Lowry, Lois. The Giver. NY: Random House, 1993. 179 pages. (Sci-Fi Series)
Lowry creates an exceptionally detailed world devoid of color, certain emotions, and any knowledge of a world where these things existed. The main character is a young boy named Jonas. Jonas lives in a community that is governed by a committee of elders. They make all of the decisions and all of the rules. They decide who will marry, when a child will be brought into the home and what jobs people will have. The community seems to be a true utopia, with its perfect laws, flawless politics, and shared moral code. As the story begins, Jonas is looking forward to the Ceremony of Twelve. This is where Jonas will be assigned the job that he will have for the rest of his life. Jonas, like everyone else in the community, cannot see colors nor does he understand the true meaning of love, or anger, or even hate. On the day of the ceremony, Jonas’ name is skipped and he feels just terrible. The reason that Jonas was skipped is because he is to be the sole person in the community to receive the memories of all the things not experienced by others in his community. He will hold the highest position in the community; he will be the Receiver. He will learn of things like snow, wind, and sunshine. Jonas will also receive emotions like pain and sorrow. All this information will be passed on by the old Receiver who now becomes the Giver. Jonas changes as he receives more and more information. He begins to question the ways of his community as he learns some disturbing details about some of their practices. Jonas is troubled when he learns what it really means to be “released.”
Lowry creates an exceptionally detailed world devoid of color, certain emotions, and any knowledge of a world where these things existed. The main character is a young boy named Jonas. Jonas lives in a community that is governed by a committee of elders. They make all of the decisions and all of the rules. They decide who will marry, when a child will be brought into the home and what jobs people will have. The community seems to be a true utopia, with its perfect laws, flawless politics, and shared moral code. As the story begins, Jonas is looking forward to the Ceremony of Twelve. This is where Jonas will be assigned the job that he will have for the rest of his life. Jonas, like everyone else in the community, cannot see colors nor does he understand the true meaning of love, or anger, or even hate. On the day of the ceremony, Jonas’ name is skipped and he feels just terrible. The reason that Jonas was skipped is because he is to be the sole person in the community to receive the memories of all the things not experienced by others in his community. He will hold the highest position in the community; he will be the Receiver. He will learn of things like snow, wind, and sunshine. Jonas will also receive emotions like pain and sorrow. All this information will be passed on by the old Receiver who now becomes the Giver. Jonas changes as he receives more and more information. He begins to question the ways of his community as he learns some disturbing details about some of their practices. Jonas is troubled when he learns what it really means to be “released.”
This is a great book and it really illustrates how much you might have to sacrifice in order to create a perfect community. This book makes you realize that maybe living with people with different beliefs and values isn’t really a bad thing. It helps keeps things balanced and allows people to be creative. This is definitely a thought provoking book. I have never read anything like it. I would recommend this book to someone that was maybe looking to read something a bit different. This would be a good book for a social studies class that was studying different forms of government.
Reviewed By: SuperReader22
