The Utopian Society In The Giver By Lois Lowry

The book “The Giver” by Lois Lowry perceives a utopian society, which eliminates all forms of conflict. What was intended to be a utopia became a dystopia, Individuals are living in a shadowed society, where nothing is as it seems. People are accustomed to having pain taken away from them their entire lives. This becomes a dystopia because they will never know what pain is.

When jonas experienced twisting his leg from a memory, Jonas felt alone. No one knew what pain was, except for himself and his trainer. “They have never known pain, he thought. The realization made him feel desperately lonely.” (139). Jonas being the main character, is chosen to be the receiver. The receiver of the community, has the ability to see beyond. According to the

“Critics and censors all agree that Jonas's situation in The Giver is horrifying. Through a series of shocking events, he discovers that...his people literally have limited vision and can not make decisions without the Giver's help” (Lord, Elyse). Being able to see different colors, Jonas thinks it would be nice if everyone could choose, which color shirt to wear in the morning. Jonas saw the importance of decision making when realizing it is essential to happiness. He notices, his people does not have the option of choice. They cannot see the red apple, the green grass, or the blue sky. There is only this sameness of black and white. Each year Jonas’s people follows the same concepts and routines, without any questions being asked. The option of choice was taken away from them hoping to build a utopian society. Jonas understands that having a choice helps to think for ourselves. Without it, in some ways life can be meaningless. In some ways the community as well as the chief elders, sees the Giver/receiver as a God. Reason being, the citizens, are only comfortable with things that are familiar to them. When not knowing how to deal with a situation, they come to the giver for advisement. He is familiar with all things known and unknown. Knowing this, they believe only he can truly give the right

Nothing being any less or greater than the other. Birth mothers were looked down upon. To become a birth mother was shameful to most, if not all. They were only allowed to have three births and then labor for the rest of their lives. Birth mothers never got to meet their child. After giving birth the baby will be given to a family unit, and no more than two children within each family: One boy and one girl. Lily had thought she wanted to become a birth mother because after being with Gabe, she realized she liked babies. Hearing this her mom explains, “there’s very little honor in that assignment’ (27). She then referrers her daughter to become a nurturer instead. In some ways Jonas people does not know what it means to be a family. Families are supposed to be loving and although Jonas family shows affection for each other. They would not use the word love to describe their relationship. “Do you love me?...Precision of language please. What do you mean? Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless.”(pg) Jonas stared at his parents in disbelief because such meaningful words meant nothing to them. That day Jonas was given the memory of Christmas. He saw a family gathered together children, parents, and grandparents. From that memory he got the feeling of