Dystopian Society In The Giver

To me a utopia cannot be achieved, a utopia would be “perfect world” where everyone is satisfied. A dystopia can be very far from perfect, as it is in The Giver. The world in The Giver by Lois Lowry is a dystopia because no world anywhere can ever be perfect, the people who live there will never be truly happy and because without choice life can be very boring, as it is in The Giver.

Jonas’ community appears to be a utopia, but, in reality, it is a dystopia. The people seem perfectly content to live in an isolated wreck—in a government run by a select few—in which a group of Elders enforces the rules. In Jonas’ community, there is no poverty, starvation, unemployment, lack of housing, or discrimination; everything is perfectly planned to eliminate any problems. However, as the book progresses and Jonas gains insight into what the people have willingly given up—their freedoms and individualities—for the so-called common good of the community, it becomes more and more obvious that the community is a horrible place in which to live. You as a reader can relate to the disbelief and horror that Jonas feels when he realizes

Lois Lowry’s The Giver is set in a futuristic, dichotomous society, one that is both utopian and dystopian. In response to the overwhelming destruction and chaos in the world, the Elders have attempted to create and maintain a peaceful and orderly utopia, but this security comes at a price. The citizens of the community have sacrificed their individuality and freedom. Although most adult members have some knowledge of the hypocrisies involved, they choose to perpetuate the deception, allowing the community, as a whole, to continue on blissful ignorance. When young Jonas is confronted with all the truths of the present and all the memories of the past, he must choose for himself

In today’s society there are many authors who write dystopian novels. They write these novels to give knowledge and to tell how our world is very different from dystopian life. Lois Lowry shows readers how people can suffer in dystopian society. In The Giver, Jonas’ community appears to be a utopia, but in reality it is a dystopia because everyone is under the illusion that there is freedom, dehumanization, and their strict regulations.

One reason why Jonas hates this community is because of the rules. If you make one small mistake, you can get in serious trouble, also known as being released (killed). “ When an unidentified aircraft had overflown the community twice….Needless to say, he will be released.” (pg. 13) This suggests that the rules in the society can have a major impact on someone if they make just a slight error. The fact that the person did not follow the directions well enough and got killed is appalling. These unpleasant and ridiculous rules support a dystopian novel because they show how unpleasant living in this community can be.

The Giver strives to be a utopian society but the still can’t be perfect. The Giver is a book with the main character being Jonas, Jonas has no last name; however, no one else had the last name in their society. The Giver is a Dystopian because they get their memories erased, they are all equal, and they get assigned jobs when they are 12.

A dystopia is an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or dreadful. It is typically a society that is limited to certain resources. In a dystopia, a society is usually controlled by the government and leaves no power to the people. Two examples of dystopias would be take place in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and in Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. They have an abundance of components in common, while there are also a few notable differences, each society has its own advantage, and the reactions would be different depending on what dystopia and the surroundings you are placed in.

Anytime a utopia is attempted, a dystopia is going to occur. The rules, families, and leaders are very different in our society than in Jonas’s society. The rules in our society are very laid back as long as your good. In the society we live in we can’t steal or murder.

Do you ever wonder what it would be like if you lived in a society where their always trying to make it perfect? In the book “The Giver” by Lois Lowry they have all of these rules and specific things you have to do and follow in order to have a good life in their society. Which makes life in the dystopian society of “The Giver” to be different than our modern day society. One difference between our societies is that they give babies numbers at birth and then give them names at the naming ceremony. On page 63 it says “They were arranged by their original numbers, the numbers they had been given at birth.

In the Giver’s dystopian society one does not get to birth to his or her own baby. For example, one has his or her children given to them as this quote from the giver explains, “He remembered the day they received Lily” (14). This shows that in the Givers society one get’s his or her child handed to them. Meanwhile, in a modern society one gives birth to his or her own child. For a reference one may go to a hospital and give birth to a baby. This reveals that in a modern day society one gets the chance to give birth to their own child. In addition, In both societies, one can have a spouse. For example people one can sign up for a wife In the Giver “ You will be able to apply for a spouse” (128). As one can see from this one can get a wife

Though our modern day society isn’t perfect, we have a book call The Giver that shows how an ideal society should live. Without love, compassion, or fear, the characters in The Giver live happily and perfectly. While in modern day society we are far from perfect and have all those feelings, we try to make the best of our lives. Even though we love in different worlds, there are certain distinctions that make our society alike, but also different. Such as families, rules and laws, and individuality. These are some of the things that seperate a utopian society and a dystopian society.

More defined it as a place that notably "[had] no chance to loaf or kill time, no pretext for evading work… no chances for corruption" (49). As Ferns defines, it is “desirable, but at the same time unattainable.” (39) According to Sisk, dystopia, “utopia's polarized offspring”, “pessimistically [extrapolates] contemporary social trends into oppressive and terrifying societies”. To use a simpler lexical definition, according to Merriam-Webster, a dystopia is “an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives”. In other words, dystopia is in opposition to an ideal place, and a dystopian text serves to interrogate current-day norms and exaggerate them, and this usually culminates in a controlling, oppressive government, which mostly uses propaganda and censorship (often of the past) to effect control and repress independent thought, causing people to lead degraded

No one is perfect. No one can do nothing wrong. No one is God. In other words, there is not one place that everyone can be the same, or that everyone is pure with no mistake. A perfect place, a utopian society, are designed to fail, not one utopian society that the whole world can ever make will succeed.

In our English class we read “The Giver”. Usually novels that are obligatory at school tend to be boring or too technical, but honestly this novel was different. I loved it. From the first chapter I wanted to continue till the end. I was mesmerized by the core topic and once we analyzed it, that’s when I decided I would choose this as my written task topic.

“Perhaps the greatest utopia would be if we could all realize that no utopia is possible; no place to run, no place to hide, just take care of business here and now” (Carroll). In the story, The Giver by Lois Lowry, you follow a boy named Jonas who lives in a community that seems like a utopia, but is really dystopia. In this Jonas is specially chosen to become a receiver, who holds all of the memories from the past, that people in the community don’t know about, like snow and war. Even though things may seem perfect in the community in The Giver, it actually isn’t, things in this community are actually dystopian, seeing how people have no choice or freedom and people are getting controlled by the sort of leaders of the community, the Elders.