The Giver: Blog Post

Well, for my blog post, I've chosen the 1st option: 'Would you like your future to be chosen by others? Why or why not?' It actually depends for me.

If it was chosen for me by someone else, that person would have to know me extremely well to ensure that I actually liked my job, career, future, etc. This is actually what happens in The Giver. Before they assign the Twelves their jobs, the elders, known as the committee, inspect and observe the Twelves so that they will be able to determine what jobs that the new Twelves will receive. An example of this in the book is what Fiona and Asher receive for their jobs. Through their observations, the commitee probably determined that Fiona was suitable for a job at the House of Old due to her calmness, gentleness, responsiblity, and compassion for others. They also found that due to Asher's livelihood, energy, and ever-lasting good humour, that he was suitable for a job such as the Assistant Director of Recreation, which required all of the qualities Asher had. In the book, everyone is happy with what the committee assigned them, which means that the commitee had chosen well, and observed the Twelves well enough to ensure that the Twelves themselves were well pleased with their chosen careers and the futures that lay ahead. This means that the person who would choose my future would have to take many things into account, such as my love for reading and my ability to be able to write long essays to satisfy me completely.

On the other hand, if someone chose my future for me without taking in my many qualities and abilities into consideration and just forced me to do something I didn't want to do or wasn't good at, I don't think I'd like people to choose my future for me. People choosing my future is basically me losing the many ambitions and freedom to choose what you want to do, what you want to experience, etc. This is the reason why the committee observe the children ages before they actually turn twelve; they want to know what the right job for them will be without making any mistakes. Also, if someone else chose your future for you, you could be missing experiences that you (and only you) could be experiencing. For example, if someone chose (or rather, forced) you to be, say, the President of the U.S.A., and you had actually wanted to be a ranger in the jungle, you could be missing plenty of things that only a ranger and not a President would ever experience. Another thing that you would also lose is the ability to think for yourself, as you will always be domineered by other people.

In conclusion, I think that choosing other people's futures is only right if the know what they will be for a very long time, or if you have observed them very carefully and are very sure that they will be very happy and completely satisfied with your decision. On all other occasions, however, I think that choosing other people's futures are something that you should never do, as the futures selected for the people could (or will) affect the lives of whom the futures are selected for.