Imagine a small community where all the power lies in the hands of a few. Imagine that in the community everyone's life is already planned ahead. Your name, what you will receive for every single birthday, and even what job you'll have. There is no sickness, no issues whatsoever. Everything is perfect. Everything is perfect in this utopia community in which Jonas, an eleven year old boy has to experience in the book, The Giver by Lois Lowry. Although I have only read the first few chapters of the immaculate page turning book, the subject of the matter has already got me regarding the flaws of a utopia society.
When I first thought of utopia, I thought of no complaints. Everything would be perfect, therefore what's to complain about. However, as I continued reading the book and investigating Jonas' feelings toward his community I realized that I was wrong about a utopia society. Jonas has no freedom, no liberty. He does not get to make his own decisions for they are chosen for him by others. The only thing I could see as a positive about Jonas' community was that he's safe. Although safety is always important, in this case the more safety you have the less freedom you have.
We all make mistakes. It's part of being human. But it's okay because we all make mistakes. But most importantly we learn from these mistakes. In Jonas' community everything is perfect. No one make mistakes therefore he can't learn valuable life lessons that we learn from our faults. That's why freedom is so important. Without it we wouldn't know between wrong and right. As St. Thomas Aquinas once said, "freedom is the condition for the possibility of virtue."
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