PROPAGANDA AND SURVEILLANCE AS TOOLS TO CONTROL THE

SOCIETY IN LOIS LOWRY’S THE GIVER

INSAN NUUR AKHMAD

F1F007036

THE MINISTRY OF NATIONAL EDUCATION

JENDERAL SOEDIRMAN UNIVERSITY

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE FACULTY

ENGLISH AND LANGUAGE LITERATURE

PURWOKERTO

2014
I. TITLE OF THE RESEARCH

The title of the research is Propaganda and Surveillance as Tools to

Control the Society in Lois Lowry’s The Giver.

II. FIELD OF THE SUTDY

The study deals with literary study. The novel which will be analyzed is
The Giver by Lois Lowry. The novel describes how the individuals and
society are controlled by the government. The vast systems of control
infiltrate all aspects of human life in this novel. The researcher will focus
on how the government uses propaganda and surveillance to control the
society.

III. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

There are a number of different definitions of dystopia; one can

basically say that it is a dark vision of the future. In order to define the
term, it is suitable contrast to more well known term, namely, utopia. The
word utopia is translated from Greek as “no place,” but can also be
interpreted as “good place” derived from the English homophone
“eutopia”. The term “utopia” originates in Sir Thomas More’s 1516 book
of the same name. In his Utopia, More describes a perfect island society,
where everyone lives in happiness. This system assumes that people are
essentially good, so long as they are raised in the right conditions, in an
environment free of greed, commercialism, and poverty. Martin G. Plattel,
suggests that “the utopian searches of happiness dream of a new earthly
paradise, in which an authentic freedom reigns and happiness is sought in
unbridled sensuous delight” (Plattel, 1972, p. 47). The idea of utopian
fiction mainly depicts an ideal, imaginary society with a perfect socio-
economic and political system superior to the present-day version of it
where people live carefree, in abundance and happiness.
 Utopian and dystopian visions are not necessarily diametrical
opposites. Both of them tend to criticize a certain social and political
condition, the difference is in how the way they work. Utopian writers
believe in the positive outcomes of the perfectly structured life of the
utopia while dystopian writers are not too eager to conclude that the rigid
planning of the utopian society will go flawlessly. They reveal and caution
us about what happens to a utopia when something breaks down in its
immaculate order or does not go according to the plan: whether it is a
dystopian citizen who does not want to conform to the collectivism of the
state or a governmental apparatus that becomes corrupt and too hungry for
power. Martin Booker in his book The Dystopian Impulse in Modern
Literature: Fiction as Social Criticism considers dystopia as a general
term encompassing any imaginative view of a society that is oriented
toward highlighting in a critical way negative or problematic features of
that society's vision of the ideal (Booker, 1994, p. 22). In other words,
dystopia is a form that portrays what can happen when people attempt to
create a utopian world: some problems are fixed, but new ones are created.
Most dystopian novels depict the government as an absolute
power: oppressive and domineering, controlling all aspects of human life.
For example, Orwell’s 1984, portrays a society under a brutal dictatorship
with secret surveillance, never-ending wars and horrible living conditions,
where individuality is considered a thought crime and people live in
constant fear and misery. Various forms of propaganda are employed to
control the society in 1984, such as the ideology to worship the Party’s
ruler Big Brother, manipulation of the historical events of the past, the
invention of Newspeak, the telescreen and two minutes hate are some
examples of propaganda which can also be used as a constant surveillance.
Another example we can found in The Giver by Lois Lowry; the story
follows the life of Jonas, a twelve-year-old boy, who at first seem to live in
a regular live in a peaceful society where people are taken care of and
there are no societal problems. As the story progress, the story appears
more and more dystopian, as the main goal of the society is revealed;
 “sameness”. To achieve this state where nothing stands out, the society has
erased all the memories of the past and removes external sources of
differences such as physical distinctions and color through genetic
scientific engineering. To maintain this artificial state of “sameness”, the
society has instituted a strict system of control, surveillance and
punishments. The inhabitants of this society are constantly observed and
controlled in every aspect of their lives.
Both of Orwell and Lowry’s novels show us how the government
used the power to control their society. In order to maintain their power,
discipline is employed on all levels of society as the most crucial tool to
establish supreme control. The idea of discipline as an essential component
of political power is the focal point of Michel Foucault’s book Discipline
and Punish; where he examines various ways of discipline which
employed in society. Foucault believes that discipline is a powerful agency
used to govern people’s lives “to produce subjected and practiced bodies,
docile bodies” that can be “manipulated, shaped,” and “trained” for the
benefit of the state (Foucault, 1995, pp. 136-138). Discipline in Orwell’s
1984 and Lowry’s The Giver is employed in most important aspects of
human life and is practiced on multiple levels. Propaganda and constant
surveillance is some form of “discipline” since the government utilized
them to control people’s everyday lives.
Overall from the explanation above, the researcher will try to
analyze how the governments in 1984 and The Giver maintain their
control over the society through the lens of Foucauldian “Discipline”.
Particularly, how the governments use propaganda and surveillance as part
of “discipline” to control the society.

