Dictatorship In The Giver

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Have you ever thought about how some fictional books might have connections to real life historical totalitarian dictatorships? Now that seems a little odd to read about, but there are many works of fictional literature that depict these oppressing governments. An example of this would be The Giver by Lois Lowry. She sets up a futuristic community that is ruled by an oppressive government. The people in this community do not even realize how deprived they are. They have known nothing else but this community and this lifestyle. Her community is very similar to another real society in human history. The dictatorship of Stalin over the USSR was also an overpowering government that controlled the people’s lives. There are many similarities between …show more content…

In both societies, the government took away the people's choices and they used propaganda in order to control the inhabitant’s lives. In The Giver it says, “It’s just the pills. You’re ready for the pills, that’s all. That’s the treatment for the Stirrings. (Lowry 37)” The “Stirrings” mentioned are what Lowry’s community called love or lust. To control these raging and passionate feelings, the government forces each person to take pills that squander these pleasures. But it is not only love that the medication stops, but also feelings in general. Nobody makes their own choices because of the pills, and nobody knows what it means to make important choices either. Also, if anyone disobeyed they would be admonished or even killed depending on the severity of the transgression. Stalin’s industrial empire also took away some choices. An example of this would be when Stalin enforced a law saying that the government would take over all the agricultural jobs in the country. In doing so, he took away the choice of being a farmer or any other profession similar to that. Also, the people that were already farmers indignantly refused to work if he controlled their farms. This meant that the country didn’t produce any crops or horticultural products. This lead to a devastating man made famine! The grim output of the famine left the

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