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ABSTRACT
Dystopia is real
...
Dystopia projected in the books
of Lois Lowry has many similarities and differences which is the subject matter of B
...

dissertation and thus, can be compared to each other
...
Theories of deviance from different disciplines and meticulous observation of the
elements of different dystopia make this paper a very effective tool to study dystopian
projections
...

The question of freedom and its suppression is faced by everyone once in a while
...
A thorough reading
of the text would indicate that the author has subtly urged her readers to react with conscience
and give hope to make the world a better place
...
It also takes into account the dystopia in the select novels and why the author
chooses to write it
...
The Giver and
Gathering Blue project dystopia and its effects on the people
...

In the third chapter of the dissertation, deviance and conformity are explained under
the purview of dystopian fiction
...


Arya, 1

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Dystopia and utopia are the two sides of a coin
...
Their
decision is carried out by generations
...
They have populated nearly the whole world but the quality of life people left to live is
at stake
...
Dystopia is a world where humankind has
developed a problem which they could not solve and the result degrades the quality of life
drastically
...
These two concepts form major fiction genres
in literature
...
Speculative fiction also includes dystopian
literature which is a response to utopian literature
...
Dystopia raises real-world issues and makes the world aware of possible
threats in the near future to come
...

The present thesis deals with the depiction of dystopia in the select novels of Lois Lowry
...
Adolescence brings
emotions and questions about almost everything in minds of the young adults
...

Young adults are the future of every country and their belief in morals will be the most fundamental
building blocks for future generations
...
She connects it with her fictional dystopia
...
Lowry's work deals with the futuristic
society which is first set in utopia and with time uncovers the real dystopian world
...
Lowry has received many awards as the author of children fiction
...

The present thesis compared the dystopia projected in her novels and shows the similarities and
differences in the lives of people living in those dystopic worlds
...
1 LITERATURE REVIEW
Many critics have acknowledged Lowry’s contribution to the genre of dystopian literature for
children
...
Some of the important studies carried out on Lowry’s novels are as
follows:
Kezang Nima in “Contextualising Freewill in Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver” finds that
the novel is significant to raise awareness in the society about free will, especially among children
...
“Free will and
freedom are fundamental attributes for human beings to sustain and survive in this

Arya, 3
universe
...

Susan Stewart in her article “A Return to Normal: Lois Lowry's The Giver” argued that the
dystopian novels serve as cultural critiques and as they are didactic, she suggests, “We can infer
that Lowry attempts to bring to our attention the issues that arise regarding race
...
There is no basis for argumentation because,
with the exception of Jonas and The Giver, everyone seems relatively content with the
circumstances” (9)
...
But this raises the question of whether the ending is
optimistic or not
...

Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel “Brave New World” revolves around the conflict
between the choice of being happy with drugs and the choice of being unhappy with free will
...
This helps the government to perpetuate its totalitarian governance
...
Though drugs for happiness are not used the medication to suppress extreme
emotions is obligatory for everyone in the community
...
This medication eliminated love, anger and
hatred from the lives of people
...
She showed the dehumanising state of women due to

Arya, 4
the newly uprising power
...
The work of birthing children for the regime is a job of a particular set of women, and
they were also ought to have intercourse at any time and number as per demand
...
Birthing mothers are the only set of
women that are allowed to give birth to the children
...
In both novels, this job is looked down upon by other people in the community
...
The first book has gained much recognition all over the world and also won many awards,
including ‘John Newberry Medal’ in 1994 and ‘Teen Choice Award for Choice Book’ in 2012
...
In The Giver, a futuristic society, at
first, a utopia as described by the author is free from pain and confusion, competition and
differences, crimes and bad behaviour
...
This harmony comes at the price
of losing free will and emotions
...
These
elders prioritise the obligation to follow the rules by each citizen without any failure
...
Clothes, the colour of their skin, and even language are all part of
conformity
...
They set the path of every citizen from birth to old age
if they are good enough to contribute to society’s common

Arya, 5
good, otherwise, they are released to Elsewhere
...

