...In modern society, there is freedom of choice, opinions, but in the dystopian society of Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver, everything is chosen for you for instance career, opinion on society. Compared to The Giver the modern world seems like a utopia such as being able to choose your career, having an opinion, and choice. In the novel careers are chosen when you turn twelve, by the Committee of Elders by observations and stay there until you get to the house of the old at age fifty. In modern society, there is freedom to choose what career and when, even when to quit and choose another job or retire. Even though, some of the qualities of having your career chosen for you may seem pleasant, the idea of having that same career until you cannot...
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...‘Dystopian fiction is less about the powerful and more about the powerless’ To what extent is this true in The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984? Dystopian fiction usually revolves over a power struggle between an oppressor and the oppressed, alternatively this can be given the label of powerful and powerless. However, the exposure given to one of these groups is often inclined to be imbalanced. For example, The Giver by Lois Lowry has biased exposure towards the powerless due to the simple fact of the third person limited narrator perspective from Jonas, a member of the aforementioned sector of respective society. This is similar to the 1984 narrator where Winston is never truly aware of what goes on when he wasn’t physically present. But, it could be for this exact reason that in 1984 the dystopian genre inclines towards the powerful, highlighting the hold over the powerless. Contrary to this, The Handmaid's Tale (THT) has blurred lines as to whether the dystopian fiction prevalent in the novels are more or less about the powerful. This is majorly due to conflicting plotlines and enigmatic characters, significant in both of the books. For example, the character of Nick could be characterized for the powerful and powerless. Nick behaves with Offred in a manner which confuses the reader about his loyalties. Ultimately, this essay will aim to prove an option that is a fusion between the two rivals of dystopian fiction offering the complex concept of the powerful powerless. The powerful...
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...Response to Literature Essay for The Giver The Giver is a novel written by author Lois Lowry. In this dystopian reading selection, the setting is a place called the community. The community is a place where everything is the same. Also, everything in the Giver community is safety-proofed. It is ran by a group of people called The Elders. The Elders are considered the wisest and most powerful people in the community. They are in charge of everything, from picking out job titles for the incoming twelves, to keeping track of the newchildren that are born. The setting of the giver affected the citizens by keeping them proctected from dangerous things. In doing so, trial-and-error cannot occur. Also, many of the citizens are used to everything...
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...Equality wants to say “I”. It shows individualism, which the it’s a sin and makes the reader think of how people can attribute to the society and take orders without knowing the reason why. It shows problems that Equality is facing because he is a man with thoughts towards others, dividing them out from the rest of society. Ayn Rand wrote this amazing novel because she wants to spread a voice and make a change, even in the war era. Equality has faced problems internally and externally, for the Rand to convey her message. In the novel Equality’s...
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...The book Swipe by Evan Angler and film The Giver by Lois Lowry are both wonderful works that are very worthy of your time. In both the book and the film there was several similar concepts, but they also vary in some ways. For example, they both have the theme of fighting against the power even though it may cause them trouble. Even though, they have alike themes they also have their differences. One way Swipe and The Giver are similar that the characters began to become open minded. They started to realize that people are not always what they seem to be. In Swipe, Logan and others in the town Spokie began to be suspicious and question why the government would want to access all of their information and control their lives. Jonas, in The Giver is the only one besides the giver himself who questions why the power would want to hide all the memories. Another way is they are alike is both get rid of anyone who they think would cause inconvenience to their motives. In the book Swipe while certain kids at the age of 13 are receiving the Mark if DOME thinks they have rebellious behavior they will nullify them and inform their families that there was an unfortunate malfunction and their child died. Also in The Giver anyone who could possibly challenge the system and its...
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...over the community that every computer and television was monitored. They knew, with the news around, people would always be wary. But Jane, the daughter of a prominent governor said that it was just a lie. They couldn't actually afford to pay for it to happen. In The Giver, there are also quotes which exhibit how the figurehead use propaganda to control people's action. “He killed it! My father killed it! Jonas said to himself, stunned at what he was realising” (Lowry 150). People in this community were given false information about what release meant. They all thought it was a good thing when really, it meant being killed. Propaganda is used in dystopian societies very commonly. The quotes exhibited how the Government used propaganda to control the actions of the whole community. Given misleading information also relates to the fact of how the outer world was being banished and driven away. When what is given to them is limited, people know nothing about the outside world. Consequently, they wouldn't refuse or create any conflict amongst the society when they are given misleading information, they are controlled and paranoid. So, these quotes are associated with the use of misleading information in the two dystopian...
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...He also then adds that New Middletown is bordered by a forest and the other half is walled. Thus, allowing the inference Max lives in a dystopian society. For example, from prior knowledge, I know dystopian societies have a tendency to create an illusion of a perfect society while information and freedom are restricted. In the same manner, New Middletown creates the illusion of a perfect society by isolating the city by building borders and not allowing access to people who will alter the way the society functions. Therefore, allowing the inference that Max might be living in a dystopian...
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...The idea of utopian and dystopian societies are noticeably popular due to the fact that society wants equality, however authors show when attempting to have total equality the public can become unethical. Harrison Bergeron shows a corrupt government and society in hopes of a utopia. After Harrison broke out of jail and made the musicians play without their handicaps the text says, “The music began again and was much improved.” This demonstrates how total equality can strip people of their individuality, therefore people can’t have talents. However for most people their talents are what brings them joy and purpose. The leader or ruler in Harrison Bergeron, The Handicapper General, was also unprincipled. Later “She (The Handicapper General) fired...
