One Person's Dystopia… : Competing Visions of Liberalism in The Giver

Abstract

At a time when pandemic and public health reality require an examination of our habits and practices, one of the most enduring tensions to be navigated is that between collective welfare and individual liberty—especially when the exercise of such liberty can put the wider population at serious risk. Though health (or other) crises are not the only context in which such tensions manifest, they can sharpen the divide on how best to secure the public good for individuals living in community. Furthermore, this problem of political economy finds itself the subject of exploration in a range of contexts, from philosophy to literature, especially when assessing the relative boundaries between utopian and dystopian exercises of power. As a well-known example of dystopian young adult and children’s literature, Lois Lowry’s The Giver explores the limits and possibilities of individual freedom in a system of political economy that strongly emphasizes the collective good. Indeed, as we shall see, the society is often (but not exclusively) framed in the secondary literature as totalitarian and dystopian because of the limitations it places on certain features of liberal political economy—namely, individual autonomy in the form of conscience and choice. At the same time, while these features are privileged under neoliberalism, a variant that greatly emphasizes the individual, they are not emphasized to the same degree in other strands. When considered from the perspective of utilitarian or welfare liberalism, we see the system of governance in The Giver actually displays highly liberal features. Specifically, the system of political economy demonstrates key elements of liberal rationality consonant with utilitarian utopia oriented toward the utilitarian principle of aligning individual interest and the best possible welfare for all: an emphasis on rational, bureaucratic management of society; an investment in efficiency; and a more