The Giver By Lois Lowry

Jack Caroll once said “the greatest utopia would be if we could all realize that no utopia is possible; no place to run, no place to hide, just take care of business here and now” (Caroll). Is it possible for our world to become a complete utopian society with no problems and no worries? The chances of this happening are slim to none. There is no way for every person to agree on the same thing and be able to like the way it is. People have different views on the way anything should be done and not every time people agree. A utopian society will never be accomplished. In the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry the people live in a utopian society and everyone lives with like emotions. The people of The Givers community feel no pain, no happiness,
no sadness or any other feelings you would expect in a community.
Another piece of literature that shows signs of a utopian society is Animal Farm by George Orwell. In this book the animals ultimately rebel against the owner and take control over the farm. They created commandments that they think will make their farm a utopia. Eventually a superior group of characters comes up and says they have more importance and should run the farm. This shows that there will always be a group of people that will not abide by the rules and ruin the “perfect” society. The basic definition of a utopia is a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions and in the novels The Giver and Animal Farm proves that these ideals cannot be achieved.
In the novel The Giver the community is portrayed as a perfect society with no problems and where everything is the same.
The main character is an eleven year old boy named Jonas. He is reaching his twelfth birthday which means he will become an adult member of the community. This is also where he will be assigned his career. Jonas was not assigned an ordinary job. He was assigned to be the Receiver of Memory. This was the one person that could remember actual life like war, emotions and pain. To prevent all these from happening again there is one person, Jonas to make sure none of the same mistakes occur again. His assignment is completely different from everyone else’s. The people of the community do not see color, have no emotions, and have no memories to remember good and bad times. But Jonas received memories after The Giver places his hand on his back. As he was receiving the memories everything came alive to him he was now able to see color, feel excitement and terror, feel the weather conditions if it warm and sunny or cold and rainy. These were all new emotions that no one else could have. Once he received them all he realized how bland and plain his community really
was.
A utopia is a good thought or idea but in reality this could never happen in our world because for people to agree on everything is mostly likely never to happen. People have different views on life and beliefs. If reality were to try and take these away there would be a lot of upset people revolting against this rule. People do not want to be told what to do every second of the day or to be told what religion to believe in. In their society “spouses were not allowed to pick who they wanted to marry but instead were assigned” (Lowry). In real life if the President tried to assign brides and grooms to people they would not agree with it because how can you love someone that you do not even know. People would ignore his decision and go out and find their true love not somebody assigned to marry you. The people of The Givers society have lost control of themselves. Instead of doing what they want when they want to there are strict rules that prevent them from doing it. In today’s world you can be anything you want if you strive for it but at the age of twelve kids that live in thus utopia are assigned jobs for the rest of your life.
This utopia is coming off as a communist state because their beliefs are similar. In both a communist state and this utopia there is one group of leaders that controls everything. In the Giver the rulers are The Elders. They are the people that assign you your job at twelve, pick who you will marry and even pick how many kids you will have. In some places in this world communism is working for their country but most of the world doesn’t believe in it because everyone is equal and has the right to pursue their career goals, not assigned a job at twelve. So if a utopia was attempted to be created it would fail due to the lack of people agreeing with the rulers. A big question that comes along with a utopia is how can you control all the people to follow all the rules created so the society can be perfect? There is no way to control everyone due to the large numbers of people and the small numbers of leaders. They can try to make these rules to control the people but they have no way to enforce it. They cannot just arrest all the people that do not believe in these rules. Animal Farm is a novel written by George Orwell that tells the story of one farm rising up against their owner and running him off the land so they can rule the way they want. Their leader that started the idea of rebelling against the farmer was Old Major. His plan worked and they successfully took control of the farm. They created seven commandments that they would live by on the farm. Shortly after succeeding Old Major dies and everyone is equal without a standout leader. As time goes on the pigs realize that leadership is in need for the new society. Napoleon and Snowball rose up as the animal’s leaders. They created their beliefs called Animalism which was life by the seven commandments. This worked out for a year because Napoleon and Snowball agreed with each other and the choices they made. Suddenly, everything changed when they had different views on what to do with the windmill. Snowball argues in favor of the windmill because he believes it will become a labor saving device in the near future. Napoleon argues against it because he believes that building the windmill will take time and effort away from more important tasks like producing food. On the Sunday that the vote was supposed to be held on Napoleon calls nine ferocious dogs that chase Snowball off the farm. Now Napoleon was the only leader left so he controlled the whole farm and introduced a number of other new rules for everyone to live by. Since he was in control there was no one to tell him not to do things. This is where the utopian society becomes a dictatorship on the farm. Napoleon began to not follow the commandments because he thought he was above them and everyone else on the farm. One rule he broke is the no drinking commandment. Also, Napoleon moved into the Manor house where he slept in the old farmer’s bed while one of the commandments clearly stated that it is wrong to sleep in a bed. Napoleon being the dictator he is changed it from no sleeping in a bed to no sleeping in a bed with sheets. These examples show the difficulty of creating a utopian society because there will always be a fight for power.
