may want to consider discussing:
-Mother's job in the Department of Justice vs. Father's job as Nurturer (gender equality, anyone?)
-When Jonas recieves the memory of Christmas/Love
-The concept of grandparents, and biological parents (birthmothers) vs. those who raise the child (family unit)
-Jonas asking his parents if they love him
-The Giver's love for Rosemary and Jonas
-Jonas' relationship to Gabe
Try to take these events from this fake society and expand them out to real society, adding your own opinions about what is family?
this is the portrait of a ¨perfect family¨. but it doesn't show a real family at all or either a perfect one. Been a perfect family is not about nice-looking pictures or pretty sunsets watched in the beach, actually there is no such thing as a perfect family it's just a portrait, REAL families have issues and find a way to solve them, they love each other and don't any pretty pictures to show that, they just do.
ReplyDeleteJennifer M.
i didnt expect anything different either. a few days ago, i was very sad because i started remembering bad things of this year. i started thinking how would it feel to not care for someone, to not love someone. i realized that it would make life easier but much less interesting. when people leave this life, the ones who are left suffer a lot. sometimes are left with a big trauma. but it feels nice to love and to be loved back. but the only thing is that you are born with love but you dont know what it is until you develop it. the only way to develop it is to be taught. in the community, to love is not in their system, they just do what they are told to do.
ReplyDelete-Gaby
Society isn't right, because there is no such thing as a perfect family. In one way, those pictures lie. But the picture catches the "normal" family unit: a man, a woman, a boy, and a girl. This is also the family unit in the giver. However, the family unit in the giver in the giver are fake, because nothing ties them together except they have the same house, and the parents take care of the children.
ReplyDeleteNavy
Well my coment eraseee !!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteso i need to write it again
THEIR ARE NO PERFECT FAMILY , every family have issues , but they still love themselvessss, for you have a perfect family, you dont only smile, everyone can smilee .
Like when jonas ask their parents if they loved him , i dont remember but they told him to check his vocabulary
im sorry but im not writing more because my comment erase
jorge garcia
ReplyDeletei think the first picture does represent a perfect a family (they only have each other there without money without anything only loving each other) for me that is the real meaning of family- love. a family without love is just consider as some people living together and sharing a house.
ReplyDeletein the second picture we can see that the family has money, but that doesn't make a family perfeCt, love does :D
Alfonso Medina
how can you have a picture capturing what a perfect family is? come on in the pictures it dosent even look like their related, their only smiling. i guess what im saying is it dosent show family love.
ReplyDeleteoh and i started righting a story. hope ''usted'''gives me extra points right? thanks.
-thatguy47
-felipe de leon
ahh the perfect white blond blue-eyed rich family. thing is its not perfect at all. studies say that midlle class families tend to live less stressful and happier lives they dont worry buot havin the latest car or playing the best vidiogames. it is not always though that there is no love in rich families quite on the contrary there can be love on rich families its just that the stereotypical rich family has the stereotypical work crazy parents an theres no time for love...
ReplyDeleteEsteban Polanco
To me those images up there DO picture the perfect family, but The Giver does not picture a perfect family, because a perfect family is all about love and warmth and taking care of each other. And a family unit is not a real family, because for example when Jonas asks their family if they love him. A real family is about to love eac other not to pretend to be perfect. Nobody in the community knows what it feels to have a family, like how good it feels to know that there is some people that are going to be there always for you. Jonas loves Gabriel alot, he even risked his own life to save him, now that IS LOVE. And how the Giver risked his own liberty and gives it to Jonas, and how he felt towards Rosemary, her daughter, it was hard to see your own child been released, she herself wanted to get released/suicide.
ReplyDeleteIn the community the only ones that know about what love is and what a real family is about are the Giver, Jonas, and Gabe. So, to me, family are those people that are genetically bonded, that have always been in your lifes, that loves you no matter what happens, and that are always there for you.
Marla Moreta <3
In the Giver I didn’t see anything like a perfect family, or even family. They do listen to each other but they don’t even “love” each other. The only two people that showed characteristics of family was Jonas and the Giver, because the giver said that he loved Rosemary and that he loves Jonas and Jonas is the only one who understands what are real feelings, besides the Giver, for example love.
ReplyDeleteLike most of us think, there is no such thing as a perfect family. But, even though, those pictures have something that most of the real families have. That is that they are united and they seem to love each other. The community should learn how to love because is good for your heart and soul. My mom says that love is vitamin.
~Laura B.~
Family: A fundamental social group in society typically consisting of one or two parents and their children or all the members of a household under one roof. according to google.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't think family has a real definition just like love, because love people always say they can't describe, well, I guess family we can't describe either. Because in part I think family is another division created by society to make some people superior, but I also think its just people who love themselves and live their life united, and they don't necesarily have to share blood or look alike, family is based in love, a family with kids who live apart from their parents or two parents thatdon't talk.. that is not a family.
i guess this are not family this are just four people living together because they are told they need each other, even though they maybe don't.
-CharylA
family is not a unite where there is a mom a dad and children and grandparents. family is not always that oviesly that how they discribe family everywhere but no people are wrong, family is just love and only love. in a place where only a grandparant live with his grandson and not mom or dad or more children but only but the grandfather or grandmother loveing the grandson thats a family right there.
