The Giver by Lois Lowry
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Book Reviews of The Giver
Book Review: It's "a powerful and provocative novel".
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read the novel, The Giver, writing by Lois Lowry. The Giver is a fiction, talking about the theme, "love" and "emotion". Also, The Giver is the winner of "John Newbery Medal". Therefore, it's a very good novel for reading.
The Giver talks about a boy was called Jonas who lived in a unreal society. The society was called Community. Our real society is like "dystopia". Against, the Community is just like "utopia". "The relationships are not biological but are developed through observation and a careful handling of personality." In the Community, there're lots of rules the citizen need to follow. For anyone who did some thing against the rules would be released from the Community, also you can call it "euthanasia".
"Jonas's world was perfect. Everything was under control." Jonas was going to be 12. The Ceremony of 12 was extremely important. After the Ceremony of 12, children would be with their Assignment group (end with play group), with those in training.All children would be given the Assignment according to their interest, preparing for future.
Jonas had nothing interest. He is worried about future. Eventually, Jonas received the Assignment, the "Receiver" of memory. It's a particular job, because the "Receiver" could get memories and hold memories. These memoris were lots of kinds of feeling, some are direct and some are indirect. During the Assignment time, Jonas's teacher were called the Giver was training Jonas to be a "Receiver".
Once, Jonas asked the Giver "What's your favorite?". Then, the Giver gave Jonas some memories of the Giver's family played together on holiday. Jonas didn't understand. He could not describe it by using a word.
"love" the Giver said.
Eventually, Jonas thought that the Community was immoral. Therefore, Jonas decided to escape. At the end of the novel, Jonas brought a kid who's going to be released when jonas began to escape. Jonas succeeded. However, where Jonas's going. The writer didn't tell.
I think The Giver is a instructive novel. The writer want to tell us that "love" and "emotion" are important and necessary. The world won't be lively if there're not any "love" and "emotion". That's why I agree with the writer.
On the other hand, the world without "love" and "emotion" also has some advantage. Just like the Community in the novel, "The relationships are not biological but are developed through observation and a careful handling of personality." In the Community, there's no war. There's no crime. There's no violence. There's no hungriness. Also, There's no poor and rich. In the Community, the world is completely peaceable.
The world in the Community is perfect, but everybody just looks like a machine. There must be no one in our real word want to be a machine, although the world is not perfect. Therefore, "love" and "emotion" are necessary.
The Giver is "a powerful and provocative novel". I believe you'll enjoy it.
1/1/2006
Killua Fu
Book Review: Very Thought-provoking!
Summary: 5 Stars
STORY: As one of the editorial reviews so nicely put: "In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy. With echoes of Brave New World, in this 1994 Newbery Medal winner, Lowry examines the idea that people might freely choose to give up their humanity in order to create a more stable society. Gradually Jonas learns just how costly this ordered and pain-free society can be, and boldly decides he cannot pay the price."MY FEEDBACK
1) SETTING - The story takes place in a made-up utopian community that seems to exist in Earth's future at some point. The setting really is a huge part in understanding how this community has isolated itself through choices, in order to have the "utopian" society they have. It was very interesting and could be imagined thanks the the author's descriptions.
2) CHARACTERS - The character's play the parts they are assigned like the people in the community take the job they are assigned by the community leaders. There are no questions or variance from these roles because that is all the character knows. The character of Jonas is the one that breaks this mold and is the focus of the story. As he learns what his society is missing he grows as a character to be liked even though he isn't following the standards of practice that his peers are. His character becomes increasingly gripping especially in the last twenty or so pages of the book when he starts to act on his newfound knowledge in response to the contradictions he has been brought up with all tweleve years of his life.
3) STORY - At first I was reading this as the authors viewpoint of what a utopian society "should" be: Euthenasia, abortion, clothing is an nuscience, be intouch with your personal self, pills to control sexual desires, controlled and numbered births and marriages each year, etc. Then I came to realize that the society the author creates is not necessary her viewpoint but simply the concept created by the architects of that particlar community. Each community is a bit different depending on who configured them. But all in all, in order to live in a place without poverty, starvation and crime there are some major things each and every community gives up. This is the crux of the story and what really drives the climax and conclusion.
OVERALL - I picked this book up because I heard that a famous scriptwriter was contracted to do the screenplay for this book. It is an easy read and less than 200 pages. The story leaves you thinking about it hours later. I could not read the last ten pages fast enough!! The story just built up to this phenominal climax and conclusion that had me ripping through the book to the next page because I had to find out what happens. I got this book at the library and now I have to own it so I can read it at least five more times.
Book Review: seeming utopia, essential reading
Summary: 5 Stars
It is a seeming Utopia. The children are all well mannered. The adults are content and behave in ways that benefit society. Everyone knows their place in society and all are content. It has to be a complete fraud. This is the world The Giver inhabits. The society rewards those who emphasize how they are the same as everyone else; differences are not to be discussed. It would be rude to discuss differences, and there are few differences as it is.
Jonas is eleven. He is soon to turn twelve in The Ceremony of Twelve. Each December all of the children have a Ceremony graduating them into their next year of life and education and they are granted certain privileges at each step. In a society of sameness, Jonas is somewhat different. He is one of the very few with blue eyes and every now and then he sees a flicker of...something...but it doesn't last and he doesn't understand. At the Ceremony of Twelve all of the new Twelves are appointed their new jobs which they will do for the rest of their lives. Jonas is set apart even here when he is selected to the Receiver of Memories. It is the most honored of all occupations and only one person holds the position in the entire community. It is a great honor. It is also the event that shows Jonas just how different the Sameness is.
