The Giver Review

I have once read The Giver by Lois Lowery in the sixth grade, before I even knew what a dystopia or utopia was. I just knew that the main character, Jonas lived in a very strict communist society. Now that I have re-read the novel, I have come to appreciate and realize what a classic this book truly should be.

In the society of The Giver, people of many communities have lives that involve little to no suffering at all, along with minimal disagreements. Therefor, the people of the communities have no conception of real suffering. They really do not have knowledge of what starvation feels like, what war sounds like, or what chaos looks like; their lives are controlled in every aspect such as who they will be in a family with and what their life-long career will be. The people have no desires or worries, so there is a lack of stress. As luxurious as a stress-free life sounds, what would life be like with no choice of aspiration?

Jonas, only a boy, gets to experience what no one else can, though he does not choose to do so himself, being that the Council of Elders forced him to. Through learning experiences through "memories," he becomes wise and realizes that without suffering, how could we appreciate the good things in life.

More detail in Jonas' duty, Jonas has been chosen to recieve memories from ancestral people. One person in the Community must take on this task for everyone else, and every once in a while a new "reciever" is chosen, this person being Jonas. He "recieves" these memories from the previous reciever known as "the giver" (found the title source). Over time, the community that seemed perfect to Jonas turned out to be flawed. Jonas must either decide to pretend to be blissfully ignorant of the flaws or do something about them, escape.

What must we sacrifice for perfection? Whatever that would be, would we have more of a loss or gain? In Lowery's opinion, we would have to sacrifice our individuality to obtain "perfection" and in the end, we would have more of a loss than a gain.

I highly, highly recommend this book to anyone, though adults will definitley catch on to the theme quicker than childern. The main character can relate to anyone, because of his quest to be an individual.