THE CONCEPT OF DYSTOPIA

The Giver is a work of dystopian fiction.

Dystopia is a word coined by J.S Mill to describe a state of affairs completely opposite to utopia.

Utopia was originally the name of an imaginary society created by Thomas More. In this city:

Every man has a right to everything, no man is poor, none in necessity, and though no man has anything, yet they are all rich.

The society of Utopia is an ideal society. It is, in other words, a society that operates in the best, the fairest and the most peaceful way. In short it is a good society.

Activity One:

In the box below represent (through words or pictures) what you believe are the characteristic qualities of a good society. Activity Two:

The most conventional way to define dystopia is to set it as the polar opposite of utopia. However, dystopias and utopias share a great number of similarities. You job, now is to compare and contrast the examples of utopia and dystopia in the following two pages.

In your exercise books draw a line through the page. On one side will be a section detailing characteristics of utopias, and on the other, a section detailing characteristics of dystopias.

Circle or highlight the similarities.

Activity Three:

What characteristics of utopia and dystopia exist in the society of The Giver?

Choose three of these characteristics and give evidence of them by drawing from the text. Write a PEEL paragraph for each one of the three characteristics you have selected. SCENES OF UTOPIA

Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks

From The Book of Isaiah, Ch. 11: 6-9 From Imagine by John Lennon

Imagine there's no countriesIt isn't hard to doNothing to kill or die forAnd no religion tooImagine all the peopleLiving life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamerBut I'm not the only oneI hope someday you'll join usAnd the world will be as one

Imagine no possessionsI wonder if you canNo need for greed or hungerA brotherhood of manImagine all the peopleSharing all the world...

The wolf will live with the lamb,the leopard will lie down with the goat,the calf and the lion and the yearling together;and a little child will lead them.

The cow will feed with the bear,their young will lie down together,and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

The infant will play near the cobras den,and the young child will put its hand into the vipers nest.

They will neither harm nor destroyon all my holy mountain,for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lordas the waters cover the sea.

From Book II of Mores Utopia:

In Utopia, where every man has a right to everything, they all know that if care is taken to keep the public stores full no private man can want anything; for among them there is no unequal distribution, so that no man is poor, none in necessity, and though no man has any thing, yet they are all rich.

SCENES OF DYSTOPIA

From the film Metropolis by Fritz Lang

From 1984 by George Orwell

How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?By making him suffer, he said. Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy everything. In the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card ... There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life... But always do not forget this, Winston always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face for ever.

Definition exercise.

QUESTIONS to do with the giver

Describe, drawing on the text for evidence,

Some page numbers.

Combarable to

Consider the conversation between Jonas and The Giver on pages 127-128 of the text:

Now that I can see colours, at least sometimes, I was just thinking: what if we could hold up things that were were bright red, or bright yellow, and he could choose? Instead of Sameness.He might make wrong choicesOh. Jonas was silent for a minute. Oh, I see what you mean. It wouldnt matter for a newchilds toy. But later it does matter, doesnt it? We dont dare to let people make safe choices of their own.

Jonass dilemma is not between bad rules and good rules, but between risky rules and safe rules.