Lowry Illustrates a Futursitic Society Through Her Experiences in Japan in the Giver

Lois Lowry's book, The Giver, illustrates a futuristic society in which a strict law is enforced and no citizen thinks of going against that law. There are no deviations from what is considered the normal. A large contribution to the creation of their perfect society is keeping the public unaware of things happening around them. Lowry helps create this perfect world by creating euphemisms in their everyday speech where the main purpose is keeping the public from completely understanding the whole truth. Not only did the euphemisms play a large part in the book, but also,the author's own personal experiences and events that occurred around the same time as the writing of the book helped to shape the book into what it is now.

In 1994, Lowry began her Newbery Medal acceptance speech by explaining that the origins of her book came from her memories of her childhood. During the speech Lowry explains that while she is eleven years old she goes to Japan with her family where they lived in a small enclosed American community in the middle of Japan. She then explains that later in her life her mother tells her that the reason they did not take the opportunity to live in an actual Japanese community and learn from the culture around them was that the American culture that they did live in was familiar and safe (Telgen 169). Lowry based the community that she writes about in her book off of her own community in Japan. The strict rules and the “sameness” that is enforced in Jonas' community directly correlated to the safe environment Lowry grew up in that blocked out anything that was different from what they knew.

Lowry continues to explain her experiences living in her American community in Japan by talking about the countless times...

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...d were explained by Jonas when he said, “[r]elease of the elderly, which was a time of celebration for a life well and fully lived; and release of a newchild, which always brought a sense of what-could-we-have-done” (Lowry 7). Not only were people released for becoming too old or babies released for not being strong enough to help achieve the goal of sameness, but criminals were also released for not following the rules set by the community. Lilly explains this when she says, “[t]he rules say that if there's a third transgression, he simply has to be released” (Lowry 9). Throughout The Giver Lowry creates strict rules that the community must follow in order to achieve a level of “sameness.” These rules and sameness that Lowry uses symbolize a futuristic utopia that Lowry strives to create using euphemisms to disguise things that would normally be upsetting.