Utopia, is it possible?
For the past few L.A. lessons, we have been going through The Giver and about how the people in this society undergo laborious activity to achieve “Sameness” in their community.
In The Giver’s society, the people have been freed from all the suffering and pain of this world and lead rather unfeeling and monotonous lives. However, all these changes they have made to the society have also resulted in the people being deprived from freedom of choice and has caused them to lose their individuality and creativity as well. All these negative aspects to achieving “Sameness” in the society have landed the community in more of a dystopian setting rather than the utopia they were trying to achieve. I feel that it is truly very disheartening to think of human beings, just like us, being barred from the true pleasures of life as well as the deep emotions of this world.
In The Giver’s society, the people have been freed from all the suffering and pain of this world and lead rather unfeeling and monotonous lives. However, all these changes they have made to the society have also resulted in the people being deprived from freedom of choice and has caused them to lose their individuality and creativity as well. All these negative aspects to achieving “Sameness” in the society have landed the community in more of a dystopian setting rather than the utopia they were trying to achieve. I feel that it is truly very disheartening to think of human beings, just like us, being barred from the true pleasures of life as well as the deep emotions of this world.
In The Giver’s society, the people were genetically modified in such a way that they were neither able to see colors nor hear music, and this caused the people to be rather indifferent towards each others’ physical differences. Assignments and spouses were also meticulously selected for the people based on their personalities and talents and even the members of each family unit, carefully observed and handpicked for each unit.
However, despite all their attempts to acquire “Sameness” in this dystopian society, there will always be an unavoidable hierarchy for the peoples’ assigned roles. For instance, even though the people in the society were each assigned their specific roles in the community, of which the chief elder regards as “Honoring their differences”, there was still discrimination against some jobs such as the Birthmother, which Jonas’s mother outspokenly deemed as a “job without honor”.
To achieve a utopian society, memories of the past have been completely washed from the peoples’ minds as well and they are also modified so that they will better conform to the ways of the society. Taking away all the emotions of the people, they live rather cold lives and this I feel is taking away an integral part of a human being’s life.
So, a utopia, is it really possible? Well, in my opinion it is as its meaning clearly describes, an “imaginary island", not possible and will never be .
However, despite all their attempts to acquire “Sameness” in this dystopian society, there will always be an unavoidable hierarchy for the peoples’ assigned roles. For instance, even though the people in the society were each assigned their specific roles in the community, of which the chief elder regards as “Honoring their differences”, there was still discrimination against some jobs such as the Birthmother, which Jonas’s mother outspokenly deemed as a “job without honor”.
To achieve a utopian society, memories of the past have been completely washed from the peoples’ minds as well and they are also modified so that they will better conform to the ways of the society. Taking away all the emotions of the people, they live rather cold lives and this I feel is taking away an integral part of a human being’s life.
So, a utopia, is it really possible? Well, in my opinion it is as its meaning clearly describes, an “imaginary island", not possible and will never be .
Labels: differences, pleasures, sameness
posted by alethea sim @ 3:38 AM
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