Rules became rituals when followed unquestioned
...
Jonas’s father is a nurturer and takes care of the children born to birthmothers
...
The concept of death is obliviated from their world
which restricts them to appreciate the life of a human, just like everyone is restricted to give birth
...
Jonas could see beyond what readers find in later chapters that he can see colours where
everyone sees the world in shades of black and white
...
Through time Jonas learned the feelings of true happiness, excitement, pleasure,
sadness, grief, fear, and bravery
...
As
Giver told him, “We gained control of many things
...
In the end, Jonas escaped from the community because of the realisation of the wrongs
elders were doing and also because of the realisation of what it is to be a human
...
The Council of Guardians are the authority ruling this village and developed
control over all the resources and actions of the people
...
Her mother died
because of an unknown disease and her father was supposedly killed by a beast
...
The village area is very unhygienic and lacks necessities like healthy food and clean
water
...
They get used to living like this and felt nothing
wrong
...
Villagers did not want useless people
who could not walk or labour and eats a lot
...
She was controlled by Jamison when provided with food, water and other facilities
she has never experienced
...

In this dystopia too, people are killed if they are of no use or if they are a threat to the
regime
...
Children were kept in an “Edifice” because of their talent and had them work
with or without their consent
...
Jo was always locked up in her cell and chained when she was out for the stage show
held by guardians annually to tell the history and future of humans
...
In the end, Kira realises everything the
guardians told was a lie
...
This is the plot summary of the dystopia shown in The Giver and
Gathering Blue for the readers to understand the analysis attempted in this dissertation
...
2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The present study will critically examine the select novels through the lens of dystopian fiction
...


To analyse the different measures taken by the author to present dystopia in the
lives of people
...


To find out the common themes the author has used in the select novels
...


To rationalise the similarities and differences between the two dystopic worlds
...


To understand the development of deviation and conformity in the protagonists of
the select novels
...
3 RESEARCH QUESTION
1
...
How do the rules of a dystopian world become incentives for the protagonists to show
deviance and conformity?

Arya, 8

1
...
The term dystopia deals with a wide variety of issues relating to humankind and its
society
...
This study could not deal with all types of
dystopia in single research work
...
Many science-fiction
authors have dealt with the concept of dystopia, but it is not possible to take into account
everyone’s perspective on dystopia
...
It is also not possible to study every dystopian novel by this
author, so the study will analyse these two novels only: The Giver (1993) and Gathering Blue
(2000)
...
5 METHODOLOGY
The study has used the strategy of thorough reading and analysis of primary texts that are, The
Giver published in 1993 and Gathering Blue published in 2000
...
To further understand the concepts of
dystopia, A Clockwork Orange published in 1962 and written by Anthony Burgess is taken as
secondary text which provides a strong viewpoint of totalitarian dystopia
...
This study uses
qualitative data to deal with the objectives of the thesis
...


Arya, 9

CHAPTER 2
TOTALITARIAN DYSTOPIA
People always have to make decisions in their lifetime, sometimes for themselves and sometimes
for the welfare of everyone in society
...
With every progressive ideology, there always has been
someone fascist and absolutist in greed for power
...
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a
boot stamping on a human face--forever” (Orwell, 1984 267)
...
In dystopian
worlds, a totalitarian ruling body manipulates thought processes, decision-making, and
fundamental liberties of speech, behaviour, and expression
...
“To turn a decent young man into a piece of clockwork should not, surely, be
seen as any triumph for any government” (Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange 148)
...
1 WISE RULES, FIRST AND LAST DELUSION

Rules are the building blocks of the society and beginning with the facade of a utopian society is
a common feature and can be seen in the selected novels of Lois Lowry viz
...
In every dystopian totalitarian world, it has been the first and
foremost rule to showcase that the present society is free from all conflicts and is a very suitable

Arya, 10
place to inhabit
...
In the novel The Giver, the world is free from
disorder and chaos, from differences and confusion, from pain and suffering
...
They have resolved every problem humans have ever faced
and fought against
...
The protagonist of this dystopic novel
is very unfortunate as she was already fatherless and crippled
...
She has become an orphan and
with her cottage burnt she became homeless also
...
Some parts of this world
are not suitable to inhabit because of the worst living conditions but other parts also lack
necessities of life including hygiene, comfort or food and water
...


