Hollan Southwick Blog Post 7

I am choosing to work with The Giver by Lois Lowry as my primary source for Unit 3.  The Giver is a book about a young boy named Jonas.  At first, it appears that Jonas and the rest of his community lives in a utopian society.  They live in a community that follows "Sameness" - no color, no pain, no memories, and no emotion.  The idea of Sameness is for everyone to be equal and maintain order.  As the story unfolds, however, Jonas's world seems to become more and more like a dystopia.  Jonas has been selected to take the job of "Receiver of Memory," which means that he will be given memories of times before Sameness.  This is the most important job in this society. 

I believe this book will be the most interesting to analyze because it is originally laid out as a utopian society in the beginning of the book.  Once you continue to read, however, there is evidence of dystopian characteristics.  For example, it becomes clear to the reader that the government in Jonas’s society is partially tyrannical.  They take away a person’s individuality and compose rules that everyone must follow, such as taking a “medication” a necessity.  This medication is used to stop people from seeing color; they can only see black and white.  Therefore, one of the most important details in this book is color, which I find fun to analyze.