Module 4 : The Giver

 

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SUMMARY

Newbery Award winning author Lois Lowry writes a futuristic novel about a world where there are no feelings, everyone is equal, and lives day to day with no worries. That is until Jonas turns 12 and receives the job as "The Giver" with all the other children in his community that turn 12 and receive their new duties as well. The responsibilities of being "The Giver" bears too much weight for Jonas to carry, and he takes it upon himself to get out of the community and saves Gabriel, a young child that is staying with his family unit that is due to be released the next day.

APA REFERENCE
Lowry, L. (1993). The giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.


IMPRESSIONS

This book does a great job creating the sense of numbness within the characters. It isn't until about half way through the book that Jonas starts to question The Giver and his realities. Like Jonas, the reader then gains a sense of frustration and begins to fight for the others in the community to be allowed to feel, see color, and all the other things that being human allows us to do. The ending was a bit confusing and frustrating. It leaves the reader unsure if there is a sequel, and unclear as to what happens to Jonas and Gabriel at the end.

PROFESSIONAL REVIEW
[Review of the book The Giver by Lois Lowry]. Kirkus Reveiw retrieved on November 14, 2014 from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lois-lowry/the-giver/.

In a radical departure from her realistic fiction and comic chronicles of Anastasia, Lowry creates a chilling, tightly controlled future society where all controversy, pain, and choice have been expunged, each childhood year has its privileges and responsibilities, and family members are selected for compatibility. As Jonas approaches the "Ceremony of Twelve," he wonders what his adult "Assignment" will be. Father, a "Nurturer," cares for "newchildren"; Mother works in the "Department of Justice"; but Jonas's admitted talents suggest no particular calling. In the event, he is named "Receiver," to replace an Elder with a unique function: holding the community's memories--painful, troubling, or prone to lead (like love) to disorder; the Elder ("The Giver") now begins to transfer these memories to Jonas. The process is deeply disturbing; for the first time, Jonas learns about ordinary things like color, the sun, snow, and mountains, as well as love, war, and death: the ceremony known as "release" is revealed to be murder. Horrified, Jonas plots escape to "Elsewhere," a step he believes will return the memories to all the people, but his timing is upset by a decision to release a newchild he has come to love. Ill-equipped, Jonas sets out with the baby on a desperate journey whose enigmatic conclusion resonates with allegory: Jonas may be a Christ figure, but the contrasts here with Christian symbols are also intriguing. Wrought with admirable skill--the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly provocative novel. (Fiction. 12-16)

LIBRARY USES
This book could be used as a book talk in how a story can seen as utopian and dystopian at the same time. There could be lengthy discussions on how perception and reality fit into our lives, an "outside looking in approach".