2
...
1 CONTROL OVER FREE WILL AND SPEECH

Elders introduced rules like the precision of language which resolved the conflict that could
develop because of the reaction to words that induces excitement or depression; hatred or love; or
any other feeling that can infringe on the community’s sense of order and success
...
Many other rules have formed, from assigned
clothing to morning routines, and obeying the curfew has become a part of their daily lives
...
They were not even able to recognize their algorithmic lifestyle
...
This made them unknown to desires and wishes, to risk and fear
...
They
perform the sharing of feelings as a ritual every night
...
Jonas the protagonist in conversation with the Giver on the
realisation of free will for the first time,
Jonas: "If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the
morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?" He looked down at himself, at the
colourless fabric of his clothing
...
" Then he laughed a little
...
It doesn't matter
...


2
...
2 CONTROL OVER POPULATION

Committee of Elders is an extreme form of a totalitarian government which controls from the birth
of the children to the death of anyone whosoever is of no help to society anymore
...
Another example

Arya, 12
of the existence of dystopia lies not so deep beneath the surface of the orderly-functional
community where control is at its zenith
...
How can there be a home without the
bonds of friendships, without love for each other just the assigned children and assigned parents
with the assigned roles? Each December, all the new children born in the previous year turned
One
...
They had been
brought to the stage by the Nurturers who had cared for them since birth
...
But I'd been wondering and
wondering what her name would be” (Lowry, The Giver 11-12)
...
The Council of Guardians is
a body ruling every aspect of its citizens from birth to death
...
This deteriorates the quality of the family
and further, it risks the future of the child because it becomes a burden to a family which did not
want a child in the first place
...
“Solora’s tykes would be given away, distributed to those who had none
...
No one would desire Kira” (Lowry, Gathering Blue 4)
...
1
...

All things are connected and well planned for the security and harmony of the communities
...
Children are
trained differently for their assigned roles, the only time when differences are acknowledged and
celebrated
...
This all has been made possible not only because of the
preaching of absolute rules but the practice of it makes it effective
...
There’s little importance
placed on individuals, each one is an interchangeable entity easily replaced
...
The
couple had lost their first Caleb, a cheerful little Four” (Lowry, The Giver 44)
...
The grandiose festival is
organised majestically and consequently marks the day of exercising authority all over the village
...
And your fingers were long and well-shaped—’(Lowry, Gathering Blue 5)
...
The syllable of their name

Arya, 14
indicates how mature they have become
...
Honour is directly related to the name as Kira honoured her father by saying, “He was old
then, four syllables, and he had been the leader of the people, the chief guardian, for a long time
...
They recognise the talent of the children and
bring them to the Council Edifice to train them so that they can contribute to the festival and further
glorify the aura of Guardians:
The guardians with their stern faces had no creative power
...
They were forcing the children to describe the future they wanted, not the one that
could be (Lowry, Gathering Blue 238)
...
1
...
Errors and failures infringe on
the community’s sense of order and success and they are also a matter of shame
...
Failures are not
given many chances and are dealt with accordingly
...
This concept
is engraved in their life without knowing the real meaning, they just know people are sent to
somewhere they deserve
...


Arya, 15
Another noticeable facade is in the name which includes ‘Guardians’ and is ironic to see
that they are not guarding citizens and their liberty
...
This is done by introducing so-called wise
rules and a fear in support to control the way of everyone’s thinking
...
Population control and resource distribution are the
major incentives to pass any rule or to exploit anyone justifiably
...
They do not need any less
productive child who is of no value to them; to grow and scarcer the resources
...
This is their way of celebrating the death rituals
...
Death is
rewarded but again not openly, they are left in the field of leaving after spreading the news of
natural death
...
This all has been done in secrecy so that citizens will remain
unaware of death
...
That is why Death is celebrated in the name,
‘Ceremony of release to elsewhere’ and most of the time old aged and suspects of the future
rebellion and crimes are sent elsewhere
...
Jonas’s mother explained the rules of
releasing in the following excerpt:

Arya, 16
You know that there's no third chance
...
” Jonas shivered
...
There was even a boy in
his group of Elevens whose father had been released years before
...
It was hard to imagine (Lowry, The Giver 9)
...
They have other measures to control thoughts and that is with the help of
fear
...
“But stay on the path always
...
A Guardian, Jamison told Kira that before her birth, her father
was taken by beasts
...

