Examples Of Dehumanisation In The Giver

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In the Novel ‘The Giver’ the author, Lois Lorwy uses many language techniques to convey the message that the world can turn into a dystopian society. Numbering people in the order they were born, taking away choice of job and having a state controlled family structure can all contribute to a dystopian society and Lowry is warning us of the possibilities that it could be like. The author uses dehumanisation as a strong theme throughout the book. Numbering people takes away individuality, this is shown through this quote “Sometimes parents used them in irritation at a child's misbehaviour, indicating that mischief made one unworthy of a name.” Lowry uses the adjective ‘unworthy’ to describe that the children do not deserve a name if they are misbehaving. In the quote “We celebrated a release this morning”, the word ‘celebrated’ is used as a positive connotation which makes something intend to sound good when they really are not. The language is very different to how a human would react to a murder or a death. Other examples of dehumanisation is that there are only fifty children born each year, each December everyone …show more content…

If someone in the community doesn't like the job they are given they have no alternative. This is demonstrated in “I heard about a guy who was absolutely certain he was going to be assigned Engineer … and instead they gave him a Sanitation Labourer. He went out the next day, jumped into the river, swam across, and joined the next community he came to. Nobody ever saw him again.” In this quote the author used the technique of an anecdote. This anecdote demonstrates that anyone unhappy with their job does not have the power to change without doing something unsafe and illegal. Everyone has to do their assigned jobs and they may not change. This is another reason Lowry is warning us about the possibilities of a dystopian