The
Giver by Lois Lowry was published in 1993 by Houghton Mifflin Company. It
was the winner of the 1994 Newberry Medal as well as many other awards. The
story takes place in a high fantasy world where there are no memories, no pain,
and no color. We first meet the main character Jonas who is an 11 year old boy
and anxiously awaiting his Ceremony of the Twelve. At this ceremony he would
learn what his life assignment would be for the rest of his life as selected by
the Elders. Jonas lives with his father who is a nurturer, mother who works in
the Department of Juice, and seven year old sister, Lily. There are many rules
in this world. Each “family unit” is allowed one son and one daughter. There is
no poverty, crime, inequality, or pain. No one keeps track of their age after
12. Children are assigned to families, not born. Everyone is extremely polite, mannerly, and conservative. Sounds like a
dream, right?
Anyway,
we are introduced to Jonas’s best friend Asher who is lively and a bit goofy as
well as Jonas’s crush, Fiona. Although Jonas doesn’t actually
understand that he has a crush on her since all “stirrings” are subdued by
taking pills. Jonas enjoys playing with his friends, following the rules of his
community, and spending time with his family. We learn that Jonas’s father is a
nurturer who takes care of the newborns and also releases (kills) them if
necessary. However his father has brought home a baby named Gabriel that is
struggling and he hopes to make him stronger so he doesn’t need to be released
before the Naming Ceremony. The family begins to feel a bond with Gabriel but
more so Jonas than anyone else.
Finally,
Ceremony Day arrives and Jonas watches the children go through their ceremonies.
When the Ceremony of the Twelve arrives, Fiona gets the Caretaker of the Old
job and his best friend Asher gets Assistant Director of Recreation. But when
it was supposed to be Jonas’s turn to be called, they skipped him! Everyone was
shocked and terrified… why was he skipped? Finally at the end of the ceremony
it is noted that Jonas was skipped because his job is that important. He is
named “The Receiver of Memory.” He is not entirely sure what this job entails
except that it is the most important job of all and that he must go with the
elderly man called “The Receiver” We come to find out that The Receiver is now "The Giver" to Jonas. The Giver is the man
who stores all memories inside him so that the people of the community do not
need to remember. Every day during his training, Jonas would receive memories
from The Giver by having The Giver touch his back and transport them into his
mind. Some of the memories were incredible ones like sledding down a hill,
Christmas, seeing colors, and love. But most were bad including sunburn, pain,
and war. Basically any memory that would elicit feelings from the past. It was then that Jonas completely started to change. “Although he had
through the memories learned about the pain of loss and loneliness, now he
gained, too, an understanding of solitude and its joy,” (Lowry 122). He
couldn’t believe how much the people didn’t know and couldn’t comprehend how
much pain The Giver had to hold on to through these memories.
Months
passed as Jonas accepted more and more memories from The Giver so that he could
soon take over his job as The Giver wanted to be released. The job before Jonas
arrived belonged to a woman named Rosemary, who couldn’t handle the memories.
Instead, she committed suicide by asking to be released. Jonas is hopeful that
he will be a stronger Receiver than she was. We find out later that Rosemary
was actually The Giver’s daughter. Receivers
of Memory had special privileges that other members of the community did not.
One of those privileges was that they could watch releasing videos if they
wished. Jonas’s father had told him that he needed to release a twin one
morning and Jonas wished to watch the video since he did not fully understand
what release meant. After watching his father inject a liquid into the baby’s
head and seeing it die; Jonas remembered a memory of death and panicked. This
was a turning point for Jonas. He felt lied to and betrayed! Jonas didn’t want
to hold on to all of these memories anymore and felt that the people should
feel them. This gave The Giver the idea of letting the people feel their own
feelings. He said, “If you get away, if you get beyond, if you get to
Elsewhere, it will mean that the community has to bear the burden themselves,
of the memories you had been holding for them,” (Lowry 156). He went on to say,
“And having you here with me over the past year has made me realize that things
must change. For years I’ve felt that they should, but it seemed so hopeless.
Now for the first time I think there might be a way,” (Lowry 155). So, that was
their plan. Jonas was to leave in the middle of the night with all the memories
that The Giver had given him so that the community could change and people
could feel again. He decided that people needed to feel and needed memories for
they were better than having none at all. “His thoughts continued. If he had
stayed, he would have starved in other ways. He would have lived a life hungry
for feelings, for color, for love,” (Lowry 174).
The
night that he was supposed to leave, Jonas’s father announced to the family
that Gabe would be released in the morning which understandably greatly upset
Jonas who was full of feelings and memories. After dinner, Jonas stole his
father’s bike, took Gabe, and fled like the plan said. The two boys were on the
run for many days through the snow and cold temperatures. They ran low on food
and grew very tired. Jonas’s anxiety was through the roof as he imagined the
people searching for him. Then finally in the last chapter, the boys reach the
top of a hill that seems familiar. He remembers it from his sled memory and
there is a sled on the top of the hill. The two boys ride down the hill on the
sled and see a building with lights and they hear music. But the last sentence
is very misleading by saying, “Behind him, across vast distances of space and
time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps it
was only an echo,” (Lowry 180).
The
themes and ideas in The Giver were absolutely fascinating to me. Entrusting one
human in the entire community to ALL memories both good and bad? NO feelings at
all? No colors? Government chooses everything for you? The people are more like
robots than they are human beings. But isnt this the direction our world is
going in? It is scary to think about. I
understand why The Giver is
controversial and one of the most highly censored books in education although I
do not agree with it. Yes, there are some adult themes in this book but isn’t
censorship what The Giver was all
about anyway? Trying to “protect” people by censorship is the same as
protecting people in the story from feelings. It is better to let people feel
emotions sort through it themselves than to make those decisions for them. I keep
going back to one particular line in the story:
‘Or what if,’ he went on, almost laughing at the absurdity,
‘they chose their own jobs?’
‘Frightening, isn’t it?’ The Giver said.
Jonas chuckled. ‘Very frightening. I can’t even imagine it.
We really have to protect people from wrong choices.’
‘It’s safer.’
‘Yes,’ Jonas agreed. ‘Much safer.’” (Lowry 99)
Does safer mean better? Or does safer just mean we are
shielding people from the realities of the world? I personally believe that
books should not be censored. Of course, parents reserve the right to decide
what their child reads and does not read. However, shouldn’t students be given
the fair chance to create their own meaning from the story? Maybe I have
difficulty with censorship because I am not yet a parent but, what are parents
so afraid of? That their children will disobey their parenting skills and
values and suddenly jump on board with the themes in the latest book they’re
reading? We need to have more faith in children. Authors write stories for
readers and they expect readers to bring their own memories and feelings to the
book. If we censor the books that people are able to read then all we are doing
is creating the same robot/emotionless people that are in The Giver. Overall, I
thoroughly enjoyed The Giver and recommend it to everyone and anyone, as long as it is developmentally appropriate. It was an eye opening book and more people today need to read it!
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