Pleasantville and the Giver - Imperfections of a Perfect

Tyus Battle

1-22-11

Imperfections of a Perfect

At the beginning of "Pleasantville", it is a "perfect" world for a few reasons. One is there is no color. Some people might think this a bad thing but it is good in a lot of ways as well, because of no color there will not be any discrimination to a persons color of skin or hair. Always having perfect weather is another example of perfection in Pleasantville, because most people world like to wake up and see the sun shining and blue skies to start off a great day, and that's one reason I think everybody in Pleasantville is always so happy and up beat. Not having negative feeling is probably the number one reason everybody is always happy, because if you are always active and happy it will usually pass on to people around you. My last two examples of perfection in Pleasantville are not having fire and nobody makes mistakes. Not having fire is good because it can damage people and places and is not easy to control. Not making mistakes is perfect because mistakes can sometimes be very detrimental and if there are no mistakes there is nothing to worry about. In the beginning of the giver the community is "perfect" world because in just like Pleasantville there is no color and people don't have feelings. Another reason is they make sure everything is perfect and somebody makes to many mistakes they release that person to "else where." This is good because they wont have a negative influence on other people. Not having pain is an example of perfection, because pain is something most people don't want to experience. Having everything planed for you and everybody receiving the same things at the same age is good, because there will not be any jealousy. People having bikes instead of cars is perfect because it is good for the environment and people get good exercise. Other example are, kids become adults when they turn twelve and they receive a job at age twelve. This is good because it shows a good sense of responsibility at a young age. The last two examples are always having perfect weather and there can only be a certain amount of babies born each year. Only having a certain amount of babies born is good because they will always have the perfect amount of food for the community.

As the world starts to change, I began to see that the people of "Pleasantville" are missing out on many thing as a result of living in a "perfect" world. A few examples are making mistakes, fire, books, color, and weather. You can miss out on mistakes because I think if you make mistakes you will learn not to do it next time or you can warn someone else. Fires are something they missed out on because fire helped mankind in many ways and if they don't have fire how will they cook have make