This is because everyone has to be equal, which to them means that everyone has to be the same, and this lack of individuality is yet another cost of maintaining The Givers so called utopia. People in this community have almost no control over who they are and what they do because they have no freedom to choose. They are forced to live in a society where sameness is preached and individuality is scorned. They essentially live in a black and white community that forfeits "art, music, literature, spontaneity, passion, even color itself ”(Chamberlain). This is represented when Jonas asks why everyone cannot see colors, The Giver replies by saying that if a person has could choose their colors “he might make wrong choices” (Lowry 98).
In The Giver, the members in the society do not feel pain or have strong emotions. Without any emotions or feelings life can be very boring and uneventful. In contrast, Mildred from Fahrenheit 451 and Montag do not have a strong relationship because they do not have feelings or emotions. This leads to Mildred attempting suicide because she does not want to live her boring life. Without feelings and emotions in Utopian societies, the people can get very sad and their uneventful life can drive them to
When an individual hankers for conformity to societal expectations, they question their characteristics with fear of judgment. Often an individual to societal standards will stifle creativity and individuality to pursue personal desires. The dominance of conformity with leave that person unsatisfied and hinder a meaningful life. The individual will face challenges to successfully achieving their desire and year for individuality, however, once they come to the realization, they realize the essential part of their life comes from those desires. This is visible in the film Pleasantville where two high school siblings are put into the utopian society where everything remains pleasant and individuals lack a creative lifestyle.
How could losing individuality affect a society? The novel Anthem by Ayn Rand is about a guy named Equality 7-2521 who is trying to find himself in a society where everything is controlled and different. Later, he finds himself even though he will have to go through many obstacles to get there. The process behind losing individuality in an Anthem’s society are in forcing strict laws, brain washing of their citizens, and removing of family. The Anthem society in forcing of strict laws made it easy for everyone to lose their individuality.
Even though there are billions of people that walk this Earth, everybody is their own individual with their own ideas and personalities. Because of this, it is hard to imagine a world where personality and individuality do not exist. But Ayn Rand’s Anthem does just that; she paints a society in which no one is an individual. Anthem’s society is that of conformity, which means one must be complacent with the rules and laws of his/her society. Sure one could see this as a good thing, but throughout Anthem, Ayn Rand shows that conformity is not as good as it sounds, but rather the worst way to live.
Accordingly, Mike O’Neal pointed out that the entire society is made up of followers (Glettler 4). Despite the lack of leaders, no individual appears capable of performing independent actions. Furthermore, the society has laws that require perfect conformity with the subjects being reminded to follow the motto of “performance perfect is perfect performance” (Glettler 4). Additionally, severe drugs that alter the mind are used to keep every character under intense sedation. Yet, none of the characters can question their use of the drugs because body implants and constant surveillance prevents such inquiries.
As humans, we are all struggling to be happy. Often one is too confined within the walls of society, trapped by what the world tells one to do, to chase what makes one happy. Pursuing happiness can often be unconventional in the eyes of society and that it is also important to break away and be different. The novel Anthem by Ayn Rand demonstrates society
To elaborate on this, Jonas, after receiving a meaningful and foreign memory of love, asks his parents if they love him. They respond with amusement and say that love is a generalized and meaningless word; Jonas, because he now understands the world differently through memories, feels confused and hurt after this. The community in The Giver has retired the use of the word love because they are afraid of it - love comes with feelings of happiness, individuality, and more, though it also inevitably comes with pain along the way. Since the community in The Giver avoids emotions with depth, they have retired the use of them. Thus, they will never experience true, meaningful feelings of love, happiness, and pleasure, and will never understand the complexity of the world that comes with
Jimmi Hendrix said “anything not founded on truth will fall eventually; like a castle made of sand melts into the sea.” Throughout both past and modern societies, this quote has proved the truth can be hidden or its appearance seemingly changed, but ultimately what is truth and what is lies will be separated. In The Giver, Lois Lowry depicts a society that has been sheltered from all “bad” in the world and disguises murder, emotions and even death by renaming them, hiding them, and divulging only partial truths. In doing so, they only bury the concepts of truth and reality, placing their weight upon selected individuals. When the majority of the public is filtered from these vital aspects of life, they not only lose hold of reality, but of
The Giver Compare/Contrast Essay When some people hear the words ‘perfect society’ what do they think of? Take a look at our society, then take a look at Jonas’s society, between our two societies there are some comparisons and a vast amount of differences. For instance, the rules are different, as well as their family units and their individuality. While our society is more on the modern side, Jonas’s society is plainer. When it comes to the rules in our society, we don’t normally think of rules that are very extreme.
“Perfection is shallow, unreal, and fatally uninteresting” (Anne Lamott). Can you picture our world as a perfect society? For perfection to be achieved everything would have to change. Through the book, The Giver, Lois Lowry shows how a perfect society is not always ideal for everyone. The rules of the society portrayed include a discipline wand, chosen spouse, and release.
An example of conformity found in the book is how Jonas and all others had to take pills for the “stirrings.” In The Giver, stirrings are strong feelings of love for others, and these emotions were not allowed because that would ruin the sameness of the society. Emotions are healthy and not allowing people to feel emotions
Imagine living in a perfect society. No pain, everyone is equal, and perfect laws that every person follows. Now imagine being exactly like every other person with all your daily choices being made by someone else for you. In the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, this is exactly how they are living. The author writes about how Jonas’ perfect society is not so perfect after all.
Would you give up love and true happiness for a life without pain? In the dystopian novel The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, strong emotion is sacrificed for a peaceful environment. The depicted community at first appears to be a utopia, where hate and discrimination are abolished, but the emotionless society is quickly revealed to be dystopian as the story continues. They live in a world of sameness; there is no hunger, suffering, or war, but also no color, diversity, or sensuality. The protagonist, a twelve-year-old boy named Jonas, uncovers the truth about his community when he is assigned to be the Receiver of Memory, and acquires the memories from the past from an elder called the Giver.
In Lois Lowry’s award-winning novel, The Giver, Jonas’s society is considered to be utopian because the society has an overall sense of sameness, organization, and minimal problems. To begin, the society is utopian because of sameness. In Lois Lowry 's, The Giver, Jonas is selected to be the Receiver of Memories and he comes to learn that when his community decided to go to sameness they were getting rid of color, emotion, and choice. At first the Giver tells him it 's to "protect" them from making the wrong choices. As stated in the text “Our people made that choice the choice to go to sameness”.(Lois Lowry pg 95)
