Deception in Utopia: Uncovering Reality in 'The Giver'

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In a dream world how would you make your community look perfect? That’s exactly what the leaders of the Jonas’s community were trying to do. In Jonas’s world everything looked perfect, until he took a closer look. Could his community leaders be hiding something they didn’t know about? In The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, the theme of a perfect Utopian society is explored through the symbols of starvation, stirrings, and climate control. To the society, starvation was prevented by equal distribution of food. The Giver reflected on the past history (111), “The population had gotten so big that hunger was everywhere.” Food scarcity states why the community was so strict and tight on population, they did not want to experience the past history themselves. Not one person besides the Giver and Jonas realized what the community was doing when they released members. Finally, to the ordinary members “release” meant to let go, but Jonas and the Giver knew it meant death by a lethal injection. It was one of his most painful memories. Jonas decided that he would try not to go back on it. It was important in Jonas’s community to prevent stirring by taking pills each morning for the rest of your life until you were at the House of Old. “A reminder that stirring must be Reported in order for treatment …show more content…

“Climate Control. Snow made growing food difficult, limited the agricultural periods. And unpredictable weather made transportation almost impossible at times. It wasn’t a practical thing, it became obsolete when we went to Sameness” (83-84). The words of the Giver point out that sameness would help the community to produce more food. Choosing sameness had many cons, people are killing babies to keep others comfortable and Jonas starts to become so distressed he makes plans to leave. Sameness was a mistake from the beginning, for the way people

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