Dystopia And Utopia In Lois Lowry's The Giver

A dystopia is is a place of extremely unpleasant living and working conditions (Julita). In the book “The Giver” 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. Some could argue that Lois Lowry wrote this book as a utopia; while the book does possess some qualities of a utopia, the book results in a dystopia. 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 for the so-called common good of the

What sets people apart from others is their individuality and personalities, without that how can anyone be themselves. According to the passage it states, “If he had stayed, he would have starved in other ways. He would have lived a life hungry fro feelings, for color, for love” (Lowry 173). Now that Jonas has left the society of sameness he has freedom, just like all of us today. According to “Utopia and Anti-Utopia” it says “That a loss of individual freedom is the cost of utopian striving.” I agree with this statement, the characters in the book possess no freedom therefore, how is it a perfect society? To go along with that statement “Freedom necessarily means that many things will be done which we do not like. Our faith in freedom does not rest on the foreseeable results in particular circumstances but on the belief that it will, on balance, release more forces for the good than for the bad” (The Giver’s Dystopia). Freedom is something we all possess in this world. Our freedom does sometimes result in negative actions, but without it we cannot be the person we want to be. I