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Lois Lowry: The Perfect Society

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Lois Lowry: The Perfect Society
The Perfect Society
By Samiksha Seshadri, Period 4 (Split Core)

Have you ever thought of what would be your version of a perfect society? The Giver by Lois Lowry is about a boy named Jonas who lives in a futuristic society. This society has many rules, but also has no fear, war, or any of the dangerous things we face today. The people of this society have no memories of previous eras (Our times), and instead choose a Receiver of Memory. The Receiver carries all the memories from the previous eras, which are transferred to him/her by The Giver (The Giver is the previous Receiver). In this book, Jonas is chosen to be the Receiver. However, as he learns more about the past world, he realizes that he cannot bear to live in his plain world anymore,
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For example, even if you get hurt, there are painkillers that make the pain instantly subside. Another example/reason as to how there is no pain is that death is not painful. On pages 149-150, Jonas’ father states, “He pushed the plunger very slowly, injecting the liquid into the scalp vein until the syringe was empty. ‘All done. That wasn’t so bad, was it?’” Because the injection was so simple, this shows that death is not painful, and who wouldn’t want to live in a world where you have painless deaths? Think of all the different, painful ways we could die from today, like a disease or sickness. A painless injection is much better than dying from one of those ways.When Jonas’ father says, “All done. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he is showing that the injection is so simple, so painless, and in my opinion, I would rather die of a painless injection rather than some of the death causes we face today, like cancer. Like these, sameness is another justification as to why the society in The Giver is a utopia.

Another reason why the society in The Giver is a utopia is that the society has sameness, or everything is the same. One example of this is climate control. On pages 83-84, The Giver says, “‘...Snowing made food difficult, limited the agricultural periods. And unpredictable weather made transportation almost impossible at times. It wasn’t a practical thing, so it became obsolete when we went to

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