What is a utopia to you? Is it a place where weapons are removed, as well as parks and beaches scattering the community, or is it where everyone must follow a strict schedule to keep the utopia orderly? Both M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village and Lois Lowry’s The Giver both attempt to create utopian societies. While they are very different in what they see as a utopian society, they both present the themes secrecy and corruption.
They both isolate themselves, which is the reason I chose the theme secrecy. The Village utopia lives in an old pioneer style even though it is during modern times, in a forest. They are enclosed within by a wall, which beyond that is a nature reserve, where the rest of civilization resides. With the community of The Giver, they are in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles away from any civilization. They live a more advanced lifestyle than current times and don’t allow anyone to “spy” on their utopia. This is clearly shown, as it is “against the rules for Pilots to fly over the community.” (1) They also hide secrets from the people in the community. When a boy named Jonas from The Giver discovers how people are “released.” It is stated he “felt a ripping sensation inside himself, the feeling of terrible pain clawing its way forward to emerge in a cry.” (154) Hiding secrets never does good for
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Something that occurs in both utopias is that there is always one person that discovers secrets of the community. The Giver utopia becomes corrupted because that one person doesn’t like how it is and wants to change it. Jonas discovers secrets of his utopia and asks “what should [he] do? [He] can’t go back! [He] can’t!”(157). He soon breaks the laws of the community to completely change it. In The Village, it’s different, as a girl named Ivy discovers secrets but oddly, does nothing to try and change her community. The two communities are both utopias, but one succeeds at staying as a
The Giver and Matched are both futuristic societies with a lot of rules. In The Giver the Elders choose their match as well as their children. Jonas starts loving Fiona but isn’t allowed and stops taking the pill. In Matched the officials choose their match but they can have their own children. Cassia is matched with Xander but also loves Ky and doesn't know what to do. In both story they all get jobs for the rest of their lives but in Matched they just call it vocations. Jonas gets the Receiver of memory and Cassia is supposed to be the sorter.
Utopia means a place of perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions. That definition does not match the society in The Giver. The punishment for breaking minor rules is too much for how little the rule is. Certain people get punished for breaking the rules which is unfair. If it was a utopia everything would be the same. They hide the past of your life. The most unbelievable thing is that they kill babies that aren't good enough for them. Shocking, right? Ponder this;, if you lived in a utopian society, do you think would it be like
To begin with, in The Truman Show, Truman wanted to go somewhere else. He wanted to go to Fiji. Truman kept on telling himself that he was going to go. He wanted to get out of his place and find somewhere new. Truman kept trying and trying to get a flight or take a bus but because his society was watching him they made sure that there was no way to leave. Than in The Giver, Jonas wanted to go elsewhere. He wanted to experience different things. Jonas wanted to see what else was in the world for him. He did not want to be cooped up in his utopian society forever. The people in Jonas’s society did not know what the difference was between their society and elsewhere. Everyone just grew up knowing what they still know. They both want to leave their utopian societies. They both want
Throughout the history of the world, there has been many societies. All these societies had similar structures and ideas, but they all are different by their own special traditions and ways of life. Similarly, both our society and the society in The Giver share similar ideas, but they are different in certain areas. For example, they both celebrate birthdays and have family units, but they have their own way of doing so. Based on the celebration of birthdays and the formation of family units, our society is better than the society in The Giver by Lois Lowry.
In The Giver, a narrative by Lois Lowry, Jonas’s father illustrates his feelings during his Ceremony of Twelve and Jonas tells about his own feelings concerning the forthcoming event. In the text it states, “‘But to be honest, Jonas,’ his father said, ‘for me there was not the element of suspense that there is with your ceremony. Because I was already fairly certain of what my Assignment was to be,’”(Lowry, paragraph 3). This segment of text elucidates the reason of Jonas’s father’s lack of surprise of his Assignment. As stated above, Jonas’s father was already certain of his Assignment, which he continues to explain to be a Nurturer. Jonas’s father explains that as a result of the love he showed all the Newchildren and the time he spent at
“I knew that there had been times in the past-terrible times-when people had destroyed others in haste, in fear, and had brought about their own destruction” (48). In the old days, when people in Jonas’s community valued individual needs, there were lots of terrible happenings: violence; and then the society ended up with general welfare and safety. It is difficult for us to think of a world without color, freedom, music and love, but in The Giver, the society denounces these things in order to make room for peace and safety. In The Giver, by having a society based on general welfare they gave safety to their people. No violence, no criminal activities, nor homicides.
Imagine a place where everything is perfect. There is a place where there is no warfare, where all. All politics, laws, customs, and traditions are respected. A place where there is sameness among all the citizens and everyone is content and happy. This place would be considered a utopia.
The Giver film and the “short story” “The ones who walk away from Omelas” both showed different societies with the same utopian background at the beginning. Each society characterized for their happiness, beautiful and imaginary settings with organized communities, and very intelligent people. But at the same time, they were miserable and selfish proving and showing that a perfect life doesn’t exist. Having laws and beliefs, which they made converting it into dystopian societies. Having perfection on the outside, but the inside completely rotten.
The Utopia Reader defines the word utopia as “a nonexistent society described in detail and normally located in time and space.” (p.1) I would best define utopia as a fictional dream- paradise land where everything is peaceful, perfect and all runs smoothly. There is no crime disease, or pain. People are happy, kind and fair and have each other’s best
The short story Harrison Bergeron helps support the idea that all Utopias are going to fail. In Harrison Bergeron characters like him find flaws in their “perfect” community and do something about it. In the Giver, Jonas is the character that rebels against the community because he is able to see past the lies set up by the elders and see the bad parts of it. Another reason it failed was because of the pain from the handicaps. Jonas’s community doesn’t experience any pain,except for Jonas and the Giver, Jonas makes a stand by escaping and leaving the memories of pain for the rest of the community.
Utopia's exist all over the world today, for example "Twin Oaks", "Twin Oaks" is an ecovillage that is mainly the goal to become more economically and ecologically sustainable which is almost very similar in some ways to Jonas' community. However, "Twin Oaks" does not take away all of the members freedom and allows them to do certain things under guidelines.
In reality nothing, and no one is perfect. The dystopian lifestyle Jonas lived and experienced in The Giver, and the modern day lifestyle us millennials live in today differs, as well as compares in various ways. Lois Lowry, the author of The Giver creates a very vivid entrust in the future. His description on the dystopian society Jonas and him,The Giver, lived in was harshly controlled. Not because of any physical contact they had on each other, but the mental effect they had on each other had to have been extremely difficult.
Each person has their own vision of utopia. Utopia means an ideal state, a paradise, a land of enchantment. It has been a central part of the history of ideas in Western Civilization. Philosophers and writers continue to imagine and conceive plans for an ideal state even today. They use models of ideal government to express their ideas on contemporary issues and political conditions. Man has never of comparing the real and ideal, actuality and dream, and the stark facts of human condition and hypothetical versions of optimum life and government.
The purpose of this book was to show us a possible version of a "Utopia".