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...Picture a society forced to live in a dystopic world with flying machines, hoverboards, interface rings and eye reading machines. These are some parts of dystopia, just as shown in other novels such as The Maze Runner, Hunger Games, and The Giver. In the book, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, the reader meets Tally Youngblood. Tally Youngblood is 16 and she lives in Uglyville. Tally has a best friend Peris that is 3 months older than her who was turned pretty first. It states on page 3 “Tally takes on the roles of vandal, outcast, and informer.” Utopia is not attainable because there cannot be a perfect world, as dystopia is defined as an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or miserable. Therefore, Uglies is an example of...
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...“Ignorance is bliss” is a common proverb meaning if someone does not know about something, then he or she does not worry about it. Most of the characters in Aldous Huxley’s classic dystopian novel Brave New World and director Phillip Noyce’s film The Giver exhibit behaviors that are forced upon them, and they do not know what has been taken away from them. Our modern society and culture is succumbing to these predictions to only a slight extent because Americans still have the freedoms to be their own person while the characters in the stories do not. The governments in the book and the movie are both over-controlling and try to inhibit natural phenomenon like having free will and the ability to feel emotions. For the most part, Americans are born free and have the capability to feel anything. Conversely, in Brave New World, most of the population is genetically engineered to feel a certain way. Each person is created in such a way that whatever they are predestined to do in life makes them happy. As the Director once put it, “that is the secret to happiness and virtue—liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny,” (Huxley 16). In modern society, no one is...
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...Class issues and the rise of the superstructure in The Giver and The City of Ember Since the start of agriculture, man's evolution has gone from a hunter-gatherer to modern day capitalistic societies. Using a lot of energy in order to hunt was no longer necessary. By leveraging the division of labor, grains could be stored for human consumption. Consequently, population grew which meant that some people had to, for example, harvest the food, whereas others could be “thinkers” and create a better world in terms of science and effective infrastructures. Over time resources have been used and exploited in to order to sustain societies and the ever increasing population: It has become a scarcity. (Harris 12) Philosophers such as Karl Marx wrote about this scarcity and how it creates classes in societies, as in Das Kapital, the Critique of Political Economy: In social productions of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society.... With the change of the economic foundation the entire immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed. In considering such transformations a distinction should always be made between the material transformation of the economic conditions of| production...(Marx 143) What is...
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...The Giver takes place in a dystopian society where everyone is controlled yet there is no violence or poverty. Lowry added to The Giver series with Gathering Blue in 2000, The Messenger in 2004, and Son in 2012. The 2014 movie version of The Giver by Lois Lowry had Brenton Thwaites as Jonas, Jeff Bridges as the title character, who is the Giver himself, and Meryl Streep as the Chief Elder, who basically rules the whole town. The Giver was seen as controversial for its violent themes, "sexual content," and depiction of euthanasia by people who rejected these things (Lois Lowry Biography.com). Lowry saying the movie version of The Giver was good was considered pretty serious praise due to the movie itself getting stuck in development hell, or the point at which a movie or video game is stopped by a problem. Lowry had trouble with the movie's ending, as in the book, the ending is ambiguous, but in the movie, the ending is not so ambiguous (Lowry,...
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...Ayn Rand's Anthem depicts a completely collectivist society which is similar to the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry a futuristic society that had removed pain, fear, war, and hatred. Equality 7-2521 and Jonas are both in a society where they had no choice in what job was given to them. Equality was given the job of street sweeper due to his compliance to the council, while Jonas received the job of "The Receiver", which is the most trusted job in his society. It is one person suffering the knowledge of the past to make sure history will not repeat itself. Both characters were given their lives with no control over it. Past and present day societies treat their people in a similar way to Lois Lowry's Giver and Ayn Rand's Anthem's dystopian...
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...Equality’s discovery of electricity was an incredible feat considering the complexity of society Ayn Rand depicted for Anthem. Rand’s portrayal of society contrasts with the quintessential dystopian society portrayed in many novels such as The Giver and Fahrenheit 451. The civilization in Anthem exists some time in the future, however, the intricacy of technology had declined to the point where citizens were using candles and torches as methods of illuminating their surroundings. The cause of this decline traced to the development of an intolerance towards individualism. Equality never fit in his community because of his strong nonconformist personality. He had preferences and objects of joy, a sin he called “the great Transgression of Preference” (6). He had a bias for science during his schooling and had a tendency to commit transgressions, which foreshadow his experiments in the tunnel. His...
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...the 1940s through the 1960s, the world lived in a time of war. In September 1939 World War II broke out , and was followed by the Cold War of 1947 that lasted up until 1991. The historic wars of these times influenced literature and the writers of the time, as they shaped their novels and books around these events. Writers such as George Orwell and Kurt Vonnegut created novels of dystopian societies to alert nations that communism was not as great as it sounded. British writer George Orwell wrote the novel 1984 published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. in 1949. 1984 is a political novel written with the purpose of warning readers in the West of the dangers of totalitarian government. In 1949, the Cold War had not yet escalated, and many Americans supported communism as possible political systems for the west. Therefore, Orwell wrote his novel in order to expose the cruelty and oppression of communist countries. In his dystopian nation, Orwell gave a sneak peak of what a country could become if the people gave all the power to the government. In 1984, Orwell portrays the perfect totalitarian society in which the government monitors and controls every aspect of human life to the extent that having a disloyal thought is against the law. They do so with the use of technology such as tele screens and microphones across the city which allowed the government to monitor all the citizens almost all of the times. In order to keep the citizens of London loyal and obedient to the government...
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