Dystopia In The Giver By Lois Lowry

Decent Essays
In The Giver by Lois Lowry Jonas is controlled by his community. This is a Dystopia. A Dystopia is a Utopian society in which things have gone wrong. Jonas’s community is a Dystopia because of lack of knowledge , sameness , and complete control.
First, there is lack of knowledge. In chapter one the pilot was was released. Also in chapter 13 Jonas was transferred him the memory of color. The Giver only transferred him one memory. Some days the giver would add more memories. When Jonas received these memories he had no choice but to keep them to himself. When the pilot was released it shows that the community has a lack of knowledge. So does the transformation of color, add more memories sometimes. This is lack of knowledge because the people

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    In a society that appears to be the perfect utopia, would questions as to how it got that way be forbidden; or would mankind be so shielded that they would not see their past as a disputable matter? In “The Giver” (1993), the community that it is set in seems to be this ideal world. There is no crime, no pain, no hate or love. Jonas is a unique Eleven, feeling apprehensive about the Ceremony of Twelves (in which he would be assigned a job that he would do without question, for the duration of his natural life). This community strives for Sameness, a concept that seems to follow those of a strict dictatorship.…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Would the community in The Giver be considered a dystopia or a utopia. Many readers would consider this novel to consist of a dystopian society. A dystopia is a place where everything looks perfect but is the opposite of what a person may think .…

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Through “The Giver” by Lois Lowry we get a first hand experience of a boy named Jonas who happens to live in this so called “perfect world” or in actuality, a dystopian society. There is no way that a utopia will never prosper. A utopia, like I stated above, is a society that is suppose to be thought of as a perfect society. In contrast a dystopian society is a…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How Does Community Affect Identity? Have you ever noticed that some people can act or be different based on their community? A good example of this is how the people acted in the book The Giver. The community that Jonas’s lived in was a utopia which means that everything was perfect. The Giver depicts that the community was under very strict guidelines that affected the people’s identity.…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Giver Sameness

    • 960 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Jonas starts to see colours red and skin colour, The Giver then starts to transmit colour to Jonas. Jonas keeps getting memories from The Giver, and eventually finds out that release…

    • 960 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The people do not have colors or feelings. When Jonas is given his job he is selected to become the next receiver of memory, he trains alone with a old man who is called the Giver. The receiver of memory takes all of the memories of the past both pleasant and unpleasant. The line between public safety and personal freedoms should be drawn somewhere where public safety does not affect the way people live. One of the first things he discovers is color.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Have you ever wanted to live in a world the could be considered “perfect” or made up your own little world in you head in which everyone is the same, hunger is never an issue, equality exists, no crimes, or conflicts, and best of all, no bad memories? In Lois Lowry's book, The Giver, Jonas and his family, along with the rest of their community, they live in a utopia like society where everyone has the same rules, there are no important choices they have to make, there’s no war, pain or conflict, and everyone is assigned a role they have to play out it the community. Jonas was given the honor to be the next Receiver of Memories and is to be trained by the Giver. The Giver is the only one who has memories of true pain and pleasure of life and he must give the all to Jonas so The Giver can retire his position and Jonas…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Giver, By Lois Lowry

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Confused World The dystopian society described in the book, The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, makes their world different and unique from others. The similarities in their world does not help them see the difference, and changes in things. The color gray is the only color that the society sees due to color blindness. The people are blinded from many things not only physically, but mentally as well.…

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the memories Jonas has learned many things that have benefitted him through knowledge. Every memory he has had transmitted to him he has taken something away from the memories have taught him something new whether it's negative and painful or exuberant and exciting. In the book Jonas explains how much he has learned and is beginning to understand from all of the memories. “ Although he had through the memories learned about the pain of loss and loneliness, now gained too an understanding of solitude and it’s joy”(page 151). Jonas is learning so much although it might not be the happiest memory he is still benefitting from it in some way.…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In a Utopia everything is supposed to be perfect, that isn’t the case for Jonas. It is an honor for Jonas to be selected as the receiver of memory because only one person is selected, not assigned, to this job. The memory receiver job is very important and special because there is only one person who is able to hold all of the memories for everyone. The giver that gave Jonas the memories is a special person since he held all the memories and once he passes them on he loses all of them. Although only one person gets the job, Jonas is a great choice because he is a smart kid and has the courage to do the job.…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Freedom In The Giver

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Memories of the world before the community were taken away from the people except for the Giver and receiver of memory, thus not giving them the freedom to share memories on their own terms and decide which ones the do and do not want to share and be able to experience them with others. The Giver tells Jonas it would be a long while before he could see all the colors. Jonas desperately wants to see all the colors and tells the Giver that it is unfair how nothing has color. “If everything’s the same, then there aren’t any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things!…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    One of the most important themes that Jonas learns is the importance of memories. For instance, when Jonas told The Giver about what his instructors taught him how about the brain works, The Giver remarked, ¨without the memories itś all meaningless. They gave that burden to me¨(133). By saying this The Giver taught Jonas that without the memories of their past knowledge is useless because they cannot learn from their mistakes.…

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Memory creates a hallucination of the past, Desire creates a hallucination of the future.” - Jaggi Vasudev. Seeing memories are events that have happened in relative time, but seeing the future will guide you on what might take place in your life. Jonas is being taught to be the receiver of memory. The giver is sharing memories with him so the community doesn’t get them.…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Giver, by Lois Lowry, fits the description of a dystopian novel and appeals to young adult readers because of the plot, concept, and characteristics of the novel. The Giver tells a tale about a boy named Jonas who lives in a perfect world which he calls the “Community”. What he doesn’t know, along with many others, is the dark side of this utopia. As he goes through his journey as being the next receiver of memory - a special job selected carefully - the illusion of his perfect world, shatters. There are many means to find out if a novel is a dystopian or not, and The Giver hits many of those points.…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The main protagonist Jonas obtain the ability to see the memories of the past ,but it seen in the novel as something natural and not out of the ordinary "This time, as he lay basking in the wonderful warmth, he felt the passage of time. His real self was aware that it was only a minute or two; but his other, memory- receiving self felt hours pass in the sun. His skin began to sting" (Lowry 76). He also could see beyond ,as the world he live in eliminated all kind of bad and good emotions to stop war , hunger and hatred. However, getting rid of emotions made them lose love, joy and the ability to see the beautiful colors.…

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays