The Giver

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lowry, Lois. 1993. THE GIVER. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0395645662

SUMMARY
"Given his lifetime assigment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about society in which he lives." (CIP).

ANALYSIS

"I want to wake up in the morning and decide things.

It's the choosing that's important, isn't it?" (97).


Even though I read THE GIVER as a teenager, I chose to read it again for this assignment, and I really enjoyed the second reading. Lowry uses a science fiction context to tackle so many issues in this book that are central to the Young Adult experience. Most twelve year olds reading this book will have felt moments, like Jonas during his training, of deep isolation from their peers. They will yearn for independence, like Jonas, and at the same time, mourn the loss of their idylic childhoods: "his childhood, his friendships, his carefree sense of security -- all of these things seemed to be slipping away" (135).

Lowry's fantastic context allows readers to explore these feelings with a different perspective. Lowry also addresses the major change in perspective that comes as children move closer to becoming adults. Jonas experiences flashes of "seeing beyond," seeing something he has always seen, but suddenly realizing it has dimensions he never expected. For Jonas, it is an apple, on page 23, or the faces in the audience at the Ceremony of Twelve. For students it might be a new insight on adult relationships, or family dynamics, or even simply watching a movie they've seen a thousand times but finally understanding the dirty jokes.

Lowry also deals with the overwhelming power of adolescent emotions. The calm ordered environment of Jonas' village may seem like a refuge to students in the midst of Yound Adulthood. Jonas realizes that though his parents and sister describe emotions of "anger" and "sadness" they have never really felt these things. Jonas' isolation in being able to deeply feel is teenagey angst perfectly translated into science fiction. Jonas -is- totally alone He is forbidden from sharing his training, forbidden from taking the same drugs as the rest of the community and told to lie and be rude as well. He is set apart from his community in a way that many young adults feel set apart, and seeing the concrete manifestation of inner turmoil can make for powerful reading.

In addition, Lowry's world shares many similarites with the world of modern day jr. high and high school, where "Sameness" is certainly a governing principle. In Jonas' community, differences are drummed out through genetic engineering, drug regimens and enforced civility (84). Dress codes and cliques do the job in high school. Lowry's imagery is remarkably relatable to her audience.

The way Lowry sets up the world of THE GIVER is masterful. There are no massive infodumps, which are a challenge to avoid in fantasy or science fiction. Instead she weaves her worldbuilding seamlessly throughout conversations and character interactions. A few chapters into the book, the reader already has an understanding of the complex system of inflexible rules and regulations that govern every aspect of life in the village. Jonas mentions the tome of rules his parents keep on a shelf in the kitchen, and throughout the story there are moments like this: "All of them talking at once, hasitly making the required apology for interrupting, then forgetting again... (89). Lowry's spare but detail packed writing allows her to insert a world building detail, like the bizarrely enforced civility of the "required apology" into an action packed scene which is moving the narrative forward. She doesn't stop the action to provide background, but the reader understands within the context.

I only have a few problems with the book, and one of them is the potential depth of in-class discussions. Lowry does not shy away from difficult concepts- "releasing," for instance, will surely spark classroom debates.

"They prepared to shoot it down" (112). This may be nitpicky, but how can the concept of warfare be so totally alien to Jonas, and yet he's aware that his village has complicated weaponry and heat seeking planes? It seems inconsistent. Also, it was difficult to understand whether there is a deliberate strategy of misinformation from adults to children about "releasing." When Jonas asks about Roberto's release at the House of the Old, the answers are misleading. Do all adults know what "releasing" entails? When do children learn? It's just a nitpick, and Lowry needed the tension of the mystery in order for the reader to feel Jonas' revulsion at the final discovery, but it felt inconsistent as well.

Overall, the pacing in the story is excellent, and drives the narrative to its inevitable conclusion with Jonas's escape, but the end feels abrupt and ambiguious. Perhaps Jonas finds a true home, or perhaps he moves into one last memory, moments before freezing to death. Either way, with all the time Lowry spent building the world and introducing the characters, I wanted at least one conclusive sentence for an epilogue.

There are many many more things right with this book than the one or two things I found challenging. I would love to recommend it to a student, or oneday to use it in a class.

REVIEWS
"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." PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"The tension leading up to the Ceremony, in which children are promoted not to another grade but to another stage in their life, and the drama and responsibility of the sessions with The Giver are gripping. The final flight for survival is as riveting as it is inevitable. The author makes real abstract concepts, such as the meaning of a life in which there are virtually no choices to be made and no experiences with deep feelings. This tightly plotted story and its believable characters will stay with readers for a long time." SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

CONNECTIONS
When I was looking at the reviews for this book online, I also found some study guides published for use with the book in the classroom.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1586091506/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-9022747-1235943#reader-link

Lowry creates such a complete world in THE GIVER that I think reading guides such as this one, which pull the student out of narrative, are a misstep if the object is to encourage students to engage with the book and to foster a love of reading. Since this book speaks so specifically to personal issues of adolescent development, it works best outside of a structured classroom environment, with students choosing to read the book on their own. So perhaps offering it as an option; one of several books to choose from for book reports. Since the tale is so gripping and suspenseful at times, it would also work as a read aloud book for older grades. If the whole class does read the book, small group discussions about major themes would probably be more engaging than vocabulary exercises.