Guardians spread this delusion and declared themselves warriors and wisest of all
...


2
...
The Source of its evilness are nothing but the rules it introduced and this hollow civilisation
can only be broken down if attacked on its source
...
Those who got
free from the delusion are those who participated in the rebellion
...
”
The Giver told him (Lowry, The Giver 162)
...
They are the pillars of
society and the burden of these pillars is carried by the people and a totalitarian government rests
on top of it
...
Rules are the first to create delusion and also the last nail in the coffin
when broken down
...


Arya, 18

CHAPTER 3
DEVIANCE
Deviance and conformity lie in the very nature of humans
...
This is
possible if we have the freedom to form opinions on the ideologies that govern our daily lives and
the world
...
“The
deviant and the conformist
...
”
As Kai Erikson, a renowned sociologist said
...
Jonas had chosen his path by being deviant in society and acted
against all odds for the most basic and dire need of human beings which made humans humans
...
Kira has neither started a revolution nor taken a step against the
regime
...
This made
readers question whether the dystopia was too tyrannical to escape or too difficult to break the
charm of this regime even for the protagonist or the character of Kira is not much developed as
compared to the character of Jonas
...
Realisation is the fundamental attribute to bringing change in self
and society
...


Arya, 19

3
...
It is not an act
done but the reaction it induces from people makes the act deviant and the doer of it deviant
...
Conformity, on the other hand, states
the compliance to the rules of government or opinion presented
...
To prevent society from such a menace,
the state introduced formal sanctions for violating social norms and rituals
...
It is also important to note that deviance and its punishment vary from society
to society
...
In an authoritative
society, rules tend to become rituals because of the inability to raise doubt and being a conformist
...


3
...
If
we first discuss the theory of the medical criminologist, Cesare Lombroso, he introduced the
biological reasons to explain deviance in deviants
...
Strong physicality and a weak
mentality that resembles early human beings are the traits of every deviant
...

In the novel The Giver, Protagonist Jonas has a healthy body and mind like everyone in the
community
...
But among all
of the young people, Jonas was the only one who knew the meaning of the word violence and
experienced it when he received the memories from the Giver
...
"So if you escape, once you are gone--and, Jonas, you know
that you can never return–, Jonas nodded solemnly” (Lowry, The Giver 155)
...

Another biological aspect of why Jonas is the most relevant suspect of being deviant
...
He showed the readers that this
totalitarian government is falling apart and it has already begun from the birth of Jonas with

the blue eyes
...
“The
Committee of Elders was sitting together in a group, and the Chief Elder's eyes were now on one
who sat in the midst but seemed oddly separate from them
...
Another person who helped Jonas
in being deviant was the Giver
...
He holds the memories of mutiny and could even lie as others do not
know lying
...


Arya, 21
As Cesare Lombroso theorised whosoever is capable of doing deviant acts will become
deviant
...
This can be seen in the other dystopia of Lowry,
Gathering Blue
...
She has a
crippled leg and because of that, she could not walk long distances and even could not stand for
long minutes
...
Her biology makes her susceptible to being left for the field of
leaving
...
She was
saved by one of the guardians when she was on the verge of getting expelled from the village or
even life
...
When she encounters some deviance she gives herself reasoning to support
guardians and denies the deviance she heard or saw
...
This makes her a conformist, an opposite personality to Jonas
...
3 SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH
This approach places almost all the explanatory powers in a person’s environment
...
The communities in The Giver are well
planned and stainless
...
Society is all around us and its

Arya, 22
culture, language, its norms affect everyone differently
...
It is the societal norm which develops the reaction to deviance
...
Society impacts unconsciously and it is
something even the Elders with all their restrictions and power could not control
...
3
...
Merton
in 1948
...
’ This theory is based on the introduction
of a false belief which evokes the new behaviour toward the rumour
...
In the novel The Giver, where the surrounding
environment to people’s culture is controlled and everyone is kept under relentless observation,
some deviants are eventually born
...
Elders
took this risk to make him the next receiver of memories
...
He also has something rare called the Capacity to See Beyond…
Jonas is unsure what this Capacity to See Beyond is
...

