Examples Of Dystopian In The Giver

What do humans do in a scenario where they are alone and no one understands them? In Lois Lowry’s novel, The Giver, The main character Jonas experiences this along with much more pain from receiving memories of past catastrophes so that the others can live in peace. The people in his society live perfectly happy lives devoid of mistakes, violence, warfare, suffering, and rudeness. However, Some would argue that this society is dystopian just because Jonas is suffering. On the contrary, Jonas’s society is actually utopian because of the following reasons: There is no starvation or hunger, Mistakes are corrected hastily, and there are none of the problems that present themselves in today's society like warfare, rudeness, pain, etc.

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One example of this being shown is when asher is late to class and he says, “I apologize to my classmates,’ Asher concluded. He smoothed his rumpled tunic and sat down. ‘We accept your apology, Asher.’ The class recited the standard response in unison”(lowry 5). In this quote, Asher is late to class and all of the students repeat the standard forgiving to asher. This shows how the society is forgiving of this minor mistake and they are not rude to asher for this error. Another example of this being the case is when Jonas is upset and he thinks, “They have never known pain, he thought. The realization made him feel desperately lonely, and he rubbed his throbbing leg”(lowry 139). In this excerpt, Jonas had just received a very painful memory and he is grieving in the fact that no one will understand his pain. This shows how Jonas is frustrated because he knows that he's the sacrifice to make this perfect society possible and how he knows that he and the giver will be the only ones to know this pain. In conclusion, Issues that plague our society today are not prominent in Jonas’s world making it a

One illustration from the book that could make it easy to believe the society is dystopian is when Jonas is watching the video tape, “the new child, no longer crying, moved his arms in a jerking motion. Then he went limp. His head fell to the side, his eyes half open. Then he was still”(Lowry 187). This shows how some of the society's methods of making this utopian world possible could be viewed as rather violent and questionable. However this is not the case because the people of Jonas’s society are doing this to maintain their society's perfect status. Another piece of evidence that could point readers to a blatantly incorrect conclusion is when Jonas is protesting the fact that he has to receive these gruesome memories, “‘why?’ Jonas asked him after he had received a tortuous memory in which he had been neglected and unfed; the hunger had caused excruciating spasms in his empty, distended stomach. He lay on the bed, aching. ‘Why do you and I have to hold these memories?’”(Lowry 139). In this passage, Jonas received a tortuous memory of starvation, which he had never experienced before so he was in immense pain. Although one could say that it is cruel to have a young man go through all of this, that way of thinking is problematic because although it is quite cruel, a perfect society would need a sacrifice to hold these memories of pain so the population can