Name: Milei Humanities
7th Grade The Giver
Is Freedom a Bad Decision?
In the book the Giver by Lois Lowry, imagine being in a world where everyone is controlled and manipulated. A boy named Jonas tries to change the rules of his community and seeks for freedom. He eventually gets a big responsibility and causes a big impact on his life. This society is a dystopia because everyone is being controlled and the people in the community never get a choice or decision.
In the Giver the community is kept controlled by elders and no one has freedom within the community. Jonas lives in this “utopia” and ultimately seeks freedom, but until then, his daily routines are regulated and controlled by the Elders. For example everyone is controlled by the speaker in the community, “Then all of the citizens had been ordered to go into the nearest building and stay there. IMMEDIATELY, the rasping voice through the speakers had said. LEAVE YOUR BICYCLES WHERE THEY ARE.”(Giver,9) This quote shows that the community is being controlled and they are following orders from the Elders. Jonas is also following these rules yet he hopes to find freedom. Everyone has to obey these rules and it is mandatory to do so. Jonas wants to make up his own routine and life, he wants to be able to have the freedom that the elders have kept from him.
Freedom in Jonas’s society is restricted and all citizens are kept ignorant. The Elders keep the society ignorant by telling and teaching them certain things that are meant to keep jonas’s society a perfect. The Elders know that if they let everyone have freedom in the community it might increase the chances of creating a dystopia. It also might reveal the things that the Elders have kept away from the society. It also seems like the jonas’s parents are keeping him from freedom as well. For example Jonas doesn’t want to be controlled and is very demanding when asking for freedom. “But I want them!” Jonas said angrily. “It isn’t fair that nothing has color!” “Not fair?” The Giver looked at Jonas curiously. “Explain what you mean.” “Well . . .” Jonas had to stop and think it through. “If everything’s the same, then there aren’t any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?”(Giver,84). This quote shows that Jonas does not approve of being controlled. Jonas wants to be able to make decisions on what he wants. He wants freedom and he wants to be able to make a choice but the Elders are in the way of that and they are in charge of Jonas and everyone else in the community. Jonas and the rest of the community are being controlled yet Jonas seems to be the only one that want’s freedom. Is this really a perfect world, is it really considered to be a “utopia”?
Jonas’s society is not a “utopia” because no one gets the freedom of choice and knowledge. The elders keep the society ignorant and manipulated. Everyone is controlled and used by the elders to make a “utopia” but the elders are making a utopia in a way that makes their society a dystopia. The elders in Jonas’s society do not allow freedom. They control everyone and everything they do. A utopia should be a place where everyone gets to make their own choices. A perfect world is a place where a utopia would need a dystopia because with no faults people will never learn what not to do and it will keep people ignorant. In a place where everything is the same that does not make it a perfect world.
