The Giver

The Giver – Lois Lowry

Jonas lives in one of many Communities that have existed in Sameness for as long as the generations can remember. As a result of Sameness, all decisions are taken away. Children are closely monitored by a committee until they are assigned a job to fill for the rest of their life in the Community. Adults apply for spouses, married couples apply for children, and anything that does not belong is Released. All decisions are made by the Committee of Elders, and when the Elders are truly stumped, they go to the Receiver, who holds the memories of the entire world so that the Community does not have to live with emotions, music, animals, love, pain, and even color. Jonas, instead of being Assigned to a job, is selected to be the next Receiver of Memory.

As Jonas progresses through his training, the memories he receives become increasingly complex and his resulting emotions become difficult to manage. Jonas causes a stir in the middle of a group of children playing a game because he has the memory of warfare, whereas they know nothing about the basis of their game. He becomes frustrated with his family, the rules of the Community, and the pretense of choice that the world has agreed to live with.

Among all the dystopian stories that are currently so popular, The Giver is one of the original dystopias. Lois Lowry is a children’s writer, so her book is aimed at adolescents, but Jonas never strikes me as a child. His naïveté and innocence are apparent in different situations in the story, but it is hard to believe that he has such insight and wisdom as such a young age, which I think is also a strategy of the book. Lowry reminds us not to disregard children merely because they are young – children still have the power to create change. They have a unique perspective on the difficulties of life which allows them to find solutions that adults may not think of.

The Giver is a poignant story about how to handle a life full of hardships, and even why hardships are necessary to a full life. The entire range of emotions and behaviors available to human beings offers endless possibilities for relationships, growth, pain, failure, and change. Although we may all lament the difficulties we sometimes face, would it really be better to live without them?