1984 and The Giver

When I was reading 1984 it came to my mind the similarities between other dystopian societies (The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner and so on). I know our teacher mentioned that The Hunger Games is similar to the dystopian novel 1984, but I do not want to raise a controversy among one of my favorite books, so I would like to compare it to another dystopian book, that I really like by the way, that is The Giver by Lois Lowry. I think they share a lot of similarities such as the concepts of sameness, loss of identity, a totalitarian regime, and so on. Moreover, there is controversy since some people believe that The Giver is a copy of 1984 (and also they are against of the idea that teenagers read The Giver in middle school).

I assume you know the plot of 1984, so I am just going to tell you (briefly) some important parts of The Giver in order to establish some comparisons among the both novels. Jonas (the main character and the rebel of the dystopian society) is turning 12 years old (in the movie he looks way older though). For this reason, he is part of The Ceremony which determines your job or assignment in the Community (a planned society under extreme control by the Elders). In his ceremony, he is assigned to be The Receiver, who is in charge of holding all the memories of the past. He is allowed to feel true sensations and feelings such as pain, love, true colors, etc. As I said before, people in the community are not able to feel real and truthful sensations, everything is controlled; what they eat, what they do (they are constantly being observed by the Elders as in 1984). What's more, they are not allow to decide by themselves; they cannot have sex, their families are assigned by the Elders of the community that must be composed by a man and a female as the parents and a boy and a girl as the children.

When Jonas is assigned to be the Receiver of Memories, he sees the truth; he sees that the leadership has kept them away of individuality, of the will to decide by themselves, of the possibility to feel because Elders are “protecting” the community against the past. But Jonas sees the tremendous loss that all the community has endured by being removed of their memories. So, Jonas with the Giver plan to return all the memories to the Community and then escape, but the plan changes because he discovers that his “brother” Gabe is going to be “released” (a term in the community used to say someone is going to be killed) and he escapes with Gabriel to save him. (I do not want to spoil you the end of the story, but it did not make me happy).

Now, I would like to establish some points of comparison between this two dystopian novels. First of all, the governments share similar ideas; both control societies, both governments decide what society can or cannot do (in The Giver is a little bit more extreme because with injections they also control the colors they can perceive). On the other hand, in 1984, Big Brother controls Oceania with different Ministries, such as: The Ministry of Truth which is the one involved with the control of the media, entertainment, propaganda, education etc. This is the one in charge of keeping the illusion of the absolute power of the Party and Big Brother. I also would like to mention the Ministry of Love (the one which enforces loyalty to the leadership through fear), the Ministry of Plenty (in charge of the economy; supplies, rations of food, etc.) and the Ministry of Peace (in charge of the army  which lives around the principle of perpetual war). To keep this absolute regime in Oceania, they live by the following slogan:

concept that it was so extreme that they were punished even with their own thoughts: "Thoughtcrime does not entail death, thoughtcrime IS death"

Moreover, both novels try to keep the concept of community or “sameness”. For example, in The Giver, Jonas says "our people made that choice, the choice to go to Sameness. Before my time, before the previous time, back and back and back. We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with difference. We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others"(95). On the other hand, in 1984, Oceania is controlled by Big Brother who does not allow people to decide by themselves, for example Winston says: “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” 

 

And finally, both novels share the connection between past and present. For example in 1984: “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” and in The Giver Jonas tells Gabe that "Things could be different. I don't know how, but there must be some way for things to be different. There could be colors. And grandparents," he added, staring through the dimness toward the ceiling of his sleepingroom. "And everybody would have the memories." Memories, that represent the past, in the first novel were unclear and untruthful, and in The Giver memories were forbidden for the Community, only the Receiver of Memories was able to know the true. in both cases, what seem to be real for people, is actually not real. People are manipulated by governments which believe they have the best option for their societies, but that, as we can see through the novels, is not true.

As a conclusion, these distopian heroes react against the system. They seem to have a social consciousness where probably nobody else has it. They live in a panoptical society where they are constantly being observed. However they are able to fight against that. In other words, we have to remember who the real enemy is.


References 

"1984" in Comparison to "The Giver". (2007, August 27). In WriteWork.com. Retrieved 17:43, November 19, 2014, from http://www.writework.com/essay/1984-comparison-giver

 

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. New York: Delacorte, 1993.

Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Signet Classics, 1977.