The Giver: Dystopia

Dystopia. A place where everything is imperfect and unpleasant.That's exactly where the main character of the book, The Giver by Lois Lowry, lives. Jonas grows up in a locked community. There is no freedom and the rules are completely insane. Since Jonas is the Receiver Of Memory, he can notice how badly the residents of the community are getting treated. In the book The Giver, the world is a plain dystopia. From extremely strict rules to life of sameness, Jonas lives life through it all.

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.

The giver follows the life of a young boy named Jonas. In the future, society is different from now, emotions, colour, pain, and liberty are all things of the past, in this alleged dystopian novel. Thorough explanation of this is left out in the novel, what we know is some war or tragedy due to all the emotions, opinions, cultures etc. led to great measures being taken. Thus eliminating all feelings both good and bad, which in turn dehumanized the whole population almost making them in to living robots, just so that the chance of another catastrophe is narrowed down to almost zero. Liberty is merely an illusion in this novel since no choices are made by the people only by the “elders” who aren't explained a lot either

The Giver describes a society in search of perfection, which is a recurring theme in literature. Somebody in Jonas’s society decided that eliminating or limiting choices and feeling, among other things, would ultimately create a perfect place in which to live. By eliminating and/or limiting choices and feelings, the creators were able to implement Sameness, which would then provide a conflict-less environment in which to exist.

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

Dystopia: an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one, thanks Google. If our society was a dystopian society – which would slowly tremble – how would the society be perfect? No color, no starvation, no war, and no racial profiling; if that would make the perfect society then that would make the perfect downfall to the society. Both dystopian and modern societies have their flaws considering the fact that dystopia means “bad utopia” while utopia means “not a place”.

Many teens have started to love dystopian novels. Teens have taken a particular interest in the book The Giver. During The Giver Jonas, the main character, is selected to a very special, honorable, but painful position as the Receiver of Memory. Jonas was not quite expecting this. He soon learns that his job is rather quite pleasant. After a year or so of pleasant memories the Giver (Jonas's mentor) starts transmitting painful memories into Jonas's mind. One day Jonas went to where he received his memories but this day was different jonas had found the Giver laying on the ground in agony. Jonas helped the Giver by taking this terrible memory of war. Soon this makes Jonas turn against the rules and escape the community.

Lois Lowry’s paradoxical novel The Giver follows Jonas, a young boy living in the safety of his controlling community. Although his community appears to be perfect, it is soon revealed that the people of his community are living meaningless, controlled lives. This is shown as they have lost all compassion and knowledge of the past, there is no individuality in their lives and they do not feel any love. After receiving many memories of the world, Jonas discovers that there is more to his life than what his fellow Community members have been living. “They were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on. And he was angry at himself, that he could not change that for them.” This leads the Community members to live like robots instead of human beings.

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

Nothing is perfect especially not the giver’s society. The Giver’s main idea is It is better to be different than to be the same because nothing is perfect. In The giver the people of the society think the society is perfect but it is not.

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.

Would the community in the giver be a utopia or a dystopia. A dystopia is a pretty place on the outside, but not on the inside.The community presented in THE GIVER can be considered a dystopia because of control,sameness, and surveillance.

Throughout the years of cinematic history, there have been countless of movie adaptions of people’s favorite books. Some have been well received and loved by the viewers. While other adaptions strayed too far from the book or just weren’t on par with their novel counterpart. The Giver, a critically acclaimed novel and receiver of the John Newbery Medal was set for its movie adaptation to be released in late 2014. This left fans anticipating the film and the possible changes the director would make in order to adapt the novel to the big screen. With the release of the movie, viewers were able to see what exactly was changed in the movie and whether it worked out for the better or worse. Three major changes to the storyline being the change

“Jonas became the receive of memory) , the giver is going to give Jonas some good and painful memories”. In our modern society everyone has their own memories

In the book “The Giver” it is trying to keep their community like a utopia. They are trying to accomplish this goal by keeping it in “Sameness”. An utopia is a world where there are no problems ( that is what the community is trying to be ) and an dystopia is a world made up of rules ( world,place,town anywhere people can live ). To me, I say that instead of it being utopia where everything is perfect and people have the right to make their own choice, it is an dystopia. Here are my reasons why I say it is a dystopia because they do not have the right to live the way they want,they live in a world that is ruled by rules ,and you have to be a certain age just to do something.