Lois Lowry's "The Giver" as a Warning for Contemporary Society

The fine line between utopia and dystopia tends to be overlooked by people as they are blinded by the many beliefs and interpretations that construct an idealistic society. Lois Lowry published The Giver in 1993 after she witnessed the suffering and emotional turmoil her father endured as he battled against alzheimers which inspired Lowry to create a fictional world in which there was no pain or painful memories. The author A.E Samaan was once quoted “All utopias are dystopias”. This statement reflects on the seemingly perfect world of The Giver. The Giver is set in a seemingly superficial utopia following the protagonist Jonas as he encounters past memories stored in the mind of the eponymous Giver. As the reader progresses, the facade of the perfect society rapidly fades away as Jonas begins to contemplate how his community operates and struggles with his society's strict enforcements. It’s believed that in order to achieve utopia, many aspects that contribute to human suffering would have to be eradicated. However, this also eliminates the many positives that are closely connected to said suffering which disables us from achieving true happiness. The communities controlled lifestyle, lack of emotions and non-existent diversity contributes to the dysfunctional nature within the novel, representing the disastrous effect it would have if these elements were re-enacted in contemporary society.

Everything from birth to death is decided for you in the society of The Giver as it’s believed that this will uphold a safe and painless lifestyle which prohibits people from making their own decisions. Individuals are advised who to wed, choice of clothing, family units, households, occupations and emotions bringing about living predictable and controlled ways of life without decision stating, “members of the community must adhere to the rules of their age group or job”. Because of the communities ignorance, they cannot make their own choices and are governed by a severe set of regulations. A daily ritual for the community is the discussion of feelings and the telling of dreams. On the surface these acts may seem to promote mental health, but the purpose of these exercises are in order to expose the underlying emotions that the community feels so they can take all necessary steps to prevent deviancy from expected standards. It’s mandatory that all dreams and feelings are shared. In chapter one during the Telling of Feelings, 'Jonas would have preferred to keep his feelings hidden. But this is, of course, against the rules'. Throughout the novel, euphemisms are used to conceal the true meaning of terms which would otherwise cause distress amongst the population. This is in order to keep citizens compliant with the committee. The term Release is used widely throughout the book and is generally a joyous situation depending on the conditions of Release to Elsewhere - a believed to be pleasant location where the Released are sent to. However, we discover that Release referees to death by euthanasia and Elsewhere is the afterlife. Members of the community aren’t able to comprehend what death is due to its gentle phrasing. Jonas realises what release is when the Giver shows him his father releasing a newborn child. His father is blissfully unaware of what is actually happening. “‘I know. It hurts, little guy... All done. That wasn’t so bad, was it?’ Jonas heard his father say cheerfully.” The community’s controlled lifestyle enables the committee to brainwash the members into compliance, creating a facade of a utopia from broken and lacklustre dystopia.

In order to make the community fit in with the Elder’s ploy for sameness, 'they gained control of many things but had to let go of others,' stripping away diversity. The world of The Giver is literally in black and white as it lacks colour. This is in order to promote the idea of sameness as they can focus more on work and following the rules instead of worrying if their shirt matches their shoes. Colour symbolises emotion, and the committee controls it because they want to keep community members in a diminished state. Although colour seems like a simple concept, the more you think of it, the more you realise how closely connected colour is to individuality. Eliminating colour also eliminates colour prejudice. The Giver states, “there was once a time where flesh was many different colours. Today flesh is all the same.” To an extent, this is beneficiary towards society as people of colour wouldn’t have to endure racism. However, you could also argue that their race and therefore culture is what sets them apart from the crowd, and is a catalyst to the many different values a person may have. Without experiencing colour, you wouldn’t be able to experience the world in its true beauty. If everything were the same, there would be no excuse for war or violence. If life was 'equal' it would mean that no one would experience anything better or worse than anyone else. There would be no homelessness, hunger or unemployment. However, without the opportunity to explore out of your comfort zone, this hinders growth and development for the community as a whole as they wouldn’t know how to appreciate themselves and those around them for their unique abilities without being able to acknowledge them. Ever since it’s conception, the ruling of sameness has remained unchanged as it takes a “long” time to change the rules and that “there’s nothing that can be done,” and that “it’s always been this way... Even before the ones who came before you.” We would not be able to become pioneers because many things that we create today have a strong influence on society. In a community of sameness if one person gets power, they change everything leading to disorder that a society of sameness wouldn’t be able to deal with. By discouraging diversity - of speech, thought, action, expression - we risk backing ourselves into a courtesy where conformity is praised and diversity is punished.

The committee strips community members of negative emotions such as hate, envy and pain, but at the same time sacrificed true happiness and pleasure. An individuals emotions is an essential part of what makes up a person and without these you’d be an empty and hollow shell. When Jonas is deep into his training and discovers the many different emotions, he felt disconnected to the people around him as they could not understand the depth of the different emotions that he could feel as “he feels so much love for Asher and Fiona but they could not feel it back without the memories that he could not give.' This lack of memories estranges people from one another, preventing their independent thought that would lead into the prevention of actions that would result in conflict and suffering. The sacrifice of nostalgia for the things the community gave up was in order tp achieve harmony - yet memories are still required in order to prevent to repetition of past mistakes. This is why a Receiver exists; to carry the burden of memories for his community. But without memory there is no pain as well as happiness. The correlation between pleasure and pain is highlighted in this novel as it’s non-existent in Jonas’ society since the Giver and Jonas are the only ones who’ve experienced true emotions through memories. When the Giver shares Jonas the memory of Christmas, he experiences love and joy since there’s no such thing in the community. However, Jonas also experiences pain like in the memory of war as he experienced firsthand the many deaths and the violence of the situation. Jonas comes to a realisation that his community has ”Never known pain,” due to the discord this would cause. Although it may be beneficiary to remove negative emotions, at the same time, it sacrifices the many joys and pleasures that humans get to experience in everyday life.

The Giver served as a warning for society to show the effects of what would happened if we conformed to the idea of Sameness. It’s believed that in order to achieve utopia, many aspects that contribute to human suffering would have to be eradicated. However, this also eliminates the many positives that are closely connected to said suffering which disables us from achieving true happiness. All of the aspects that were altered such as the communities controlled lifestyle, lack of emotions, and non-existent diversity undoubtedly raises awareness to aspects we must stop in order to live in a society where people can grow and feel. Without our individuality, society would stand still, being forever trapped in a viscous cycle where reality would be controlled by those who don’t have our best interests at heart.