They knew that he is the only one to see colours which they call ‘capacity to see beyond
...
The expectations have risen for him in the eyes of Elders
...
Jonas
...
"JONAS
...
JONAS
...
He did not know what his selection meant
...
Or what would become of him” (Lowry, The Giver 64)
...
“From this moment you are exempted from rules governing
rudeness
...
Do not discuss
your training with any other member of the community, including parents and Elders
...
Except for illness or injury unrelated to your
training, do not apply for any medication
...
You may lie”
(Lowry, The Giver 68)
...
This means the environment provided by the Elders to Jonas
encouraged him to be deviant in society
...


3
...
2 LABELLING THEORY
People are deviant because they are labelled as Deviants
...
Becker, an American
Sociologist developed and popularised the Labelling Theory in his 1963 book Outsiders
...
When an individual
is unjustifiably termed as deviant, his actions are seen by society with the perspective of indecency
and denial
...

Their non-deviant actions are being ignored by society to support their prior beliefs about that
person
...
People cherry-pick the information about them and label them
as deviants
...
He then gets used to the satisfaction of committing it and commits again and again
...
His fate had already been decided when he was born
...
We have observed him meticulously
...
(Lowry, The Giver 62) The moment he was labelled to be the next Receiver of
Memories, opinions and expectations started to form
...
“We failed in our last selection, the Chief Elder said
solemnly
...
“We have not been hasty this time,”
she continued
...
” (Lowry, The Giver 61)
...

Elder forces an identity on Jonas, that someone from the past has already failed to serve
this position and a ten-year-long wait is fulfilled
...
This could be the main incentive for his deviancy shown in later chapters of
the novel
...
“You've been greatly honoured,'' his mother said
...
” “It's the most important job in the community,” Father said
...
He already started fearing losing them because he was assigned to a very
important task which consumes all his voluntary time
...
What would happen

Arya, 25
to his friendships? His mindless hours playing ball, or riding his bike along the river? Those had
been happy and vital times for him
...
It fills those holes which were never meant to be there in the first
place
...
Labelling is never meant for
good
...
One thing is that norms and laws reflect the interest of the powerful
...
Powerful can
defend themselves against labels of deviance
...
A dystopia which rules tyrannically affects everyone in every possible way to
perpetuate its regime
...
This type of regime does not stop from exploiting its citizens, even they can label
any person as a deviant who can threaten the power of government, its rules or norms
...
Lowry sometimes uses similar motifs to develop the
complexity and seriousness in her work
...
Lois Lowry of all
writers in the genre of children’s books impacted most and intended to develop their conscience
and emotions
...

There are many similarities in the lives of people of two different dystopian societies but
the methods to attain control over almost everything are different
...
The delusions through a speech made people of the
fictional world grasp the different meanings of free will and other fundamental concepts of life
...
Plato and Aristotle
believed that everything has an essence including us and our essence existed in us before we were
even born
...
The urgency of
accomplishment, the need to express love, now not later”
...
This fiction is no different from the reality of the present world where measures

Arya, 27
were taken by different countries to control the population
...
Great Britain, for example, has accomplished what is known as
demographic transition, i
...
, it has moved from a condition of a high birthrate and high death rate
(before the Industrial Revolution) to one of a high birthrate and low death rate (during
industrialization), and finally to one of low birthrate and low death rate (as a postindustrial society)
...
One is
set in a very technological and artificial place where even the environment and nature are fully
controlled and the government can provide every service to make life comfortable
...
Every
person has to struggle for survival and purposeful or comfortable life is long gone, what is left
there is envy, hate and violence
...
Deviance is always a threat to a government
...
The greek philosopher, Aristotle, had said that there
are three techniques to persuade people which are Ethos, Pathos and logos
...
In 1933, more than 25,000
books were burnt by the Nazi Party officials
...
Pseudoscience was also largely prevalent and dubious research papers
were being published that stated that the Germans were of a superior race
...


Arya, 28
Hitler has killed the logic and brainwashed people developing conformity for his regime among
Germans
...

The thesis is helpful to understand dystopia, particularly dystopia as shown by Lois Lowry
...


Arya, 29

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Arya, 30
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Arya, 31



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