Richards+homework.

 ** The Giver   by Lois Lowry  **
 * Option 3: Stereotyping **

// Among other things, the community in The Giver eliminates most traditional distinctions between men and women, but occasionally stereotypes and customs still exist to distinguish male children from female children and men from women. What rules remain in place in the community that differentiates men from women? Why do you think these specific rules were retained while others were not? What are some stereotypes that still strongly exist within our community? Write an essay discussing these questions. //

A simple definition of stereotyping is: That all of a particular type of people or thing act in the same way. Examples: All Indians own a dairy or a fruit company; All fat people are happy; Asians are intelligent; Blonde girls are more beautiful than other girls. Stereotyping may be as a result of what we see every day. Just because many dairies are run by Indians as well as fruit companies, that does not mean they all are, and that just because you are an Indian you have to work at a dairy or a fruit shop. Indians are also teachers, doctors, engineers, music and sport stars.

Lois Lowry’s book The Giver talks about a community that works on “sameness”. That is the assumption that, to some degree, all people are the same and will act the same, think the same, and react in the same way. The community is designed to make people think they are the same even if they aren't. This is shown by the very few mirrors available for people to look into and that it is 'rude' to point out people's differences in a conversation. People have even 'lost' the ability to see differences. Like they can't see colours.

Everyone is treated the same rather than being treated like a special individual like we are. Some rituals customs that were in The Giver that work to distinguish between girls and boys were that girls under ten had to wear their hair in plaits with ribbons, and that beyond that, males kept their hair cut short when they were grown up. In The Giver, the children were observed in their volunteer hours and their jobs as adults were based on what the elders saw. There were some stereotypes. Most “carers for the old” were female. Most engineers, scientists and pilots were male.

Stereotypes are changing over time but there are some that are still strong in our own community. In my great grandmother's time, the women would stay home and look after the kids and do the house work while the men went to work. And in our days, both the adults go out to work and the children would go the school or child care. Also in my great grandmothers days it was a stereotype that woman were not smart enough to train as a doctor. My great grandmother qualified to train as a doctor and would have been the only woman. Today there are as many woman working as a doctors as there are men. But there's still a strong stereotype about mothers being the 'best' person to look after a crying baby or a baby with a dirty nappy and it is more ok for a father to go and play sport in the weekend because 'he needs to relax after a long week at work' and Mum has 'just been at home all week'.

Another stereotype would be ‘all girls like to play with dolls’ and we all know that this is not true,but it is still a strong custom that people will give dolls to little girls and cars and trucks to boys.

I can not see any value in stereotypes. I don't see what good they do to our communities. They just encourage us to judge people by what size/colour/gender they are rather than getting to know them as an individual.

My Homework.

Creating an animal on the Matai islands.

I was on one of the Matai islands when I saw a strange looking creature unlike any thing that I had ever seen before. It had the worst looking body and a funny face that wasn't like a normal face. It's face looked weird because of his curled up ears and having a nose on the top of his head. I thought that he had curled up ears so it could whack flies or other insects that went on to its head. I don't really know why it had a nose on the top of it's head but I was thinking that it was on its head so if there was a flood, it could float and breath without turning it's head. It had small but sharp teeth and grey eye's and a very fat and chubby face if you ask me. All of its skin was like a seal's. it was fat and chubby but lime green. It has a tail that looks like a hook on the end of a stick cause it sticks up like mad. On the back of his neck there is a horn like a unrcorn. It must be something to atack its pray or to protect itself from other animals. Its toes are sharp and strait and on the back of his legs is some blue lines. I sore it in a cave so I am thinking that it is a creacher that lives in a cave and it's grey eyes would help it to see in the dark.