The Giver vs. Brave New World
Uploaded by infamous7 on Sep 07, 2001
The Giver by Lois Lowry and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley have many similarities. They both take place in futuristic utopias where happiness is the overall goal. Jonas and Bernard, the major characters in the novels, are both restless individuals who want change. Despite the close similarities, there are many contrasts in the two novels. The childhood, family, and professions arrangements are differently portrayed in the similar novels The Giver and Brave New World.
The similarities in the two novels are few despite of the similar concept the novels have. Both deal with utopias where everyone is happy. They both have individuals wanting to change the way society operates. Every individual in the novel is genetically engineered and conditioned to like what he or she has and be happy. Emotions and feelings aren’t supposed to exist in either utopia. Though the utopia in Brave New World is more technologically advanced than the one in The Giver, they are both more advanced than today’s technology.
Growing up is very different in the two novels. In The Giver, each child grows up in a similar way to the way today. They each grow up in a family unit, go to school with children their age, and play child games like today’s. They grow to live a normal child until they reach the age of twelve, where they begin training for their assigned profession. In Brave New World, the children don’t experience childhood. After they are born in a lab, they are all conditioned what to like and what to hate according to their social placing. The children entertain themselves by playing very complex games that require much equipment and also by sexual recreation.
The two novels’ family unit system is very different from each other. The family structure in The Giver is somewhat similar to ours today. The families consist of parents and children but each family unit is limited. A unit is restricted to two adult parents, one male child, and one female child. Brave New World has no family structure. A motto included in the novel states, “everyone belongs to everyone else”. Every adult lives alone in his or her own apartment with no spouse but with many sexual partners.
Professions were assigned in both novels, but in a different manner. When children turned twelve years old in The Giver, they began training for the professions they were assigned. The professions assigned were...