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Why was Asher punished for confusing 'snack' and 'smacks' in The Giver?
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In The Giver, Asher was punished as a child for confusing the words "snack" and "smack" because the community values precise language. Citizens are required to use precise language at all times, and even exaggerations are prohibited. Jonas mentions that precise language is necessary to ensure that "unintentional lies were never uttered."
Asher is punished for confusing his words because precision of language is very important in the community.
Jonas’s community tightly controls every aspect of daily life. From a young age, children are taught proper behavior and social conventions. They are shown how to behave politely. One aspect of this involves how to speak to others. At the Ceremony of Twelve when stories of each advancing Eleven are told, Asher’s story is particularly poignant because it is considered funny by the community but not by most readers. The story describes how Asher used to confuse his words when he was a toddler, and the community responded by beating him.
When Asher was three years old he confused the words “snack” and “smack.” One day he accidentally asked for a “smack” instead of a “snack”
The other Threes, including Jonas, had laughed nervously. "Snack!...You meant snack, Asher!" But the mistake had...
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been made. And precision of language was one of the most important tasks of small children. Asher had asked for a smack. (Ch. 7)
So they smacked him. And it continued until the poor boy stopped talking. While the story was shared as something funny, it indicates a lack of compassion and a strong commitment to doctrine. The community is harsh. There is no room for error, and there is no room for love. Even later, at the Ceremony of Twelve, they see nothing wrong with what happened. The Chief Elder does not acknowledge Asher’s trauma.
"For a while," the Chief Elder said, relating the story, "we had a silent Asher! But he learned." (Ch. 7)
There was no reason to hit Asher for saying the wrong word in the first place, let alone to do it over and over until the child was so traumatized that he stopped talking. It demonstrates the harsh reality of a community unable to forgive, and foreshadows even harsher punishments like release. We later learn that difference of any kind is not tolerated, and difference can get you killed in this community. Asher is our window into this reality.
Why was Asher punished for confusing "snack" and "smack" in The Giver?
Great question!
This anecdote takes place in chapter 7, during the all-important Ceremony of 12, when the 12-year-olds in the community receive their job assignments.
So far in the book we have learned that this society is like ours in many ways, but in other ways it's...different. Little by little Lowry adds in little tid-bits that reveal more and more important aspects of this dystopian society, and we should be getting more and more concerned.
The Chief Elder, the head of the community, gives a speech at this important event. Like many leaders in our world, she decides to sprinkle in a few funny stories. One of these is the story about how Asher used to confuse "snack" and "smack."
I think you'll agree, it's always funny when little kids mix up words, but that's not why Lowry has the Chief Elder share the story. First of all, we learn that kids are smacked with a wand when they mess up. Hopefully that's not like your school! So we learn that in this society it is very common for children to receive corporal punishment.
But the story even goes a step further! Little Asher would get smacked for messing up the word. He was just a kid! Can you imaging a kid being hit for getting a word wrong? Although the context of the story is supposed to be funny, you the reader should be off-put by it. The audience at the ceremony is laughing, but we shouldn't be. What kind of society is this? Why is hitting children something that's laughed at? If you've read on, you know that this is just the tip of the iceberg, but it's one of the many little warnings in the earlier part of the book that let us know that something is very wrong.
In The Giver, why was Asher punished for confusing "snack" and "smack"?
In the Community of that book, precise word usage is very important. We see this in the beginning, when Jonas struggles to figure out how he feels about the upcoming ceremony, finally settling on "apprehensive." Children are taught from an early age to only say things they truly mean. Asher says he wants a smack, so they smack him; this shows him that he should be careful what he asks for, and to be correct in his pronunciations and word usages.
Though this example seems a little extreme, especially for a toddler just learning to talk, it illustrates a philosophy of their community. In another scene, we learn that Jonas was scolded for using the word "starving," when he really just meant "hungry." The community does not want its citizens to ever think they could starve; they are self-sufficient and so thoroughly organized that starvation has become an impossibility. But to be reminded of this, children are taught not to use that word.
Later, when Jonas becomes the Receiver, he learns that most of the community misuses words, especially emotional words. He understands that only he and the Giver have ever felt any real, strong emotions; everyone else has only felt a faint glimmer of that. Their lives are so sheltered, so orderly, that they don't ever experience anything extreme enough for a true range of emotions. So really, even though the community strictly enforces correct word usage in some ways (the smack vs. snack issue), in other ways they gloss over it (emotions).