IV. RESEARCH QUESTION

The questions of this research are:

How do the government in The Giver use propaganda and surveillance
to control the society?
V. RESEARCH PURPOSE

The purposes of this research are:

To find out how the government in The Giver use propaganda and
surveillance to control the society

VI. LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Dystopian Literature

The dystopian genre that blossomed in the literature of the

nineteenth century emerged and developed mainly as a critical
response and an antithesis to utopian fiction. Though dystopia or anti-
utopia has mainly manifested and gained popularity as a skeptical
reaction to utopian vision, it surprisingly shares a lot of characteristics
with utopia. Huntington points out some certain similarities between
utopia and dystopia:
“Both utopia and dystopia are exercises in imaging coherent
wholes, in making idea work, either to lure the reader towards an
ideal or to drive the reader back from a nightmare. Both are the
synthetic imagination, a comprehension and expression of the deep
principles of happiness or unhappiness.(Huntington, 1982, p. 124)
Both utopia and dystopia explore social and political
structures, while utopian fiction is about the perfect society and the
ideal social, political and legal system, dystopian fiction is about the
nighmarish world. In his book Dystopian Literature: A Theory and
Research Guide, MartinBooker defines dystopian fiction as a “critique
of existing social conditions or political systems, either through
critical examination of the utopian premises upon which those
conditions and systems are based or through the imaginative extension
of those conditions and systems into different contexts that more
clearly reveal their flaws and contradictions” (Booker, 1994, p. 315).
2. About The giver

The Giver follows the life Jonas, a 12-year-old-boy living in a

community that has embraced “Sameness,” an intensely ordered world
without fear, pain, or prejudice, sacrificing love, colors, and
knowledge of history. On his twelfth birthday, Jonas is chosen to be
the Receiver of Memory, a position of great honor in the community.
He quickly learns that with this honor comes great responsibility and
sacrifice, for he must receive all the memories of the past from his
mentor, The Giver, and carry them so that the community is spared the
burden of knowledge. He begins to feel isolated with all his beautiful
and painful memories in such a simple, bland community and
struggles to understand his role. Eventually, he and The Giver make
plans for him to escape the community and thus force the citizens to
face the memories and learn to deal with them.

3. Propaganda

a. Definition

As the term is used loosely today, propaganda pervades the full

range of communication genres. Any medium that can propagate
messages can be used for propaganda. So too can every
communication genre, from news to novels and from social
marketing to social networking. Numerous studies have attempted
to define and distinguish different types of propaganda. According
to Lasswell, propaganda is the control of opinion by significant
symbol, including stories, rumors, reports, pictures, and other
forms of social communication. Jacques Ellul (Ellul, 1973, p. xv)
focused on propaganda as technique itself. He regarded propaganda
as sociological phenomena, not as something made or produced by
people of intensions. Furthermore, Jowett and O’donnell’s give
more specific definition of propaganda:
Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape
perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve
a response that furthers the desired intent of the
propagandist.(Jowett, S G; O'donnell, Victoria;, 2012, p. 6)

b. Forms of Propaganda

Although propaganda takes many form, it is almost always in

some form of activated ideology. Sometimes propaganda is
agitative, attempting to rouse an audience to certain ends and
usually resulting in significant change; sometimes it is integrative,
attempting to render an audience passive, accepting, and
nonchalenging(Jowett, S G; O'donnell, Victoria;, 2012, p. 17).
Propaganda is also described as white, grey or black, in
relationship an acknowledgement of its source and its accuracy of
information.
- White propaganda comes from a source that is identified
correctly and the information in the messages tend to be
accurate. White propaganda attempts to build credibility with
the audience, for this could have usefulness at some point in the
future.
- Black propaganda is when the source is concealed or credited
to a false authority and spreads lies, fabrication, and
deceptions. Another term used to discribe black propaganda is
disinformation. Disinformation means “false, incomplete, or
misleading information that is passed, fed, or confirmed to a
targeted individual, group, or country”.
- Grey propaganda is somewhere white and black propaganda.
The source may or may not be correctly identified, and the
 accuracy of the information is uncertain. This propaganda is
also used to embarrass an enemy or competitor

