Dystopian Themes In 'The Giver'

The Giver is a dystopian novel that plays out a world with no pain, suffering, and conflict, this world is meant to have total peace and harmony. Jonas is like any other eleven-year-old boy that lives in his community on the surface, until the day he receives his assignment. Jonas is intelligent and perceptive, sometimes even more than his peers. He enjoys experiencing and learning new things, enjoys the freedom of choice, enjoys connecting and learning about other people, and craves human contact within societal limits. Jonas though is not like any other eleven-year-old boy in his community, he has unusual colored eyes, and can see unexplainable things change. Jonas at the ceremony is singled out from his peers receiving the job as the new Receiver, this is where Jonas’ journey or adventure begins. Jonas must train with the giver to give and
receive memories. Jonas becomes extremely absorbed in the memories given to him, the tendencies that he showed earlier in life gave him that satisfaction. Jonas’ sensitivity, interest in and kindness towards people, curiosity, honesty, intelligence, and high perception makes him the best Receiver. Jonas is told that the Receiver of memory is an honorable job, though many do not know what this job entails. Jonas goes in blindly to be a very important person in his society at a very young age. Jonas starts small to begin his journey, only receiving positive and happy memories.
The memories he receives are rich with sensory and emotional experiences, wanting to possess these memories he must also experience the hard, sad and emotional memories. Jonas struggles with the harder memories, but can push through and continue his training. After a year Jonas had become extremely sensitive to pleasure, suffering, beauty, passion, and love, adapting to his new environment. Jonas had a hard time pushing through the harder memories, but began to know that he needed them to keep that burden off the people and only within himself. Jonas pushing through these memories is a big step towards growth. The Giver is there for Jonas to train and guide him through his transition. Though the giver may look older than he truly is, the giver has aged through seeing and doing many things that have haunted him (such as memories of suffering and pain). The Giver must pass on his wisdom and haunting memories to Jonas, this eases some of the Givers pain but pushes it on to Jonas. The Giver must assist Jonas to become the person he needs to
be. With Jonas’ newly founded knowledge and wisdom he matures and grows into a “whole” person. With this knowledge Jonas experiences another trial, he must help Gabriel escape release. The Giver helped him grow into understanding the society he lived in, and the past he was receiving. Jonas escaping his world, saves Gabriel, and returns to the world of color. His previous society was black and white with no true emotions or feelings. Jonas leaves this façade and returns home to a world that was once known. The Giver tells the story of a community that had given up the collective memories of their past society to eliminate pain, suffering, and conflict. In doing this emotions and experiences don’t exist but in a way, that is allowed, to have complete peace and harmony. Jonas fits the experience of the archetypal hero through each step of his journey. For his age, the wisdom and knowledge he exhumes engulfs him not only into being the protagonist but the hero. He gave proof that utopias can become dystopias the minute someone becomes aware of the terrible things being done to keep the society intact.

Works Cited
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Boston: Graphia, 2000. Print.