Dystopian Conventions In The Giver

A dystopia is a society that is undesirable, dangerous and alienating. The novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, depicts a dystopian world throughout. The Giver is about a boy Jonas, who receives memories from the past, good and bad. Many typical dystopian conventions are used throughout the novel, control being one of them. Numerous examples of this convention will be discussed and explained further.

The convention - control, through information and the freedom of precision of language being restricted, is the first example.

People are called "citizens", at age twelve, they are given a job which is known as an "assignment", in their society. For example, Andrei was given the "Assignment of Engineer". (pg. 25-26)

When Jonas received his "assignment",

Jonas then said “I liked the feeling of love”. (pg. 170) After training Jonas wanted to see if the emotion, love, still had its meaning. He asked his father a "meaningless" question. “Do you love me?” (pg. 171) Jonas’s father said “Jonas, you of all people. Precision of language, please”. (pg. 171) His mother explained how the word love had no meaning, “Your father means that you used a very generalised word, so meaningless that it's become almost obsolete”. (pg.

171) The "citizens" of the "community" had no knowledge of the word, that the father told Jonas the right thing to ask was, “Do you enjoy me” (pg. 171) or “Do you take pride in my accomplishments?” (pg. 171)

Neither of these suggestions expressed the true meaning of what the parents felt.

The examples of evidence, control, has been demonstrated, it shows how control is a typical convention of a dystopia through knowledge being restricted, especially to keep the true meaning of release hidden and not knowing about death or the feelings of love and hate, as the "community" believes that these restrictions will not damage the peace and lead to a demolished society.

These three examples of control through information and freedom being restricted, conformed expectations of uniform, objects to the same age levels and the curtailment of knowledge have been discussed, demonstrate the typical dystopian conventions in the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry. The examples displayed how control is a main convention used in a dystopia society, where a futuristic, oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect world, are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic and moral jurisdiction. By Chavon