4. Surveillance

Literally, surveillance means to “watch over” and as such it

is an everyday practice in which human beings has been done
routinely. Parents watch over children, employes watch over
workers, police watch over neighbourhoods, guards watch over
prisoners and so on. In most instances however, surveillance has a
more spesific usage, referring to some focused and purposive
attention to objects, data, or persons. According to Lyon, he
definesurveillance as any focused attention to personal details for
the purposes of influence, management, or controls (Lyon, 2001).
Furthermore, Michel Foucault stimulated a new approach to
understanding surveillance.. In his book, Discipline and Punish, he
used Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon, a building designed by Jeremy
Bentham to allow an easy observance of inmates, whether they are
prisoners, patients, or pupils. The building consists of cells facing
onto a central tower from which a supervisor can constantly
observe the individuals in each cell. Foucault explains that the
effect of the Panopticon was “to induce in the inmate a state of
conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic
functioning of power” (Foucault, 1995, p. 201). This building
serves as a metaphor for the workings of surveillance in any
society.

The Panopticon

The panopticon represents the way in which discipline and

punishment work in modern society. It is a diagram of power in
action because by looking at a plan of the panopticon, one realizes
how the processes of observation and examination operate.
 According to Foucault, the Panopticon design is perfect for
surveillance not just in prisons but in society in general because it
allows the power to be both “visible and unverifiable” (Foucault,
1995, p. 201). He explains that “the prisoner should be constantly
observed by an inspector” and always “have before his eyes the tall
outline of the central tower from which he is spied on”; however,
he “must never know whether he is being looked at any one
moment,” and yet “must be sure that he may always be so”
(Foucault, 1995, p. 201). In brief, to ensure that the body is
“docile,” it needs to be under regular scrutiny, and the body has to
be aware of it. This awareness will guarantee discipline on the
body’s part because there is no way to be certain whether you are
being watched or not. The main objective of this system is to
always monitor what the body is doing, so that one day the body
will be so disciplined that it will start regulating its actions of its
own and become the subject of self-surveillance (Foucault, 1995,
p. 212).

5. Foucault’s Discipline and Punish.

Michael Foucault work’s Discipline and Punish is a study

in history of the modern penal system, from eighteenth-century
torture and killing to modern imprisoning system. In first part of
his book, Foucault seeks to analyze punishment in its social
context, and to examine how changing power relations affected
punishment. He begins by analyzing the situation before the
eighteenth century, when public execution and corporal
punishment were key punishments, and torture was part of most
criminal investigations. Punishment was ceremonial and directed at
the prisoner's body. It was a ritual in which the audience was
important. Public execution reestablished the authority and power
of the King. Toward the end of the 18th Century, protests against
public execution and torture continued. The public cried out for
punishment without torture, which led to the invention of prison.
In discussion on development of discipline, Foucault
constructs his arguments around the methods and strategies
employed in the seventeenth century for creating docile bodies. He
used the term docility to explain how control and power was
achieved through actions of discipline. Docility was the way in
which someone was trained, a way in which someone could be
molded like clay to fit the needs of those that are in control. This
was done in the army, the schoolhouse, basically anywhere people
were subjected to control on an everyday basis. Docility is nothing
more than discipline, where “discipline is a political anatomy of
detail” (Foucault, 1995, p. 136). The details upon which Foucault
will elaborate include: the art of distributions (how individuals are
distributed in space), the control of activity (control of physical
norm; what should be and should not been done to produce docile
body more productive), the organization of geneses (personal
development) and the composition of forces (tie the above to the
society).

