The Giver A Dystopian Society

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A dystopian setting is defined as a bad place where no one wants to live. It’s a place where one's freedoms are gone and the environment has become devastated. The people become dehumanized as their education, free thinking, and privacy are taken away. They are even made to wear uniforms, taking away their individuality and freedom of choice. The government is controlling and could be compared to a dictatorship or fascist government today. Jonas realizes that things need to be changed and that his community is certainly not perfect. His world is really just an illusion of a utopian society to keep people happy. In the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, the community has a dystopian setting because the people that live in the community are …show more content…
Throughout The Giver, information, independent thought and freedom are restricted. Jonas is really frustrated while meeting with the giver because he does not understand why choices are kept from the public, but later he answers his own question with not exactly his own thinking. The text later mentions, ’”Definitely not safe,” Jonas said with certainty.” What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong”’ (Lowry 124)? Jonas thinks that choosing on your own is unsafe and silly because he was taught that. In the quote Jonas is answering his own question on why making your own choices is bad, but really it is not his thinking, it is the councils. The community is restricting the people from their own thought and not allowing them to share them. All of Jonas’s life, he was taught to not say certain things and let others make the decisions for him. The leaders are telling people that it is unsafe, but you learn later that their real intentions are to keep things the way they or maybe even because change might take away their place in the community. In addition to the first quote, the second one states what Jonas is thinking about. He questions why in his community choices are not allowed. Jonas realizes that the choices about what color to wear do not matter, but the choices about mates, jobs, or even friendships are the ones that matter. The text later states, “Very frightening. I can’t even imagine it. We really have to protect people from wrong choices” (Lowry 124). In this quote Jonas clearly explains how he feels and I think he wakes up a little and realizes what is going on in his community. It is a really clear image of how the council over the years has brainwashed its people. They took thought away from them by teaching them what they wanted them to think. Yes, wrong choices can hurt you, but if you don’t ever make a wrong choice you won’t learn, That

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