The Strange Utopia of The Giver

The Strange Utopia of The Giver

Imagine living in a world where you can't choose your job, where at the age of twelve you are assigned an occupation by some group of elders. Imagine a world in which you can't choose that special person to be your wife or husband, a world where nobody is special. Visualize a place where you can't have your own children, where you have to take care of somebody else's children. In The Giver by Louis Lowry, this place exists every day. It's a perfect world, a utopia.

A job is, for many people, one of the most important parts of their life. If it's so important, you have to enjoy it, and to enjoy it, you have to choose it yourself. In this "utopia," created in The Giver you don't get to do that. Other people choose the activity you are going to do for the rest of your life. For example, Fiona was assigned Caretaker of The Old, a job she really wanted, but don't you think that maybe later in her life, she could change her mind and not want to do her job anymore? She can't do that because she lives in a world where she doesn't have a choice, where she can't run her own life. "You have the power to think what you want. No matter what the circumstance is." No one can tell you what to think, you have a mind of your own, and repressing your thoughts won't do any good at all. I want to give you a quote from the book. " I heard about a guy who was absolutely sure he was going to be an engineer and instead he was assigned sanitation laborer. He jumped into the river and swam to the closest community, no one saw him again." This demonstrates that the elders can be wrong. People defending Sameness can say that all the jobs are made for the people getting them and that they will like them and be an active part of the community. I am going to respond to that with a life story. Before I was twelve, all I wanted to do is be an architect.