Dystopian Society In The Giver

Imagine living in a world where everything and everyone is the same; no uniqueness, no color, no pain and grief, no feelings. “I could tell them; things I wish they would change. But they don’t want change. Life here is so orderly, so predictable - so painless.”- Quoted by Lois Lowry in the novel The Giver. Lois Lowry's, The Giver displays a so called “utopia” which the protagonist Jonas lives in. Jonas is a twelve. When someone turns twelve you receive a job and Jonas gets the job of The Receiver of Memory. Through his training Jonas meets the old receiver named The Giver, who shows Jonas that the society is not a “utopian” society it’s actually a dystopia. The Giver and Jonas come up with a plan to escape, so the society can change. Although

To clarify, As a child grows up the committee of elders watches the child until they are the age of seven. I know this because the author states, “ During the past year he had been aware of the increasing level of observation. In school, at recreation time, he even noticed the Elders watching him.” (Lowry 16). This evidence proves, in the society they observe you for choosing jobs. Though in modern society, the government won’t watch someone to pick their jobs. Following this, at the age of eight children have to start volunteering. Hence the author states, “She stood solemnly listening to the speech of firm instructions on the responsibilities of eight and doing volunteer hours for the first time.” (Lowry 43). This evidence means, at age eight children have certain responsibilities. Counter to, in modern society nobody has anything stopping them from volunteering you can volunteer whenever and wherever. Subsequently, At the age of twelve you get a job assignment. In fact Lois Lowry states, “The Ceremony of Twelve was the last of the Ceremonies. The most important… for me there was not the element of suspense that there is with your Ceremony. Because I was already fairly certain of what my Assignment was to be.” (Lowry 15). This mentioned evidence reveals, at the young age of twelve children in the society get job assignments. On the other hand, in modern society nobody receives a job at

Further in detail, in one house their can only be two children one boy one girl. To illustrate, the author states “Two children--one male, one female--to each family unit.” (Lowry 10). The support of this evidence proves every family unit can’t have more than two children. In contrast, modern society can have as much children as they want. Also, one of the rules that was always being broken was children riding their bike before age nine. For example the author states, “It was one of the few rules that was not taken very seriously and was almost always broken. The children all received their bicycles before then. But almost always, the older brothers and sisters had secretly taught the younger ones.”(Lowry 14). The above evidence implies that children younger than nine are not allowed to learn how to ride bikes. Even though in modern society, you can learn how to ride a bike whenever and you can either teach yourself or someone can teach you. One more important point, children looking at adults naked is breaking a law. As an example the author states, “And the nakedness, too. It was against the rules for children or adults to look at another’s nakedness; but the rules did not apply to new children or the Old.”(Lowry 30). To conclude the above evidence illustrates, that children can not see adults naked. Opposite to modern society,looking at anyone naked isn’t a rule or law, but nobody