Compare And Contrast Pleasantville And Society In The Giver

Perfection is the main goal of both the society of Pleasantville and the society The Giver lives in, in the book The Giver. Although both societies strive for perfection, the goal is almost always unreachable; however, during the pursuit of perfection, both societies reach the exact opposite. Pleasantville is a TV show created in 1950. When two kids from the real world are sucked into the tv and placed in this world of “perfection”. This world is only in black and white, every single day there is not a cloud in the sky, 76 degrees and sunny. At first, David/Bud believes this as well until he realizes everything their society misses out on. David and his sister then slowly bring color into the “perfect” society. Going along with the “perfect”
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It is the same temperature every single day, all basketball players are the exact same skill level. In the community of Pleasantville Equality is the main focus. In Pleasantville, everything needs to be the same and everything needs to be perfect. Every Single day it is 76 degrees and sunny because everything has to be the same the weather has to stay the same too. Along with equality, the basketball team at Pleasantville High School is undefeated and Each player has the exact same skill level of course because everything has to be perfect. The players never miss a shot, showing their perfection. There is no room for improvement because you are already perfect. Although it may seem ideal if everybody is automatically perfect you are preventing from learning from mistakes and working hard to earn something which teaches them life lessons and mentally strengthens the players. Following along the path of equality The community in The Giver is even more strict in the idea of equality. Everybody is given a mandatory haircut, and everybody has to wear the same clothes. Ideally, there can be no difference from one person to the next in this community. In order to accomplish such a task, everybody is given a mandatory haircut, all hair has to look the same in order to prevent one being more superior to another. Along with haircuts, the clothing worn by the people in the
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Bud comes in late to work one day in Pleasantville and sees Mr. Johnson wiping the table. “I didn't know what to do Well--I always wipe down the counter and then you set out the napkins and glasses and then I make the french fries...But you didn't come so I kept on wiping”(Pleasantville). Controlled knowledge is something that we see throughout the entire movie. The viewer is well aware of one how oblivion the people are being in the show, however, the people in the show are completely clueless. You would think when it just comes down to common sense MR. Johnson would have been able to realize that if Bud isn't there to do the Job right on time he can just continue through the jobs and just do whatever bud wasn't there to do. However, Mr. Johnson's knowledge is so limited and so controlled that he only know how to do something if it runs in a specific order. At first this may seem like that can create a perfect society. If everybody does the right thing at the right time then all will be good however that is not how it works 100% of the time therefore when bud, a character in the real worlds makes a simple human mistake and runs late all fall apart. Mr. Johnson became clueless the second something wasn't in order. Similarly, the community in The Giver is a perfect example of how a society can have such controlled