Ignorance In The Giver

There aren't many things in life as destructive as ignorance. While we have all heard the saying "ignorance is bliss," the book The Giver by Lois Lowry fully embodies the saying by creating what seems to be a futuristic civilization based on ignorance. The goal of the actual civilization is to have complete equality, but they do this by stripping away the core foundation of what makes people human. The civilization in the book is both a utopia and a dystopia due to the necessity for sameness, concealment of truth, and the elimination of as much personal difference as possible. The necessity for sameness is a vital piece of the society in The Giver. Its considered to be both utopian and dystopian because the people of the community are completely fine within the circumstances in which they life, but only feel this way because there world is designed by the “Elders” for them to feel this way. Boys and girls, depending on the gender have the same haircuts and attire. By the time they are 12, they are assigned a job in the community that best suits their ability. Everyone in the community takes pills to suppress their emotions to keep them from having strong feelings in any shape, form, or fashion. Everyone living in the society except the “Giver” and …show more content…
This is because everyone is “happy” with his or her lifestyle, but the flipside to this is the fact that they don’t know anything about any other lifestyles. The book makes sense because the world could never be fully utopian because competition in this world is so fierce to be better than your peer. Although if people can’t rise to the occasion, they will try to bring the other person down to their level by either hindering or demolishing progression. This fuels emotion that conflicts with ideas of peace and equality. Someone might consider this something that they would dislike, but what if you didn’t have the ability