Power In Henry Slesar's Examination Day, The Giver

Famous American novelist, William Gaddis once said, “Power doesn’t corrupt people, people corrupt power.” This quote states that its humanity that is corrupting the value of power and not the other way around. Just like with the leaders in the dystopian novels of “Examination Day”, The Giver, and “Harrison Bergeron” who were and are normal people, like every other person, until they got a truckload of influence and power and they realized they could do whatever they wanted, and used it against humanity to take control. So, this comes to say that, “In dystopian novels, authors warn us about having a government that has too much power can lead to the corruption of society. “

To begin with, in the story Examination Day written by Henry Slesar, the government retains control over a lot of things by using strict laws called the “new code” which gives the government the power to control the intelligence level. All children who have just turned 12 have to take a test, that the government requires.

Dickie wants to know why the grass is green so he asks his father and his father replies that nobody knows the reason (Slesar 1). This shows that the people are not very smart because many people in our world know that plants are green because of chlorophyll. In another part of the story, Dickie asks about a test that he has to take a few days after he turns twelve, this test would test his knowledge and see if it was to the government 's satisfaction, when he asks his father about the test his father tells him about a truth serum that children have to take before the test, “It’s nothing. . . Just to make sure you answer the questions truthfully” (Slesar 2). This shows that the government is afraid of smart people, who can