The art of distributions

Foucault explains that “discipline proceeds from the
distribution of individuals in space” (Foucault, 1995, p. 141) by
utilizing several techniques.
First, individuals are placed in an enclosed space so as not
to be distracted from outside interference. The aim is to derive the
maximum advantages and to neutralize the inconveniences, as the
forces of production become more concentrated; “to protect
materials and tools and to master the labour force” (p. 142).The
second stage, each individual classified and placed in each space.
Each space was given code to identify and analyze each individual.
The purpose is to make individual’s identity can be determined by
where they are located. This “space” allow individuals to be
compared to one another. It is a procedure against desertion and
concentration, as Foucault notes:
”to establish presences and absences, to know where and how to
locate individuals, to set up useful communications, to interrupt
others, to be able at each moment to supervise the conduct of each
individual, to asses it, to judge and to calculate its qualities or
merits”.
The last stage is make elements interchangeable, but
ranked. Foucault stated that “Discipline is an art of rank, a
technique for the transformation of arrangements” (Foucault, 1995,
p. 146). The value of the individual is defined by the position of
individual has in society or y the goods that they can produce, but
no matter what the position, the individual can easily replace if
they cannot acquired their task.
The control of activity
The second technique of discipline states that activities and
interest which beneficial to the society are encouraged by the
ruling parties while the unproductive of activities and interest are
discouraged. The expectation of this technique is that peoples
should be either working in their jobs or participating in a
community activity.
The organization of geneses
The third technique, the organization of geneses stated that
each individual are systemically trained through tasks or exercises
to increasing their abilities to prepare them to be a part of society
and able to effectively contribute to the society. A fine example of
this is the education system in school. Foucault points out that the
organization of geneses is “intended to produce individually
characterized, but collectively useful aptitude” (Foucault, 1995, p.
162)
 The Composition of forces
The last part is the coordination of all parts. Discipline
became the art of composing forces to obtain an efficient machine.
To achieve this, the interests of each individual are subordinated to
the good of the community. Furthermore, Foucault adds that to
maintain the stability of this discipline society needs a continuous
monitoring so that every individual in society will continuous
follows the order.
In this study, the researcher will focus more on issues of
discipline and docile body since these issues of discipline and
docile body is about the power to control people which will help us
to understand the discourse of the state’s control and its effects on
society. As Foucault describe that discipline is a powerful agency
used to govern people’s lives “to produce subjected and practiced
bodies, docile bodies” that can be “manipulated, shaped,” and
“trained” for the benefit of the state (Foucault, 1995).

VII. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Method of the research

The researcher will use qualitative method in conducting the

research. Qualitative method includes the interpretation manners
by providing the description (Ratna, 2004). It means that
qualitative method is closely related to descriptive data both
written and spoken. Thus the analysis will be focused on words,
sentences, and paragraph as the content of the novel.

B. Data sources

There are two sources in conducting the research, those are:

- The primary data
 The primary data of this research is Lois Lowry’s novel The
Giver
- The secondary data
The secondary data of this research are taken from books,
article, journal, and thesis which support the data.

C. Method of collecting data

Miles and Huberman explain that data collection is done by taking
the appropriate data source that is needed for the research (Ratna,
2004). This data collection will be done by library research. The
main data source is the narrations, dialogues, and the statements in
The Giver novel

D. Method of analyzing data

There are three steps in analyzing the data. First, the researcher will
be done by reading and understanding the novel. Second, the
researcher will determine the main problem; find the supporting
data and theory. Third step, the researcher will quote the data that
proper with the main problem.
 REFERENCES

Booker, M. K. (1994). Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide. Westport:

Greenwood Press.

Booker, M. K. (1994). The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature: Fiction as Social

Criticsm. westport: Greenwood Press.

Ellul, J. (1973). PROPAGANDA, The Formation of Man's Attitude. New York: Vintage.

Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and Punish. New York: Vintage.

Huntington, J. (1982). Utopian and Anti-utopian Logic: H.G.Wells and his successors.
Science Fiction Studies 9 , 124.

Jowett, S G; O'donnell, Victoria;. (2012). Propaganda & Persuasion. Los Angeles: Sage
Publications, Inc.

Lyon, D. (2001). Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life. Milton Keyes: Open
University Press.

Plattel, M. G. (1972). Utopian and Critical Thinking. Pittsburgh: Duquesne.

Ratna, N. K. (2004). Teori, Metode, dan Teknik Penelitian Sastra: Dari Struktualisme
Hingga Poststrukturalisme Perspektif Wacana Naratif. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.