Lois Lowry
Visions of dystopia in the giver and "The Lottery"
The Giver by Lois Lowry is just one of a large number of classical literature "dystopian". (Think of "utopia", and then think of the Third Reich.) What makes it stand out from novels such as 1984 or Brave New World – apart from the iconic cover old gray-man – Is that you can have memories of reading as early as the fourth or fifth grade, in this sense, it could put the Giver of the same category as "Shirley Jackson is the lottery" dystopian short story deceptively simple that many of us read in high school. Apart from the fact that probably has done some serious damage to the years training, the real shame here is that these stories are often seen as "easy" to read they do not deserve re-examination in school high school or college – you know, when you can actually understand. To set right these wrongs, we will compare the two stories for some literary I'Ll you show mine-if-you-show-me-yours.
The world Giver centers in a tightly controlled society known as The Community. Its members live in a kind of self-imposed stasis, which means that its population, behavior, language, activities, and emotions are controlled by a select group of elites known as the elderly. Just to be safe, however, the collective memory of humanity – including the experiences of reform before things like love, lust, hate, the fear, fun, pleasure, envy … Hell, even the color – are stored in a type known as "The Receiver of Memory", which keeps everyone of having to make choices that could be dangerous. Hopefully that never falls down the stairs or anything. In a more cryptic note, the Community remains healthy to "liberate" all sick children, old Geezers, and misfits to the land known as "elsewhere". Remember when Mom told her that the socks went to a ranch where could have fun in an area as big as the sky? Well, the difference here is that when mom said she was not the one doing the killing.
On the side positive living in the community to take all the trouble of having to seek work, because everyone is much in life … Well, just that each person is assigned a certain occupation at age eleven, without question or complaint. That is, until young Jonas is selected to replace the old ridiculous now man acting as a receiver memory (which is scheduled to make a little "day trip to another place" of his own), things crashed when the transfer of old memories of the man allows Jonas to feel things like love, pain, fear, and "holy crap! – Where are you sending my kid brother ill adoption? "Having learned that" liberation "involves more than a lethal injection and fell short in a bunch of garbage, Jonas decides to flee with little baby Gabriel, leaving the safety of the community to experience the freedom of independence, self-direction, nature, and, oh yeah, hunger. The story ends with Jonas and Gabriel malnourished sled down a hill in the snow. Or die – the book is not exactly clear. (What is ambiguous endings sledge of anyway?)
At first glance, this could not be more different from the beginning of "The Lottery", which is located in a small town United States, where everything seems to be half enough. We have the opportunity to meet families number of its inhabitants, as Hutchinson and Summers, as the community gathers around the post office of some kind of annual draw. The chit-chat adults, couples fight, and children make child-ey things as everyone awaits the stragglers to arrive and to start drawing. Meanwhile, we learn all about the appearance and the history of the lottery fund from which the lots. In the long past, a representative of the Hutchinson family selects a piece of paper marked the box indicating that your entire family is back for a draw between them. What we do not realize until bottom line is that whatever family member receives the "winner" a lot (in this case, Tess Hutchinson) is then stoned by the settlers of others – including his own family.
What makes "The Lottery" so creepy The Giver – apart from all the stoning children to parents / parents the stoning of children thing – is that while society seems to be working on giving some kind of magic, of society in "The Lottery" by good works ol 'fashioned social conditioning, we have no shortage in the real world. Worse, while the Community at least pretends to be looking out for himself, never townspeople in "The Lottery" give as much as I'm sorry, but – we are super-crowded as excuse for why the drawing is held or how it starts, the people engage voluntarily and without the need for a reason. The fact that almost a third of the story describes the tradition and make the lottery procedure emphasizes how the social ritual obscures any understanding of what is really happening – for readers and attendees alike lottery. And while the data This story may sound a little extreme, consider that Jackson ran this story in 1948 – just when the world was still coming to grips with the tragedy complete the Holocaust. However unlikely?
Think "utopia", and then think of the Third Reich.
About the Author
Shmoop is an online study guide for English Literature, Poems and American history. Its content is written by Ph.D. and Masters students from top universities, like Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, and Yale who have also taught at the high school and college levels. Teachers and students should feel confident to cite Shmoop.
A Chat with Lois Lowry