English 218 Discussion

NOTE:

For this question you must cite (quote and documente) specific passages from the book, explain the implications of those passages, show real-world parallels using concrete (actual) incidents,

Do not just generalize.

One of the roles of a science-fiction writer is to speculate about some possible future scenarios. In the area of dystopian fiction (such as 1984, Brave New World, Farenheit 451, The Handmaid's Tale, and so on), the author is most often warning about potential danagers in the future.

But these stories find their roots in the present. 1984, for example, was really a mirror of 1948 (note the inversion of the last two numbers in the years). Orwell saw huge chunks of Europe (including eastern Europe) turning into police states, and his novel is an exaggerated vision of what he was witnessing.

Likewise, The Giver is exaggerated to make a point (several points, actually); it's arresting, attention-getting. But the book is based on several trends that Lowry noted at the time she wrote the book (moreso now in the 21st century).

Answer the question below.

Although The Giver is a work of science fiction, what elements of the book relate (on some level) to the kinds of conditioning, attitudes, issues that we find in parts of the real world (including the U.S.) now?

Note: do not limit the discussion. If someone, for instance, comments on the way parenting is, more and more, being supplanted by government-mandated controls (in education, for example), then I don't want to see the entire class stuck on this one point. Someone else should look at how the job seleciton process in the book is similar to European and Asian systems and may make more sense than the self-selction that goes on in the U.S. Still another person could explore the problems of not limiting population mentioned in the book and apparent in parts of the world today. Explore lots of ideas in this week's discussion; this is a very rich book.

Discussion 10: Contemporary Children's Literature