The Giver- Jonas's life and rules compared to ours

Rules in our society are lax. People are not forced to obey all laws. Even though it is always prefered that rules are followed, people still easily get away with breaking them. In the novel, The Giver, nobody gets away with breaking rules, or at least very rarely. Their rules are also very much more strict and controlling than those in which we are used to. A lot of these rules are to keep complete control over the community in a way in which the people in the community are unknowing of many things outside the community. For one, animals are unknown mythical creatures. "Lily considered, and shook her head."I don't know. They acted like...like..." "Animals?" Jonas suggested. He laughed...Neither child knew what the word meant, exactly, but it was often used to describe someone uneducated or clumsy, someone who didn't fit in." (pg.6)
Some of the rules that applied to family households were; only one girl and one boy to each family, a feeling ritual must be held every evening, and a dream telling ritual must be held every morning. These were to keep things in order with families. Children were given to the parents, who were matched by the Elders, and they had to express their feelings with each other, keeping nothing private. Then if the children started having "stirrings", which really are when their hormones start kicking in, then they must be treated with daily pills that make the "stirrings" go away. "Stirrings. He had heard the word before. He remembered that there was a reference to the Stirrings in the Book of Rules, though he didn't remember what it had said. And now and then the speaker mentioned it. ATTENTION. A REMINDER THAT STIRRINGS MUST BE REPORTED IN ORDER FOR TREATMENT TO TAKE PLACE." (pg. 37)
Then there were rules according to ages. For instance; 8 year olds had to have their "comfort object" taken away and recycled to the newborns, 9 year olds had to get their first bicycle, and little girls had to wear hair ribbons and they had to be tied tightly. Then what Jonas himself is going through is the "Ceremony of 12's" where each 12 year gets assigned a specific role in the community. In our normal society we get to choose our own jobs, but in The Giver, The Elders watch all the children's progress with their volunteer hours that they start when they are 9, therefore being able to tell where they will work well in the community.
So therefore, because of all these rules that the society in The Giver follow, it has become very controlled and nobody has any rights to privacy, or really anything else. Everything is controlled by only one person, who later will be introduced as the giver. But that's for another blog later.