Summary:
Lois Lowry's The
Giver follows the story of
Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy who lives in a futuristic society that
has rid itself of all fear, hatred, pain, and war.
To
accomplish this everyone citizen within the community has given up
their individuality and choice. At age twelve jobs are assigned
based on the abilities and interests of the person. Citizens can be
assigned a spouse and given exactly two children, who are birthed by
birthing mothers who never meet the children, and are then raised for
a year in nurturing centers. When children are fully raised they are
split from their “families” and the adults live in group homes
until they are too old to serve the community, at which point they
are sent to be cared for in the House of the Old. Sick children and
the extreme elderly are eventually “released” from the community,
which is believed to be a setting free from the society to join the
people in the “Elsewhere”, but unbeknownst to most it is truly
death by euthanasia.
Jonas
is a bit different from most other citizens in that his eyes are pale
while most have dark eyes. He is also able to glimpse flashes of
color, when everyone else sees only in black and white. When he
turns twelve he must take place in the Ceremony of Twelve, which is
when jobs are assigned for citizens. He is nervous about this event,
but is given the highly honored assignment of Receiver of Memory.
This means he will be tasked with inheriting and keeping all the
memories of the past including those of war, pain and emotion the
society gave up in favor of tranquility. He receives the memories
from the societies current Receiver, an old man who tells Jonas to
call him the Giver.
As
Jonas begins to receive memories, starting with an exhilarating sled
ride, he begins to question and dislike the way the community lives.
His experiences with joyful and painful memories show Jonas that the
rest of the community isn't experiencing life at all. The Giver, who
has felt the same for a long time encourages Jonas' questioning of
the ways of the community. He devlops a familial relationship with
the Giver as the story progresses.
Jonas
also starts to develop a relationship with a small child named
Gabriel being cared for by Jonas's “father” and he attempts to
help the child sleep by transmitting soothing memories to the boy,
and begins to develop a relationship with Gabriel as well similar to
the family memories he has received.
The
Giver reveals to Jonas that “release” is death when it is
revealed that Gabrieal will soon be released. This enrages and
horrifies Jonas, and he decides that he and the Giver must work
together to change the community. The Giver tells Jonas of the last
receiver who asked to be released when some of the memories of
sadness proved to be too much for her. Her death caused all the
memories she had gathered to disperse into the community, which
caused a many of the community members to be unable to handle the
sudden intake of emotion. The Giver and Jonas planned for Jonas to
acquire many more memories and then escape into the Elsewhere, which
would cause his memories to disperse into the community and the
Giver would help them come to terms and change society.
Jonas
learns they plan to release (kill) Gabriel much sooner than expected,
however, and he instead decides to steal his fathers bike and Jonas
and flee earlier than planned into the Elsewhere. He finds colorful
surroundings and animals with his escape, as well as changing
weather, but also cold, hunger, and pain. The story ends on a
mysterious note with Jonas and Gabriel finding a sled like the one in
the first memory he received. He believes he sees lights and hears
music of a friendly village ahead of them and is sure someone is
there to help them as he races with Gabriel down the hill.
Lowry,
L. (1993) The giver.
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company
My Impressions:
I found The
Giver to be a great book that
raises some interesting societal questions. Is there truly life with
out choice and pain? Can we have the good with out the bad? All
these things and more are pondered in this book. Dystopian Society
novels are very popular at the moment, and The Giver
was a bit ahead of it's time in this regard.
Reviews:
“I thoroughly enjoyed this book
because, even though it is supposed to be more of a children's book
than young adult, the storyline is complex enough to hold the
attention of older readers. I really enjoyed Jonas as a character
because his character development from a scared boy, to someone
willing to risk his future to save the community, is enjoyable to
follow. This book shows the path of growing up; at first we are
scared to accept that there are new responsibilities, but as we
slowly get used to it we want to move more and more away from
childhood.”
[Review of The Giver by Lowry, L.] (2014). The guardian
webpage. Retrieved from
http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/sep/06/review-the-giver-lois-lowry
Usage in a
Library Setting:
With the popularity of Dystopian Society stories, The Giver
would be right at home alongside modern novels such as The Hunger
Games, or Divergent in book talks or displays targeted at
young adults. Any patron or student reading any of these new novels
should definitely be pointed towards The Giver as well.
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