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Examples Of Dystopia In The Giver

Decent Essays

The Giver by Lois Lowry is about a utopian society where there are rules for basically everything that people do. However, after reading the book, I realized that the community truly is not a utopian society but rather a dystopian society. The reasons why the seemingly utopian society is actually a dystopia is because there is no evidence of love, no colors, and the process of eliminating community members is harsh. The community in The Giver is not a utopia as evidenced by its lack of love. This is depicted when The Giver shows Jonas his favorite memory and Jonas says, “‘I certainly liked the memory, though. I can see why it’s your favorite. I couldn’t quite get the word for the whole feeling of it, the feeling that was so strong in …show more content…

Since the community lacks color they miss out on a lot of fun things that can be done using it, as well as the perception of depth and feeling that can be conveyed by color such as in the change of seasons or a basket of fruit. Lastly, the elimination of community members known as “release”, which is extremely deceiving to the citizens of the community proves that this community is a dystopia. When Jonas watches his father release one of the twins, he is mortified to see the truth behind releasing. He sees where the new child is deposited, “... a small door in the wall ; Jonas could see darkness behind the door. It seemed to be the same sort of chute into which trash was deposited at school. His father loaded the carton containing the body into the chute and gave it a shove” (Lowry 151). After seeing what really happens at the releases and having the memory of death, Jonas realizes that releasing is the same as killing. Although he may not even know the truth behind the releases, Jonas feels as though he can’t even talk to his father. Essentially killing someone should not be the case just because they are twins or elderly, the releasers could have simply sent the smaller one or older person to a different community and let them live their lives. One could argue that the society in The Giver is utopian because everything is equal, but there truly is no uniqueness in the community. Everything has and always will be the same which is

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