***WARNING: There are spoiler alerts about The Giver in this blog post.***
*BACK STORY* About a year and a half ago (maybe even more), FATMAN! and I read The Giver by Lois Lowry; he for the second time, me for the first. And I absolutely loved it! Shortly after finishing The Giver, I discovered that it wasn't a stand alone book. It's part of a quartet series. So I immediately sought after the rest of the books and read them all. (I highly recommend all four books, especially if you want to find out what happens to Jonas.) FATMAN! on the other hand read other books. He is now reading the second book, Gathering Blue, and he and I had an interesting conversation. So interesting that I am going to share what we discovered together.
First, what is utopia? According to what popped up when I googled "utopia definition," it is "an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect." So basically, a perfect place where nothing bad or negative happens. Sounds wonderful, right? No illnesses, no accidents, nothing harmful would ever happen, no one would fight, nothing negative would ever be said (or even thought), etc.
In a good story, you have to have a conflict or problem of some kind, even in a utopia. In The Giver, the conflict is a secret. The government body of "the Elders" genetically manipulate everything in their community to create the utopia that they oversee. But the secret and the manipulation are negative things that are happening. So doesn't this override the Utopian concept? Doesn't it automatically turn the community into a tyranny? But the residents are unaware about the secrets and manipulation (or at least they are unaware of all of the secrets and manipulation) and believe in the utopia. So FATMAN! and I concluded that no matter what, secrets are needed in any kind of utopia to hide even the harsh truths from the residents, but because secrets are considered to be a negative thing, and utopia can't have any negativity, utopia is a paradox. You can't have utopia, a perfect world, without some secrecy.
Thus turning the utopia in The Giver into a dystopia, but no one knows any better. A dystopia is "an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one." Or in other words, a place and people that is under extreme control, even by fear, but the leaders are trying to make life perfect. For example Hunger Games and the Empire in Star Wars. The main difference between a utopia and a dystopia is that the residents in a utopia society are happy and the residents in a dystopia are angry and powerless. I'm sure that if Lois Lowry had gone back to the community after Jonas leaves, there would be proof of the dystopia. (For those who have not read it, I will not describe anymore and let you read for yourself.) But the community in Gathering Blue is definitely a dystopia. All of the people are miserable and scared of any unknown territory because the Elders have spread lies about horrible beasts. What's worse is the truth that the lie is covering for. (Again, for those who haven't read the book yet, I won't spoil it for you.) The people in Gathering Blue are told what to do and when their entire lives. And because they know that if they were to stray from the rules, they will be in danger from whatever lives beyond the boundaries of the village. They don't know any better so they give in to the fear that has been created for them without much proof.
If you were to ask me, I would say that dystopia is possible. It's also called tyranny. Throughout history there have been many people who believe they can use fear to make others do their will and become obedient and submissive. But what about a utopia? Is it possible to achieve a true utopia? I say not in this world. To achieve a true utopia there can't be any secrets or cover-ups. There can't be any fear and no negativity of any kind at all. There has to be perfection. And for this to happen, there can't be any humans. Humanity and the nature of man will always prevent us from having any kind of perfection in this life. But I believe that whatever waits for us after death will be perfect, will be a utopia.
So I guess we will have to keep reading about utopian situations in books until we reach the day when we actually get to experience it. Just imagine living in a perfect world with no fear, no harm, no lies, no doubts, no sorrow, nothing negative whatsoever. That would be heaven. That would be utopia.
