The Giver by Lois Lowry... A Review

In a World of Sameness, there is Hope to be found in the Memories of Our Past...

Imagine a “perfect” world... perfect because it is filled with sameness... There is no sunshine, no cold, no color... each family has 2 children, a boy and a girl, and everything, and I mean everything, is planned out and accounted for. Who you marry, what your profession shall be, what clothes you can wear growing up... There is no fear or pain, or feelings what so ever...

Set in a futuristic world, the story centers around Jonas, who at age 12 is singled out to train to become the new Receiver of Memory. There is only one Receiver, and this person holds all the memories of the pain and pleasures of life from way way back, before there was sameness. And so, Jonas is to receive all the memories one at a time from The Giver...

Up to the point where Jonas is named the new Receiver we learn about the community where Jonas lives... Everyone is extremely polite, no one is ostracized or highly praised, people can apply for a spouse and are assigned a person deemed compatible by a panel. Then the couple is assigned a boy and a girl from a pool of "newchildren", born from birthmothers who have exactly 3 births, never see their birth children and then are assigned heavy labor for the rest of their lives. Children at the age of 12 are assigned a job in the community based on their skills and interests that have been carefully observed as they volunteer in different community areas.

When the children are grown, the family unit dissolves and the adults live out there lives with other childless adults until they are too old to function in society and then go to "The House of Old". From there they are eventually "released" from society.

Of course none of this sounds too bad, until you see the glimpses of the rules in black & white. When people (children included) don't measure up to the rest of society, such as not learning proper behavior, they are given a few chances to correct their ways, but if they don't conform they are "released". Babies that don't develop at a measured rate are "released". If twins are born, one is "released" based on weight, because you simply can't have 2 of the same people walking around. The community seems pretty normal until some of these quirks start popping up. But this is all the community has known, until Jonas starts receiving the memories...

The red of an apple, the blue of the sky, the coldness of a snowflake against your face, the feeling of love... these are the memories Jonas starts to receive and it changes his world forever. What follows is heartbreaking at times, such as when Jonas asks his father "Do you love me?", and is given a lecture on a love being a generalized and meaningless word. But Jonas is changed by these new feelings and in a final act of desperation and love breaks out of his "mold" and becomes a loving, caring, individual...

The Giver is haunting... Even 15 years later, the writing is fresh and contemporary. Words used such as newchildren instead of newborns, "releasing" versus murdering, Assignments, Precision of Language, The House of Old, are subtle phrasing with very serious connotations. The Giver has been on the banned books list almost since it's publication in 1993. Some of the themes found objectionable are suicide, sexuality, and euthanasia. The theme of euthanasia was disturbing... But watching Jonas bloom as an individual was wonderful. It is a powerful novel, deceptively wrapped in a small 179 page package with simple language, but sometimes good things come in small packages and this is one of those times....

Have you read The Giver yet? I'd love to hear what you thought about the book! Instead of banning this book, why not take the opportunity to discuss the topic of suicide or euthanasia? How about the value of individuality? Dealing with peer pressures? Let me know how you feel!

This book is part of the DystopYA Reading Challenge! Dystopian fiction is generally fiction about a world that is attempting to be perfect but contains a fatal flaw. It's the opposite of a utopia. This can take the form of a fascist government, a failing environment, corporate rule - anything. In it, life is miserable and people have to strive to rise above. This book certainly fits that bill!

*P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!