Knowledge is Misery in The Giver by Lois Lowry

Ignorance Keeps Pain Out of Utopian Societies

Sep 19, 2009

Ignorance and knowledge are often in conflict in utopian literature.

Throughout the decades, utopian authors have tried to portray images of the ideal society, improving upon the conditions of each time period and adding their own suggestions for enhancement. In many of their works, the concepts of ignorance and knowledge are pit against each other, as if both cannot exist without them coming into conflict. This is true in The Giver, where Lois Lowry shows how societal ignorance and isolated knowledge can lead to misery.

The Ignorant Community

Utopias are maintained by limiting community members' access to information. In each case, it is apparent that the pursuit of perfection within these worlds is overtly or covertly entwined with the concept of ignorance, as the people within the utopic state are exposed to nothing other than what they have been taught by those in positions of authority.

The society within The Giver is guarded from its own history, in order to avoid the suffering that accompanies what Lowry portrays to be the pain of memory. The people can go about their daily lives without giving any thought to potential problems, ambiguities, and immoralities embedded within the community.

The Knowledge Bearer

The main character, Jonas, is "the receiver," the person who is exempt from the protection that ignorance offers. As time goes on, he becomes aware of concepts that he never knew existed: war, pain, love, warmth, family, color, and death. But when he tries to reveal his memories and feelings to his friends and family, they don’t understand.

“They have never known pain, he thought. The realization made him feel desperately lonely…" By exhibiting Jonas’s changing emotions this way, Lowry describes the human need for understanding. Yet she takes away this option by creating the position of the receiver, a task whose goal requires him to be solitary, and thus, experience his pain alone.

Knowledge is Misery in Utopian Literature

Within Utopias, there is often one person or one small group that recognizes the problems within the society, but no matter how enlightened they may be, the information is useless as long as there is no one to believe it, no one to comprehend. This is the case in The Giver.

As long as an individual is alone in his intelligence, he is destined to feel lonely and unfulfilled, while the rest of the populace continues to be happy and unaware. In a utopia, knowledge is misery and ignorance is Bliss.

The copyright of the article Knowledge is Misery in The Giver by Lois Lowry in Classic American Fiction is owned by Nadia Santiago. Permission to republish Knowledge is Misery in The Giver by Lois Lowry in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.