Thomas Gray once said “Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.” This quote meant that stupidity could be better than being intelligent in a place where ignorance brings you joy. In other words, this meant that knowing nothing is sometimes better than knowing everything. Even though people say “Knowledge is power”, it is no use to be wise if nobody else understands you. In the novel The Giver, by Lois Lowry, and the film Pleasant Ville, the main character Jonas and the residents of Pleasant Ville experience new knowledge, and become worse than when they were foolish.

            Jonas received delightful memories from the Giver, but by receiving memories and gaining new knowledge, it damaged him. First, he found out about physical pain, similarly the broken knee because of the sled. “May I have relief of pain, please? He begged.” (p.109) He begged for the whole new experience of the pain. Before the new experience given, he and every other one in the community had relief of pains, a way of getting rid of pain in an instant. For example, once when Jonas broke his finger by banging the door on him, he had relief of pain and got rid of it. Relief of pain made the community care less about the physical pain. The memory of physical pain does give you a little bit of tension for living, and make you be careful about many things. Nevertheless, if they had the ability to get rid of pain, it would be better because even though they won’t have any concern about their own safety and get hurt, they will eliminate it in a second. Also, Jonas learned about warfare, and how many people suffer and die by it. He was in pain emotionally, when he found out that the game he used to play as a child was an imitation of war.  “In his mind, Jonas saw again the face of the boy who had lain dying on a field and had begged him for water. He had a sudden choking feeling, as if it were difficult to breathe… he was struggling not to cry.” (p. 133 - 134) This quote came in the middle of a war game in the book. Jonas was very depressed because of the memory he had received, and of course, his friends who didn’t have a clue about what was going inside of Jonas, got annoyed because of Jonas, and went back to their homes. Before he knew about war, Jonas had played war with his friends. But now, Jonas’ friends were absent, because of his bad memory. Another bad memory Jonas got from the Giver is the true meaning of releasing. “Releasing” was a gift for the olds and punishment for the criminals. The people who did the releasing always said that people went to the Elsewhere and lived there when being released. Reality was that releasing meant homicide. Jonas, knowing then how murdering was a bad thing, was shocked. Even though knowing the genuineness sounds fine, the truth of releasing put Jonas in major shock. The memories of pain, war, and release gave rigorous damages to Jonas, and proved that it was better off being ordinary and ignorant like the rest of the community were.

            Although the residents of Pleasant Ville did gain several pleasures after the town changed, they were still much happier and safer when they were ignorant. In Pleasant Ville, there were routines. Every thing was set up the right way. In other words, the whole town was linked together like a chain, and if any part of it went wrong, the next part would just be out of order. “Honey, I’m home. Honey, I said I’m home! I put my hat, my jacket, honey? Where’s my dinner?” This quote was from Bud’s dad, when the mom was out of house. This quote proves how the town was linked together, because it shows how the dad couldn’t do anything without his mom. Even though after the two kids were warped into Pleasant Ville the populace began to get spontaneous, the routine was still better because then people would know what was coming in their life, their whole life was pre-determined and was easy to get ready for it. After being spontaneous, they should have had many mistakes that will put them in trouble. Another trouble that occurred because of the new knowledge is the safety issue. Before the residents got their new knowledge, they were safe. They didn’t have sex, they didn’t drive dangerously, and they didn’t have fights. After the two kids came and gave color, there was violence. Evidence of violence existing after the colors could be found all throughout the movie, for example the fight that occurred when Bud’s mom was getting sexually harassed by the other boys. After all, violence is absolutely bad,                                                                                                                   and safety that was present in Pleasant Ville before David and the girl came was                                                                                              ruined by the two teenagers. Also, the peoples’ happiness was ruined. Before the         new experiences, the inhabitants were always ‘pleasant’. They didn’t have sadness, and if when they did, they couldn’t continue what they were doing. For example, when David said that his sister couldn’t go out with the other student that was playing basketball; he suddenly became cheerless, and couldn’t play the basketball game. Although the range of emotion gives variety and is cheerful, only happiness could be better, because if a person is always sad, it could bring them bad events.  However in contrast, when a person is always blissful, it’ll only bring them good events.  For these reasons, the broken routine that caused spontaneity, broken safety that caused violence and the new range of emotions brought harms to Pleasant Ville.