Examples Of Dystopia In The Giver

Words: 495

Pages: 2

Open Document

Is “The Giver” a Utopia or Dystopia?

What really is a utopia? Dictionary.com defines a utopia as “An ideal place or state.”

Keep that in mind while I tell you more about “The Giver”. “The Giver” is written by Lois

Lowry in 1913. It is about a boy named Jonas. Jonas was assigned the job of being

Reciever of Memories. The Receiver of Memories is meant to get memories from The

Giver and keep them for knowledge until the next receiver comes along. During the

process of receiving, Jonas learns a lot of bad things about the community and also all

the secrets hidden within the community. “The Giver” is neither a dystopia or a utopia

because there is no freedom, they have enough food, jobs and education for everyone

and they hide the …show more content…
In the book Jonas was talking about one of his dreams at

the “Dream-Telling” one morning. Jonas’ father asked what his strongest feeling was and

Jonas said “The wanting” (54). After that his mom gave him pills which are meant to be

“Treatment”. They use the pills to turn off his hormones, his natural hormones. They are

making him inhuman. This is a very dystopian feature of the community in “The Giver.”

Now to a more utopian feature.

Everyone in “The Giver” have everything they need to survive. All children have

education, every adult has a workplace and every family has enough food to support

themselves. While Jonas was running away from the community, he “ robbed the

community of food: a very serious crime, even though what he had taken were

leftovers.” Implying that there were enough leftovers to steal, so everyone got a

generous amount of food, unlike our world where some people are starving while others

Are dining like royals. This aspect in the community is utopian because then the people

have healthy amounts of energy.

“The community” hides the fact of death from people. By doing this grief

Fahrenheit 451

Dystopian Hidden Meaning Many stories display their view of what they believe a dystopia would be like to warn people from not letting our world take a turn for the worse. Passive ignorance, false happiness, and danger from blindly approving information when presented is displayed in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Giver by Lois Lowry, A Wrinkle in Time by L’Engle, and in society. Many authors have different approaches to what a dystopian society would look like due to their views of society…

Words 898 - Pages 4

Fahrenheit 451 Research Paper

Comparing The Giver to Farenheit 451 “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared” (Lowry). In other words, limiting or barring the ability to share memories or experiences from the past and to share them with others is a way of limiting people’s freedoms and a form of oppression. This is an example of how, despite the fact that The Giver and Fahrenheit 451 are two very different and isolated fictional portrayals of dystopia, there are…

Words 997 - Pages 4

The Giver Utopian Community

“A utopia is an imaginative account of a perfect society or ideal commonwealth.” Utopias are the perfect societies were everyone is content and usually happy. The Giver, a novel, is a story describing an utopian community. For example in the Giver no mention of crime nor violence is ever mentioned. Not only is crime not a problem but no one in the community has to suffer either. In the novel the main character Jonas once said, while younger, that he was starving, referring to him being hungry. However…

Words 281 - Pages 2

Essay on Dream Lesson Plan

may need more individual attention to complete their assignments. This lesson also uses different assessment methods that appeal to students of multiple intelligences. The lesson appeals to students of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. Examples of this include that students read the text, are given cards that define the job, and then give an oral discussion. This lesson uses the following standards: CC.1.4.8.F Demonstrate a grade-appropriate command of the conventions of standard English…

Words 3547 - Pages 15

Modern Rules In The Giver

Pinterest. This quote could very well refer to The Giver since Jonas and the Receiver of Memory want to give everyone their memories back, but they don’t know if doing that will bring light into everyone or ruin their life. Modern day society and The Giver are different in many ways and yet are still very similar. The world of The Giver has many rules, some make sense and the other doesn’t mean a thing. There are rules to keep you safe. For example, in The Giver has rules to keep you safe like don’t go outside…

Words 512 - Pages 3

The Giver: A Utopian Society

A utopian society, like in The Giver by Lois Lowry, is described as a perfect, ideal world in which each citizen enjoys a tranquil life, but how long does such a society last? Does a utopian community stay “perfect” forever? As time progresses, the utopian society in The Giver will fail due to the community’s rules and practices supporting Sameness. Genetic engineering used to achieve Sameness is forced on the citizens of The Giver, though it is a faulty branch of science. In addition, a utopian…

Words 803 - Pages 4

The Giver Movie And Book Comparison Essay

Throughout the novel and the movie versions of The Giver, there are some very recognizable differences in the plot. There are usually differences in film adaptations of books because of certain things that would be boring or hard to describe without having a constant narration. For example, it would have been boring to the viewer if all of the ceremonies were included before the ceremony of graduation. Often film directors cut out parts like that to make the events throughout the movie more interesting…

Words 1095 - Pages 5

The Giver Response

Title: The Giver – When I first saw the title, I couldn't imagine what would happen or who would appear because the title is only two words. But I noticed this short title has an effect that it can make the readers imagine just like it caused me. Author: Lois Lowry – I've never read any works by her. Type of Book: Fiction, Social science, SF, Fantasy. Generally speaking, it's said that the book is for young generation I don't usually read this kind of books because I prefer nonfiction stories, but…

Words 1109 - Pages 5

Musings: The Giver and Community Essay

The Giver is a wonderful book! Lois Lowry skillfully crafted an intriguing and profoundly thoughtful story. She subtly creates an uneasy feeling that something is wrong with this "perfect world." The Community's advisers intend to establish security within Utopian society, but they really establish a stifling dystopia. To protect people from the risks of making poor or wrong decisions in life, the advisers plan and dictate the lives of the people. In effect, the citizens have no freedom of choice;…

Words 1126 - Pages 5

Yevgeny Zamyatin's Nineteen Eighty-Four

literature, allows authors to consider writing in that genre, and inspires many other dystopian novels. Dystopian literature is a genre of fictional writing used to explore social and political structures in 'a dark, nightmare world.' The term dystopia is defined as a society characterized by poverty, squalor or oppression and the theme is most commonly used in science fiction and speculative fiction genres. Dystopian literature depicts a fallen society existing under total government control.…

Words 564 - Pages 3