LANGUAGE OF CONTROL IN LOIS LOWRY’S NOVEL THE GIVER

Abstract

The article explores the phenomenon of linguistic manipulation and control in Lois Lowry’s young adult dystopian novel The Giver (1993). The narration presents a society founded on the principles of «Sameness», a social order originally designed to eliminate hunger, pain and inequality, yet achieved at the cost of freedom and individuality. Lowry’s fictional community is governed by surveillance, strict social rules, and, most decisively, through the «precision of language» – a system of linguistic restrictions. The aim of the paper is to examine how the suppression and regulation of language in the novel function as mechanisms of cognitive control. The analysis focuses on two interrelated aspects of the novel’s linguistic organization: the language within the fictional community, which serves as an instrument of suppression; and the language of the narrative itself, which mirrors the protagonist’s cognitive and emotional evolution. The study employs tools of semantics, cognitive linguistics, and stylistic analysis to trace the shifts in lexical density, metaphorical expressiveness, and syntactic complexity that accompany the protagonist’s growth as an individual. The results of the study demonstrate that in Lowry’s novel, language as the mechanism of social control is employed by the community authorities as a means of ideological manipulation: imposed vocabulary, pre-formulated linguistic patterns, lexical restrictions, and euphemistic substitutions prevent citizens’ development as free individuals capable of moral choices. At the stylistic level, the author employs linguistic simplification followed by linguistic enrichment to dramatize the protagonist’s mental liberation: gradual transformation of narrative style reflects his growing linguistic and cognitive awareness. By choosing the perspective of a child, Lowry illustrates how the community members are trained into obedience, how they learn from childhood to voluntarily relinquish their freedom of choice. Ultimately, the novel illustrates how language becomes a perfect instrument for teaching conformity and compliance.