Is it just me or does Plato's ideal city remind any one else of the city in The Giver? Granted they're not 100% identical, but there are some similarities that have caught my attention. First of all, the citizen's information is extremely censored in the book even to the point where everyone only sees in black and white. Their jobs are assigned to them based on their achievements (just like when Plato said the son of a politician should not be a politician if he is not good at politics). The "parents" in the households do not have their own children. There are birthing women who give birth to every child. This was similar to the parents and children never getting to know one another. Although in The Giver the children live with parents they will never know their bilogical parents. Finally, in book ten as Plato summarizes everything, I could not help but notice that Plato wants to practically get rid of emotions like hate, anger, lust, love, and more. These emotions influence one's soul for the worst and messes with one's rational thought process, which also reminded me of the way the city in The Giver was set up. There may be more examples or my connection may be completely off. I would appreciate feedback! Thanks!
P.S. I commented on Abbey Griffin's!
I've only read the beginning of The Giver, but I thought the exact same thing as we have been discussing.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I'm not the only one who was thinking Plato's Republic would make a great template for a dystopia. I think the censorship angle is something that a lot of stories like The Giver have used, though The Giver used it really well. There was another dystopia a few years back that had to do with getting rid of the community's emotions, too. Crazy.
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