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The Giver: A Utopia Or Dystopia?

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Is The Giver A Utopia or Dystopia

What would you do if you had a chance to live in a virtually perfect world? A world with no pain, suffering, or hunger? This essay will explain that this “perfect” world might not be what it’s hacked up to be. It might just be a dystopia in disguise. The Giver is a book about just that. It’s based in the future, in a community with a forcefield that “protects” the people inside. I think the society that The Giver is based in is a dystopia, which is a virtually imperfect world, disguised as a Utopia, a virtually perfect world. I will prove in this essay that The Giver is in fact a dystopia in disguise. The first fact that I would like to present is Jonas’ society has restricted access to information and independent thought. This is shown in Document D, “True Happiness”. In this document, Jonas is shown in the house …show more content…

Next on the list is that in Jonas’ world, people live in a dehumanized state. This is shown in Document D, “Release.” In this excerpt, Jonas’ dad in sending a newborn twin to the mysterious place called “Elsewhere.” This is happening because in their society, It would be to confusing to have two of the same person. But, how do you decide the one that you will keep? Well, the nurturers weigh the infants to see who weighs more . After that, they take the other, the one who weighs the least, to the “Special” Release room and kill it by injecting its head with a clear liquid inside a syringe. And, the worst part is, that the nurturer has no remorse. This is an important part because of the reason that he has no remorse. He simply doesn’t understand what he has just done. This is important because it proves how dehumanized the nurturers have become. If they don’t understand what they are doing, then they can dictate what is wrong and what is right. This can lead them to do horrible things, when the leader tells them that it is right, and to

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Edward Mrs. Axtell English -ELA 8 7 February 2023 The Giver Essay “The life where nothing is unexpected or inconvenient or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past” (lois lowry) In this quote lies the very fabrication of The Givers community and what has happened due to sameness. Due to this quote there is so much to deduct and show for comparing and contrasting.

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“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide” (Emerson). The character Gene learns of this not until after many trials and a great tragedy. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the idea of self-reliance is greatly stressed. The novel A Separate Peace conveys how Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him, how Gene’s envy and imitation affect their relationship with Finny, and Gene’s achievement of peace. The envy towards and imitation of Funny greatly affect Gene.

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Inevitable Loss of Innocence In A Separate Peace, John Knowles highlights the life of the boys at boarding school when they lose their innocence. Gene, Leper and Finny are some of the boys who have to face the reality of the world. The boys live lives of convenience up until this school year, but now they are going through changes and are now expected to take on more responsibility as young adults. They are now being pushed to make decisions that will affect themselves and others for the rest of their lives.

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Kyla Buchanan Reading 12-15-16 Period:8 Compare and Contrast Jonas”s dystopian society was irregular and judgemental. In this essay I’m going to compare and contrast his dystopian society with modern day. There are many ways they were alike and different in the text. In the first paragraph, I’m going to contrast Jonas’s society with modern day. Then, In the second paragraph I’m going to contrast modern day with Jonas’s.

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601 Words | 3 Pages

The last extreme change is that we have emotions, feelings and we can see color, Jonas’s society is so much about equality that they don 't want anyone to be different or they fear that the people will have the power to chose what they want to do. Today 's society and Jonas’s have some similarities. Such as, in both children are given comfort objects to help them through rough times. Well just like in The Giver all children go to school in our country too.

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733 Words | 3 Pages

This is a typical family in our society as well. In Jonas’ society they do not live with their birthparents, but this are more and more normal in our society today. The parents in Jonas’s community are matched together by the Elders. The Elders analyzes the people who search for a mate, and sets together cupules who has the same interest and can fit echoers personalities and skills. This seems kind of weird for us, but it is not far from the way people in our society finds each other today.

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In the book,everyone has the same attribute’s but one twelve year old boy named Jonas. Throughout the novel,Jonas has suffer and has been misunderstood. Jonas opened his eyes to the reality of the community. This causes tears,anger,lonely’s,confused,unaware and misunderstanding. “He killed it my father killed it”,Jonas said to himself” (Lowry 188).

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799 Words | 4 Pages

Only people with power in their job can have more access to more knowledge than others. In our society we have access to libraries, which provide knowledge. The Giver and are modern society have many things in common, but also have huge differences. When it comes to families, rules,and how leadership works many things can’t be compared. The illusion of Jonas’ society being perfect is far from the truth.

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One of the greatest goals to many is the pristine and luxurious idea of a nation without blunder or defect. This thought is a main focal point in The Giver, by Lois Lowry. " Jonas stared at the screen, waiting for something to happen. But nothing did. The little twin lay motionless.

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This supports the answer because Jonas feels alone, and that no one knows what he does. If the community had empathy they could know how he is feeling and try to help him. Another example is on page 112, it

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His mindless hours of playing ball, or riding his bike along the river? Those had been happy and vital time for him. Were they to be completely taken from him, now?”Jonas has to give up his own freedoms for the community which does not even have and cule of these memories. He was only allowed to train and then go home and he was not allowed to do anything else besides those steps. He was not allowed to hang out with his friends either.

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He is under sameness and the influence of the community. Jonas is chosen to receive feelings, colors, and emotions from memories. As time goes by Jonas sees the community not as a utopia but a horrible place. Jonas wants to change

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Although in our society, anyone can get opportunities to make their life great and can prevent some pain from entering their life like physical or heartbreak, but everyone loses someone they love and that’s something no one is able to control. Everyone has to bear the pain and learn to live without them knowing they can never be replaced, but not in Jonas’ society. Since there is no love, no one knows how to care for others who have passed or been ‘released’, “He pushed the plunger very slowly, injecting the liquid into the scalp, vain until the syringe was empty.” (Lowry 149). Before

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1073 Words | 5 Pages

When Jonas experiences both painful and pleasurable memories, he becomes willing to accept pain and suffering in order to experience the fullness of life. He decides to leave, that he will no longer live within the constraints of his community, and that security is not worth the absence of freedom. The line between public safety and personal freedoms should be drawn where extreme harm can occur, and most freedoms are more essential than an orderly society. These freedoms include color and diversity, personal freedoms such as dress code, speech, and religion, and love and marriage.

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Finally, they get rid of many different activities they don 't like. But in our world, we have all these things, and they will never be taken away from us. This was my final example of our differences between The Giver and our society. There are some similarities between The Giver and our society, but there are many more differences, like families, rules, and personal freedoms. I think that our societies will never be the same because we are two different societies we always change.

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