Name: Elijah Humanities
7th Grade The Giver
A Utopia… Or Is It?: Perfection and Imperfection In The Giver
Imagine a world where everyone has been mislead. This is The Giver, by Lois Lowry. Jonas lived a normal life, until his twelfth birthday. He receives an assignment that opens his eyes to the truths of his society. He has to work with his new teacher, to fix what the people in power have ruined. This society is a dystopia because they are murdering innocent people, there is no love, or color, and nobody has any choice or freedom.
In the community of The Giver, the people believe they live in a perfect world. There are many different things that this community does to keep their world a utopia. One thing that they do is create sameness so nobody stands apart. For example, the society eliminates both color and weather. On page 82 of The Giver, Lois Lowry writes, “We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with differences,” (Giver, 82). This quote shows how equal all the people in this community are. The people of the community made a choice to go to sameness. This means no more color, many more rules, and having ceremonies like the ceremony of ages which celebrates everybody in the same way, rather than individually. Perfection is achieved by equality in this world. Although, in their attempt to create a utopia, they fail, and create what becomes a dystopia.
There are parts of Jonas’s community that are imperfect, making it a dystopia. Things like release and seeing no color, skew it off from being utopia. Things like this could not be in a perfect world. The people of the society release individuals who are different from others and the community is kept unaware of the true meaning of release. Jonas, as the new Receiver, learns what release actually means and is shocked to discover that this ritual means certain death. On page 150, Lowry says, “He killed it! My father killed it! Jonas said to himself stunned at what he was realizing,” (Giver, 150) How could murdering babies be part of a perfect world? Anything that wasn’t absolutely perfect would make it a dystopia, and murdering babies doesn’t seem like perfection, and neither does seeing no color! Color can be beautiful, but they don’t see it. Obviously not perfection. There are so many things that they believe make a perfect world, just because they don’t know any better. Jonas’s father doesn’t know the true concept of death. The people don’t know what they’re missing, like sunshine and snow. If they knew of these things, they would realize that they live in a dystopia. Love isn’t even a part of their world. When Jonas asked his own parents if they loved him, they wouldn’t give him a clear answer. Another thing that is imperfect is the fact that instead of owning up to the people and telling them what release means, they make a lame attempt to cover the truth up, only making it worse for people when they find out. Jonas was shocked, and he had an even bigger reason given that his father was one of the people doing this. There are two polar opposite thoughts: the people of the community thinking it’s perfect, and reality saying different.
The people in this society believe that they live in a utopia, but they fail in creating it, and now live in a dystopia. This is because they have gotten rid of many things like color, which would be in a perfect world. They also have to murder many innocent people to maintain their “utopia.” None of these things could be in a perfect world. But every good thing comes with bad. With color, there might be envy, or racism. With sameness there isn’t. There has to be a balance. So is perfection even possible? Does Jonas realize this, or will he make the same mistakes that the Elders made?
