Dystopian Fiction Characteristics

Dystopian fiction has been around for a long time and interesting enough, it was an offshoot of utopian fiction which started growing in popularity in the 1900’s until today. The spikes in popularity seem to have started from the lead up to the World War II and the cold war decades ago. There are several numbers of popular dystopian novels that contribute to the popularity of this genre especially Brave New World (1932) written by Aldous Huxley that indicates the acceptance of the readers towards this dystopian fiction novel in America and followed by other novels. In the late 90’s, The Giver has become a phenomenal success ever since it was published with millions of copies sold in America alone and has been in the top list of everyone favourites

Putting his father as a primarily subject, Lowry came out with the idea of scary, sterile world where almost everyone takes medicine to suppress their memories and emotions after she observed her father when being put in a nursing home. The concept of memory in the novel inspired by her father who lost almost all his memories and how much better life would be if we didn’t have memories at all. People don’t have to suffer the pain of losing someone, all the bad memories that haunt their life- and without them, there can be no pain. She began to imagine a society where the past was deliberately forgotten so that the members could live in “peaceful ignorance.” This version of reality may relieve the people of pain, but its fatal flaw is that it also takes away valuable connections to the past and the possibility of lasting human relationships. And so she began to think about writing a book about people who had found a way to manipulate human memory, so they wouldn't have to remember anything bad.
Based on the main character, I will analyse on the theory of totalitarianism and how it can affect on human behavior. Thus, there are three aspects of human behaviours to be discussed in this study which are 1) Dehumanisation, 2) Restriction of freedom as well as 3) Oppression which lead to rebellion. All these aspects will be discussed on how it is being represented by the main character of The Giver novel who is