ReplyDeleteALL YOU NEED IS LOVE
trust me if you got love you've got a family cause for example people say alanna is not my family why do you love her more than you love you're sister its cause alanna is my sistter not blood-born sister but still my sister why cause we love each other. love is not a word that you can use daily and people missuse it sometimes. that why i call ignorants people who say LOVE more then ther name
(not that i love alanna more than marivi):p
MAO DELGADO
It's ovious that society isn't right. A perfect family isn't always being together and stuff.... It's about overcoming any situation and good times with them! In 'The Giver' a 'family unit' is a group of people that live together. With no feeling or anything. Families have to be there in good times and in the bad times! Familes have to SHARE THE LOVE!! :D
ReplyDeleteMaria A.-
this is bullsh*t. there is no such thing as a "perfect family" because eeven though my brother and sister tell me our family is perfect. we still have our fights and sh*t. plus, all of those white families that pretend to be perfect are disintegrating. i bet the children are waiting for the right moment to kill themselves because their parents are so incomprehensive. i rather be in a family wherewe fight a lot and we're all apart, than be in one of those rich white families that appaer to be perfect but everyone in them are emotionally consuming inside.
ReplyDeleteDani ♥
a perfect family depends on each one's perspective. it doesn't have to do with social classes because that others have more money doesn't mean there is no love in the house. families show love their own way. high class families, which parents work all the time to bring the best to their house think that that "blank space" of them not being there with their kids they can fill it out by giving them all they want, it doesn't mean they don't give them love, it's just in a different. what about those poor families that the mothers have kids and kids and at that moment don't think about if they have the necessary to give their kids a good life or if they have the money, sometimes they don't care if they haven't eaten yet, and some send them to the street to work, what about that is that LOVE?
ReplyDeletefor example i believe each one of us think our family is a perfect family, at least i do, although all the issues or problems we go through we still work hard to do our best and still keep loving and caring us with no problem, we don't that if we were RICH we will be happier. it's TRUE sometime high class families have more problems in the house(emotionally) that middle class families, they worry if they have the latest stuff and care about competition.
regarding the giver there is ABSOLUTELY no perfect families because the parents aren't the biological and they don't know what love is, they say they enjoy them(the kids.
camille luna♥
For me the pictures don't represent exactly a PERFECT family for me because a perfect family is MY own family! It means to be happy with the people you're always, people you love and you can smile and laugh as much as you can. It means to be comfortable with them.
ReplyDeleteFor me I have a perfect family, because they show me they love me, they care for me, and that they will always be there for anything I need. It doesn't matter if you have some problems (social,emotional) -THAT'S PART OF LIFE- without problems we will not learn about mistakes and things we need to control or know more about.
It doesn't matter which type of family you have; rich, poor, skin color, etc- IT DOESN'T MATTER.
Things were created differently for a reason, it's not necessary to have the same thing over and over again.
In The Giver there's no perfect family because you don't see that they love each other. They don't know what love is neither! [incredible] and Jonas' parents rejected that word when Jonas mentioned it.
The Giver's love to Rosemary & Jonas was a big love because he felt the heat of love while he was with them; Jonas was like the Giver's child.
Jonas love to Gabe was really beautiful because Jonas meant a lot to Gabriel, and Gabriel meant a lot to Jonas, too. The day they took Jonas away from Gabe, he started crying, meaning that he needed to be with him because it was part of his life.
Remember, the PERFECT FAMILY is YOUR OWN family:*
~Camille Espaillat<3
A lot of people would say that a family is a group of people that have something in common, but that’s not true. A family is a group of people that love each other. Your biological parents are your family just if you love each other. The concept of family is based on love. For example, adopted child don’t live with their biological parents, they don’t have anything biologically in common with their “parents”, but they still love each other.
ReplyDeleteIn “The Community” they don’t know what love is, and that’s the problem. Their “family units” are based on responsibilities. The parents have the responsibility of taking care of their children, but there’s anything else.
In my opinion, in “The Community” they don’t have families. Families are made up of love; it doesn’t matter if they are not your biological parents, a parent is someone who will be always there for you when you need their help; but in “The Community” they don’t know love. A family can be everywhere. Wherever two or more people love each other is a family.
In The Giver we can see that memories can change the way we see the world and people in it. When Jonas had the memories, he started thinking different. We can see that he was different because he loved Gabe. Gabe inspired him to survive. Without the memories, Jonas would be “happy” with the release of Gabe, but he was different. He was different because he knows what love mean.
*Victor Vargas*
FAMILY is a lot more than a bunch of people sharing, is more about thanking our members everything they have done for us, showing your love... in the community as victor said that is not called a family is the dont know what love is, what will they know about family if that is what family is about. it doesnt make a difference that you dont share time or maybe your life with your biogical parents, my family is not my family because we share blood or have the same last name, its because i know that if by any time i need someone they will be there, that im sure they will risk their lifes for mine as well as i do. so thank the world you know what love is, and that you have a family :D
ReplyDeleteAB <3 2015
I think society isnt right. i think teh photo does presents a family, just not a real one. Real families arent perfect. Families have their problems: economical and social.
ReplyDeleteThe picture shows a "white" family in bed, without problems. but the truth is not all families are white, ALL families have problems. Does it portrays the family unit in the Giver? I think it doesnt because in the picture it seems as if they love each other and they are having fun, but in the families in the community dont really love each other. They are together because its their responsabilty and they might enjoy being together but they don tlove each other.
A family is not just made out of good moments together and sharing joyful memories but also overcoming problems together. There is more to it than just a picture. All of the feelings that a real family portrays anre much more than this picture, or any fot that mattaer can ever reflect.
-Alba Reynoso