The Giver

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!

Check out a copy at your local library!

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Looking for Alaska

**WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD**

No one prepared me for Looking for Alaska by John Green. This is the type of book that changes you. I can't pinpoint exactly how I feel about it because my feelings are so conflicting. I loved it and hated it all at the same time. But isn't that makes good literature? That which makes the reader feel and over-analyze? I seriously cannot wait to explore and dissect this text in class. My book is full of sticky notes.

Looking for Alaska was published in 2005 by Speak. Let's start with a synopsis although mine will not do the book justice. You just have to read it! The book is split into two parts: one entitled "Before" and the other, "After." Each chapter is a countdown to something, beginning with "One hundred thirty six days before." 16 year-old Miles "Pudge" Halter gets sent to Culver Creek Prep School in Alabama by his parents. He is happy to leave his Florida life behind and is in search of the "Great Perhaps." He is intelligent and a bit quirky being that he is obsessed with the famous last words of people before they die. Morbid, right? Anyway, Miles meets his roommate, Chip "Colonel" Martin who quickly introduces him to his small circle of friends including the gorgeous, Alaska Young. Pudge is immediately infatuated with the beautiful, self-destructive, intelligent, and sassy Alaska but she has a boyfriend named Jake that she is utterly in "love" with. The small group consists mostly of Colonel, Pudge, Alaska, Takumi, and Lara. They would smoke excessively, engage in pranks on campus, and drink heavily together. Pudge is in a religion class that he is particularly fond of. It focuses on three major religions and the afterlife associated. The theme for his class mirrors his life and he doesn't even realize it at first. The major question for this class for the semester was: "What are the rules of this game, and how might we best play it?" (Green 32). It ties in perfectly with his future relationship with Alaska. The antics and relationships within the group of friends are very entertaining but none so much as Alaska and Pudge's. You will watch as Pudge quickly falls in love with her while at the same time knowing she is self absorbed, destructive, and depressed. Pudge longs to be with Alaska but she always plays the, "I have a boyfriend" card, although she clearly likes Pudge also. The night of the group's first huge prank together (that Pudge describes as the best day of his life), Alaska talks about her mother. She explains that on January 9, 1997 her mother took her to the zoo and it was the best day of her life. But the worst day of her life was the next day, when her mother fell to the floor with a brain aneurysm and Alaska failed to call 911. The group sat, silent and shocked, as none of them had ever known this fact about Alaska.

**SERIOUSLY, MAJOR SPOILER ALERT**

The first half "Before" ends with Pudge and Alaska finally making out one night during a game of "Truth or Dare," to which Alaska abruptly ends with a, "To be continued." Alaska, Pudge, and Colonel fall asleep heavily intoxicated and Alaska receives a phone call. She leaves the room and returns frenzy, hysterical, and clearly upset. She is continually apologizing and yelling that she needs to leave. The boys distract the Eagle so that she can make a get away in her car but remember, she has been drinking. The next half begins with the page entitled "After." After what you may ask? Well, the following morning Pudge and Colonel wake up with Alaska nowhere to be found. When the Eagle calls everyone into the gym and announces that Alaska Young has been in a terrible car accident and has died. Everyone is shocked. Pudge throws up. Colonel starts yelling. One can only imagine the pain that they are feeling and especially Pudge. Now he is left with so many questions: What could we have been? Did she love me? Was it really an accident? Did she commit suicide? The boys, with the help of Takumi, try to solve the mystery of Alaska's death. They mostly hit dead ends and decide to celebrate Alaska's life and legacy with a huge prank. They hire a male stripper to pretend to be a professor for Speaker Day and once he has stripped off his clothes he yells, "This one's for Alaska Young." Bravo!

After many phone calls, trips to the police station, cigarettes, booze, and the help of Takumi, they come to the conclusion that Alaska realized it was the anniversary of her mother's death and she missed it. So, while on the phone with her boyfriend and drawing her favorite flower doodle, she jumped up and grabbed the flowers he gave her to put at her mother's grave site. She needed Pudge and Colonel to distract the Eagle so she could get away in her car. She drove, with a .24 BAC onto the freeway to get to her mother's grave with flowers. But there was a truck in the middle of the freeway and a police car was there. The police car turned on the lights but Alaska's car didn't slow down or brake, and she went straight into the police car. The impact killed her instantly. 

Once Pudge found out the story behind Alaska's death and that he and Pudge had not actually been the last ones to let her go, Takumi was, he felt closure. He was able to say his peace and accept that he would always love Alaska. He could finally move on. "So I know she forgives me, just as I forgive her. Thomas Edison's last words were: 'It's very beautiful over there.' I don't know where there is, but I believe it's somewhere, and I hope it's beautiful," (Green 221).

I screamed when I read that Alaska died and then consequently threw my book across the room. REALLY JOHN GREEN, REALLY?! I was completely and utterly taken off guard. Not many authors are brave enough to kill off a main character mid-story. Why did Alaska have to die? Why couldn't the story have played out and Pudge and Alaska could ride off happily ever after into the sunset? Ok, I get it. Alaska needed to succumb to her self-destructive life style and Pudge needed her to die in order to find his "Great Perhaps." But I'm not happy about it. I wish she had lived...

However, I do enjoy John Green's beautiful writing and how poetic Pudge himself was. The ending of the book when Pudge finally comes to peace with Alaska's death is beautifully written. Ok, the whole book is beautifully written. Here are my favorites lines from the book that do not have curse words in them:

"She had the kind of eyes that predisposed you to supporting her every endeavor," (Green 19).

"So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane," (Green 88).

"People, I thought, wanted security. They couldn't bear the idea of death being a big black nothing, couldn't bear the thought of their loved ones not existing, and couldn't even imagine themselves not existing. I finally decided that people believed in an afterlife because they couldn't bear not to," (Green 100).

"After all this time, it still seems to me like straight and fast is the only way out-- but I choose the labyrinth. The labyrinth blows, but I choose it," (Green 217).

Looking for Alaska is a controversial realistic fiction novel and I can understand why. There is strong language, sex, drugs, religion, and rebellion of all sorts. It is definitely a contemporary story and relatable for many high school students and adults alike. There is something about this book that makes me absolutely love it, and completely despise it, all at the same time. Is it because Alaska Young reminds me of myself? Is it because I'm so infuriated with John Green's killing her off? Is it because I'm a "happy ever after" type of person and cannot handle reality? I'm not sure I'll ever know the reason. Despite my personal conflicts with the text, Looking for Alaska is a quick and enticing read. At the end of the day, I absolutely loved it.

"...and I would always love Alaska Young, my crooked neighbor, with all my crooked heart,"

(Green 218).

Check out a copy from your local library!!!

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