1984 And The Giver: A Dystopian Future

Although 1984 is a dystopian future and The Giver is a Utopian future the two books share a surprising amount of similarities among the differences showing that a Utopian society is only steps away from being dystopian. Variations in what to do with the past, security, war, and levels of class make up some of the differences and similarities between the two societies. One similarity that is noticeable from the beginning of both books is that they are watched at all times. The majority of the first book in 1984 was how Winston had to hide his facial expressions and his diary away from the telescreens so to keep unnoticed by the thought police. The Big Brother government in 1984 keeps a hold on its party citizens by arresting and catching anybody …show more content…
In The Giver the council must have felt at some point that the past is a danger and should not even exist in their society. So the past was eliminated from the minds of every citizen with the use of drugs. This method of erasing the past was all encompassing which means that the people did not have any memories good or bad. While The Giver chose to erase the past from the minds of every person; in 1984 the past was constantly changing to fit what the present party wants. This method of changing the past is less effective than The Givers way in the short term because people should be able to realize that what they were told yesterday is different from the day after. But in the long term and as new generations come the past before the party will be completely forgotten and the everchanging past of the current party will become more firm. In both books it seems like the elimination or changing of the past is necessary to the governments because it can give the people hope that their way of life in the present does not have to remain the same in the …show more content…
In The Giver war is a thing of the past which has been erased from everyone 's minds. The drugs that are used on the people are actually specifically for war and trying to make people forget about it. The unfortunate side effect and by cause and effect the downfall of the society that gives the drugs is that they eliminate all the good things from the past as well as war and other bad things. While the utopian society of The Giver tries to eliminate war from the minds of every person and thereby eliminate in possible future war the dystopian society of 1984 does the exact opposite. In 1984 they are at war with Eurasia or Eastasia at all times and they use war for a plethora of reasons. They use war to waste resources because they would become too rich in them otherwise, they use war to make the people angry and unite them towards and common goal, and they use the war as a scapegoat on all of the parties downfalls and shortcomings. In the two books war is always there whether as a problem to steer clear of as in The Giver or a necessary evil in