The Giver Is Better Than Living In A Utopian Society

    The story in The Giver by Lois Lowry takes place in a community that is not normal. People cannot see color, it is an offense for somebody to touch others, and the community assigns people jobs and children. This unnamed community shown through Jonas’ eye, the main character in this novel, is a perfect society. There is no war, crime, and hunger. Most readers might take it for granted that the community in The Giver differs from the real society. However, there are several affinities between the society in present day and that in this fiction: estrangement of elderly people, suffering of surrogate mothers, and wanting of euthanasia.

The community in The Giver is also not a utopia because without choice you can not have goals and therefore have nothing to strive for, and life can become very boring. In The Giver the people that live in the community have no choices. They cannot choose their own jobs and they cannot see color which limits their choices. Without such choices the

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

The Giver is considered as a dystopian society because everyone is under the illusion that there is freedom. An example of this is when the text states, “you're ready for the pills, that's all. That’s the treatment for the stirrings.” They can't even have independent thoughts. Medication is given to prevent

A true utopia requires sacrifices many people cannot condone. This fact has been shown throughout The Giver. The community decides to sacrifice many things to come to Sameness. Pain, individuality and love are among many things that they have sacrificed (Lowry 124). These sacrifices made the community Jonas lived in seemingly perfect; there is no hunger, no war, no pain, no one will ever be alone. But, a perfect community is completely unrealistic. That is why they have The Giver, the person that knows all the imperfections of the society and help the society to achieve perfection.

“The life where nothing was ever unexpected.Or inconvenient. Or Unusual. the life without color, pain, or past.” pg 165

First, The Giver’s community is a dystopia because there is limited freedom. I know this because in the Document E it says, “Oh,” Jonas was silent for a minute. “Oh, I

Sometimes in life, you need to have some boundaries to separate you from the dangers of the rest of the world. In the book, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, Jonas’ society has very strict rules. These rules restrict them from being able to make bad choices. There is also a lack of memories, which means the people in Jonas’ community have a limited memory for specific reasons; to prevent pain, to eliminate suffering, and to avert people from making bad decisions and choices. Jonas’ community is a utopian society because there are very strict rules that everyone must follow, there is sameness, and lastly because of the lack of memories.

A utopian society is to be though of perfect or idealistic. The charcters in the book have no feelings, no choices, and no memories other thhan their own life. The Giver and Jonas are the only two with memories since their job is to be the holder of them and Jonas stops taking his medication to no longer interfearing with his body that gives him feelings. All others do not have any emotional attachments. The community decides all of your life’s plan. They choose your spose, your career, and you are not able to have your own children. If you want children you have to apply and a child will be given to you if you are accepted. The Giver and Jonas are the only ones with memories from the past that go back hundreds before the community was a utopian societ and other communities and how they live. The only memories the people in the community are allowed to have are their own lives but thneir lives are controlled by the committee of elders. This give the people of the community teh benefit of never feeling pain but they have no freedom which is almost as if they live in a comunity with a dictatorship.

Is it true that we accept the life in which we are presented? In The Giver, Jonas does not question his society at all, because to him, his perfect life, is perfectly normal. He believed that until the current receiver of memory, or The Giver told him how life was before the flawed Utopia’s existence. That’s why the Utopia in The Giver is linked with our society. However, how different is Jonas's society from our own.

Also, the community does not allow citizens to freely choose anything. For example, all jobs are filled in by appointees. Both types of government and their communities share different thoughts on what is considered “utopian”. In conclusion, the United States and The Giver’s society create very diverse and unique principles in order to achieve a

“The life where nothing was ever unexpected, inconvenient, or unusual. The life without color, pain, or past.” In The Giver-a book by Lois Lowry-this is the type of life that Jonas, a twelve year old boy, lives in. Jonas got assigned the most important job in the community-The Receiver of Memories. What Jonas learns about the past and present surprises and frightens him.

“Because to take away a man’s freedom of choice, even his freedom to make the wrong choices, is to manipulate him as though he were a puppet and not a person” -Meadeline L’Engles. Living your life in a society where everyday is the same, in constant repetition, and sameness without the freedom of to make decisions, right or wrong, one is not fully living, Going through the day in a “perfect” utopian society, and not experiencing unpredictability, and some of the most incredible things in life is not fully living. A utopian society may define perfection by some standards of an ideal community; however, the benefits of being ideal versus the consequences of losing freedom is too high of a cost. Utopian lifestyle means you are giving up your creativity, without imagination, and not sensing common, and wonderful things, like color and music.

Imagine living in a community where you have no control over your decisions and everything from the homes to the people are the same. In The Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas, the main character and everyone else in the community believe that they live in a perfect, protective, and caring utopian society. In this society everyone fits in and everyone’s the same. The dwellings are the same, the rituals and traditions are the same, the clothes are the same, and the meals are the same. There are no hills and mountains, and no water source except for rivers.

What do you know about a Utopian and Dystopian society? Some people may think that a Utopian society such as ¨The Giver¨ society is more significant because the society has control and equality but why? The society that is proclaimed to be perfect isn´t so perfect after all. The Giver society and our society today have many things that are different such as leadership, freedom, and laws. But also have some things in common.