Both Animal Farm and The Giver can be compared with similar concepts throughout each novel. The setting of the novel is on Manor Farm that is owned by a drunken farmer. The animals got sick of how he was running the farm so they banded together and ran him out of the farm. The animals made commandments that they were to follow and live by. Like in The Giver, the pigs in Animal Farm took the role as the Elders. The pigs created the rules and assigned the other animals their jobs like the Elders do in The Giver. For example the horse, Boxer was told to do heavy lifting because he was a brute that had no brains. The idea of a utopia in Animal Farm could not be possible because of the greed of Napoleon. Similar to most novels where they attempt a utopian society there is always someone or a group of people that are hungry for power. The original leader that led the revolt against the farmer was Old Major, who was a pig. The pigs were the brains of the animals and they realized that so they started to replace Old major and rule the farm. Napoleon and Snowball had strong voices in the beginning process of creating the commandments. Even though they were leading the commandment process every animal still got a vote. Napoleon wanted more power than he already had so he made lies up about Snowball that made him look bad. Once Napoleon’s dogs ran Snowball off the farm Napoleon decided to build the windmill after arguing for it not to be built. He also said that the windmill was his idea and Snowball stole the idea. This turned all the animals against Snowball and made Napoleon look like a better leader. With everyone on his side now Napoleon changed the commandments to his liking and began to lead like a dictator thus diminishing the utopian society.
There has to be laws made that keep everything running perfect because without them a utopian society is not possible. Without these strict laws people would have more freedom and could do what they want. A perfect example of a utopian society in the making but eventually failing because of the laws is Animal Farm. When Snowball and Napoleon take over they created seven commandments that everyone will live by. The original laws put into place were “whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy, whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend, no animal shall wear clothes, no animal shall sleep in a bed, no animal shall drink alcohol, no animal shall kill any other animal, all animals are equal”(Orwell). They thought these laws were perfect and would make everyone happy. They started to call this “Animalism” (Orwell). This worked for about a year until greed began to unfold. This shows that everything might be good at first but never last forever. Like in The Giver everyone was assigned there job in Animal Farm. They assigned them by their ability and what they could do, then at the end of the day everyone got their fair share of food. As time goes on Napoleon gets tighter control of all the rest of the animals. This is the start of a utopian society being ruined because one animal is becoming ruler and taking charge. Napoleon and Snowball agreed for a while but once they disagreed on the building of the windmill it was war between the two. Napoleon had nine dogs chase Snowball out of the farm and from that point on Napoleon had control of the farm. Since he was the leader he thought he could do whatever he wanted so he started breaking the original commandments they set up. The laws were now changed to “Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy, whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend, no animal shall wear clothes, no animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets, no animal shall drink alcohol to excess, no animal shall kill any other animal without cause, all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” (Orwell). At this point the utopian society is nonexistent and this farm has become a dictatorship with Napoleon as there leader. Not everyone is equal now; Napoleon has become more powerful than the rest. A utopia is a place of “ideal economic and social conditions” (World Book). Animal Farm shows that even though it might seem like everything is going well; it only takes one disagreement between two people to ruin everything they have worked for.
There are many rules that Jonas and the people living in The Giver’s utopian society live by.
There biggest one is they have a celebration when you reach the age of twelve. This marks your step into adulthood in the community and this is when they assign you your job. You are assigned a job based on your abilities and interests. At the ceremony of twelve, Jonas is given the highly honored Receiver of Memory. The Receiver is the community’s memory vault. When the community decided to go to “Sameness” (its painless, warless, and emotionless state of tranquility and harmony) it abandoned all memories of pain, war, and emotion. The memories cannot disappear completely because someone must bear the pain so the community does not make the same mistakes. Jonas is selected for this job by the current Receiver who is a wise old man who tells Jonas to call him The Giver. The Giver transmits memories by placing his hands on Jonas’ bare back. Jonas receives memories of pleasure and pain, hunger and love, and happiness and fear. After receiving these memories Jonas realizes how bland life is in the community. The memories make Jonas’ life better and more meaningful and he wishes that he could share the happiness he is experiencing with the people he loves. Jonas cannot share the joy with the community because they have never felt the joy of life before so they would not know what he is talking about. This is what Jonas has to deal with in exchange for his community’s peaceful existence.
Jonas can use his job as the Receiver for the greater good too. When a new child at the Nurturing Center cannot sleep through the night Jonas transmits soothing memories to him every night. Jonas builds a bond with Gabriel that he can only relate to his memories with his family before everything changed. When Gabriel is at risk of being “released” the Giver informs Jonas that being released is the same as death. Jonas was determined to not let this happen. The Giver told Jonas that the last Receiver was not capable of handling fear, death, and horror to the point where she asked to be released. When the Receiver is released he or she releases all the memories back into the community. This was ten years prior to Jonas and the community could not handle the sudden change in emotions and society. The Giver told Jonas to take Gabriel and go “Elsewhere” and he will handle the community’s emotions and sensations. By “Elsewhere” the Giver means out of the community where there are emotions and actual societies.
Then you are assigned a spouse and two kids. Your spouse is not the birthmother of your children because the children are taken from the Nurturing Center. This barely makes you even a family because you have no blood connection to anyone in your “family.” In this society there are no prejudices because everyone looks and acts the same way. In this environment no one has any real feelings or connections because they eliminated all pain, war, fear, hatred, and choice. With all the negative feelings and perspectives of life eliminated, everyone in The Giver’s utopian society is uncontrollably polite. Although this society is successful at eliminating negative feelings and negative aspects of life, this society could never last today.
In today’s society everyone wants and deserves a right to be heard. We are all about democracy and letting everyone have a say whether its voting on a presidential election or choosing who you want to date. Throughout Animal Farm and The Giver very few people actually have a say. In The Giver, they live in a perfect utopian society where everything they need to do in life is already chosen for them. They do not argue any of the choices made for them simply because they have never experienced anything else. In Animal Farm, they attempt to create a society that makes them equal by creating commandments for the animals to live by. This ultimately fails because they can feel emotions and greed gets the best of Napoleon who rises above everyone and becomes dictator. It is impossible to create a perfect utopian Society because everyone will not agree on everything. In today’s society people like to challenge people’s ideas and thoughts. Competition is an everyday action today and it is what keeps our technology and social issues advancing.