The Giver

Bibliography:
Lowry, Lois. 2002. The Giver. New York. Laurel Leaf. ISBN 978-0440237686.

Plot Summary:
Jonas and his Family Unit live in a seemingly Utopian Community. Without freedom of choice, no one makes bad decisions, and everyone is content. Children spend their days being assimilated into the ways of the Community and are primed for Sameness. There is no poverty or crime because everyone is assigned the same things, no one wants for anything. There is no love, there is no hate, only existence. Anything that causes emotion like colors, animals, or music have been done away with. The weather is the same year around, “Climate control. Snow made growing food difficult and limited agricultural periods. And unpredictable weather made transportation almost impossible at times. It wasn’t a practical thing, so it became obsolete when we went to Sameness.” (pp. 83, 84). There is no sexuality, when children become pubescent they are giving a pill to suppress any sexual feelings which they will continue taking all their adult lives until they are Old, “The dream had felt pleasurable. Though the feelings were confused, he thought that he had liked the feelings hat his mother had called the Stirrings. He remembered that upon waking, he had waned to feel the Stirrings again.” (p. 39). Men and women are assigned partners to become a Family Unit, and are assigned a boy and girl to raise in their Family Unit. Only women given the job of Birthmother are allowed to give birth to children, although they will never raise children, only later to become laborers after they have given birth to three children. The job of birthmother is not one of respect in the community. “Jonas remembered that his mother had called it a job without honor.” (p. 53).

At the age of 12, children in the community are given their Assignments for which they will train and hold that job for their adult life, “This is the time…when we acknowledge differences. You Elevens have spent all your years till now learning to fit in, to standardize your behavior, to curb any impulse that might set you apart from the group. But today we honor your differences. They have determined your futures.” (pp. 51, 52). At the December ceremony everyone is given their Assignment except for Jonas. Jonas is told that he has been carefully watched over the years and he is to become the next Receiver, the most honorable position in the community, and a job that requires great courage and strength. The Receiver is responsible for keeping all of the memories, and it requires a great deal of physical pain.

When Jonas begins his training he has no idea what is in store. He is given memories from the former Receiver, now called The Giver. Jonas experiences color, snow, sunshine, starvation, warfare, and love: All of the things that have been done away with when the Community went to Sameness. After experiencing emotions he can no longer cope with the ideology of the Community and makes a brave move to escape and save the life of the young baby, Gabe.

Critical Analysis:
This book is perhaps so striking because, although it is fantasy, the reader can imagine present society finding a Utopian world appealing. People do not like the idea of war, starvation, and poverty, and living in a Community like the one in The Giver may seem like a very plausible answer. One can even see examples in the world we live today in religious communes where everyone dresses the same and has very specific roles or even in some dictatorial countries like North Korea where its citizens lack freedoms commonly found in other countries. This book requires the reader to examine what makes us human—love, freedom of choice, pain—and the cost of giving up that humanity.

Lois Lowry has expertly crafted the plot of this book so that the reader gets drawn in to this Utopian Community and initially becomes awe-struck at how comfortable and secure the Community seems. The children are all dressed alike and are very well behaved, never questioning their parents, teachers, authority figures, or Elders. “When the class took their seats at the conclusion of the patriotic hymn, Asher remained standing to make his public apology as was required. ‘I apologize for inconveniencing my learning community.’” (p. 3). The Family Unit in which the main character Jonas lives in seems very caring upon first examination. They share something from their day every evening at dinner, and at breakfast each day they share their dreams from the night before. We are introduced to this sharing very early in the book, “It was one of the rituals, the evening telling of feelings.” (p. 4). The idealistic picture of this family soon begins to unravel when the reader learns that this sharing is required in the Community, and the truth about the Family Unit is revealed, “ ‘Lily, Mother reminded her, smiling, ‘you know the rules.’ Two children --- one male, one female --- to each family unit. It was written very clearly in the rules.” (p. 8).

Jonas goes through much change in the novel. In the beginning we meet a compliant member of the community, very conscientious of the rules, yet sometimes he is left with questions. When he is given the Assignment to be the next Receiver and begins to experience the exhilarating and often painful memories, he begins to question the Community standards that have been so carefully planned. When Jonas receives the Giver’s favorite memory, that of a loving family with the Grandparents, parents, children, and dog right there celebrating Christmas together by a warm fireplace, Jonas longs to experience Love. Jonas questions his parents, “ ‘Do you love me?’ There was an awkward silence for a moment. Then father gave a little chuckle. ‘Jonas. You, of all people. Precision of language, please!’… ‘Your father means that you used a very general word, so meaningless that it’s become almost obsolete.’ His mother explained carefully.” (p. 127). We continue to witness Jonas’ increasing frustration with the rules. He longs for choice and love and all the things we know that make us human. The climax comes when Jonas finds out what it means to “Release” someone. Jonas watches as his father injects an infant with a fatal substance, and thus “Releases” him. All this time Jonas had been led to believe that Release was a happy time when the Old or anyone else scheduled for Release would go to a different community for the rest of his life. Jonas is horrified as he watches his father perform the Release, “The Giver turned to him. ‘Well there you are, Jonas. You were wondering about Release,’ he said in a bitter voice. Jonas felt a ripping sensation inside himself, the feeling of terrible pain clawing its way forward to emerge in a cry.” (p. 151).

Jonas and the Giver make a plan to release the memories they are holding, and Jonas is to flee the Community, “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.” (p. 154). The intricate plan comes to a halt when Jonas learns that the young Gabe is scheduled to be Released. Jonas is forced to flee, and we see that a life with Choice and Love is worth any consequence, even worth dying for.

This Newberry-Medal winning story requires the reader to engage as an active-thinker. Young adults will be challenged by this novel as will adults. To say that this book is worth reading is an understatement since the questions it raises are critical.



Review Excerpts:
Amazon.comIn a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy. With echoes of Brave New World, in this 1994 Newbery Medal winner, Lowry examines the idea that people might freely choose to give up their humanity in order to create a more stable society. Gradually Jonas learns just how costly this ordered and pain-free society can be, and boldly decides he cannot pay the price. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. From Publishers WeeklyIn the "ideal" world into which Jonas was born, everybody has sensibly agreed that well-matched married couples will raise exactly two offspring, one boy and one girl. These children's adolescent sexual impulses will be stifled with specially prescribed drugs; at age 12 they will receive an appropriate career assignment, sensibly chosen by the community's Elders. This is a world in which the old live in group homes and are "released"--to great celebration--at the proper time; the few infants who do not develop according to schedule are also "released," but with no fanfare. Lowry's development of this civilization is so deft that her readers, like the community's citizens, will be easily seduced by the chimera of this ordered, pain-free society. Until the time that Jonah begins training for his job assignment--the rigorous and prestigious position of Receiver of Memory--he, too, is a complacent model citizen. But as his near-mystical training progresses, and he is weighed down and enriched with society's collective memories of a world as stimulating as it was flawed, Jonas grows increasingly aware of the hypocrisy that rules his world. With a storyline that hints at Christian allegory and an eerie futuristic setting, this intriguing novel calls to mind John Christopher's Tripods trilogy and Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. Lowry is once again in top form--raising many questions while answering few, and unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers. Ages 12-14.
Reviews accessed at:
http://www.amazon.com/Giver-Lois-Lowry/dp/0440237688/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195879715&sr=1-1

Connections:
Lowry, Lois. 1998. Number the Stars. Laurel Leaf. ISBN 0440227534.

Lowry, Lois. 2005. The Silent Boy. Laurel Leaf. ISBN 0440419808.

Lowry, Lois. 2004. Messenger. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0618404414.