Lois Lowry won the Newbery Medal for this book, which is perhaps the highest literary honor for fiction written for children. The Giver is deserving of this award. The Giver is written simply and is easy to understand, but there is a real depth to the storytelling and the lesson that Lowry is presenting here. Lowry has written about a society which has embraced being the same so deeply that any aberrations will be punished (to a greater or lesser extent depending on the violation) and something has been done that the citizens only know a certain amount about themselves and their world. It is very limited even though everybody believes they are truly happy, and perhaps they are. But the Sameness comes at a great price: The Receiver is the only individual who truly knows all of what was given up and what the rest of the world holds. He knows the very good and the very bad that the world has to offer. It is a crushing weight. The subtle message as Jonas learns all of this is that it is differences which need to be embraced and should not be something to fear. Differences are what make life truly interesting and worthwhile. But there are some out in the world who want to eliminate some differences because it makes them uncomfortable and The Giver is something of an answer to any sort of prejudice and misunderstanding and celebrates those who go out of their comfort zones to really see what differences are.
What makes The Giver so remarkable is that it is a novel that works both for adults and for children and is highly readable for both age groups. Adults can enjoy the book just as much as a child, though perhaps in a different way. Highly recommended.
-Joe Sherry
Book Review: one of my favorites
Summary: 5 Stars
Jonas, the main character of The Giver, is a 12 year old boy living in a society that has decided to rid itself of imperfections. The weather, for example, has been erased, leaving every day a bland day without sun, rain, wind or snow. Color has been erased. Animals no longer exist. Perfectly proper language must be used at all times - if a child mistakenly says just before lunch, "I'm starving," that is cause to be beaten, because, although he may be hungry, he is not actually "starving." Love has been erased, presumably because it is often messy or painful. And choice has been erased. A committee of elders from this society decides, when you are twelve, what occupation you will begin training for, and eventually they decide to whom you will be married and if you are fit to raise children. You do not HAVE children in this society, however. One of the occupations for females who are slightly less intelligent and hard working is 'birth mother.' Birth mothers live amongst themselves, and give birth to up to three children who are in turn given to suitable parents. (There is no mention of how these children are fathered - the only loose end in the story but one my middle school language arts students found unsatisfactory.) There is, then, no need for sex nor sexual desire; when that little problem comes up among adolescents, they are told by their parents that they must start taking a pill daily that erases these urges.
The novel begins just before the main character, Jonas, turns twelve. At the Ceremony of Twelves he learns that he has been chosen to be the next Receiver of Memory, a position of prestige but one that is very painful, for Jonas learns that every other person in his town, with the exception of The Giver, has had their memories of the past erased. He must be given these memories - memories of love, of extended family, of war, of pain, of snow, of animals, of everything that has been erased - and he discovers the richness of the world that has been extinguished, its good and bad, the absurdities, joys, tragedies, everything that makes us at times sad but also, at times, euphoric. Jonas realizes how colorless, literally and figuratively, this new world he lives in really is, and he is overwhelmed with the knowledge. The reader is treated to a captivating story, one that is difficult to put down. When I read it along with my students, as a group, out loud, and I say, "OK, now we'll stop and read again tomorrow," there will be a collective protest because they do not want to wait until tomorrow; every chapter they read must be followed immediately by the next. This incredibly well written novel is at times almost unbearably sad, though, and if sharing it with students or your own children, it is best to read it first so that you can ascertain if it is age-appropriate. When it is age-appropriate, is is one of the best novels to share with young people, a story that they will remember long after they have finished it.
Book Review: A riveting novel for everyone
Summary: 5 Stars
Lois Lowry's The Giver is quite a remarkable book; it has something in it for everyone. I first read the book when I was in Seventh Grade and had re-read it several times before recently reading it again as part of an upper-division college literature course. I have been fascinated by this seemingly simple novel for so many years-every time I come back to it, I find new ways in which I can apply it to my life. The Giver is laced with some of the most beautiful symbolism. In many ways it is alive, the book itself seems to change and adapt to an individuals needs and circumstances. When I read the book for the first time, I was about the same age as Jonas, the pre-pubescent boy who is to become the most respected leader of his community-The Receiver of Memory. I could relate to his feelings as he questioned the future and tried to find his place in life. I read it several times throughout junior high and high school and I became especially aware of the relationships which Jonas had with his friends and family. As he began to acquire knowledge (memories), he could see just how impersonal and rather meaningless his most cherished relationships were. This prompted me to develop stronger, more meaningful relationships with those whom I love.
Now, as a college student, I relate to the book in much the same way I did when I was in seventh grade. I can more fully appreciate Jonas' apprehension about the future and his ability to actually make a difference in the world. He has powerful emotions, which if left unchecked could be disastrous; so do I. He has a passion for understanding the people and the world around him; so do I. He again questions whether or not he can actually make a difference in the world, but gradually begins to see that he can; I am beginning to see that also. These feelings and emotions are shared by all young men (and presumably young woman also) and Lowry does an amazing job of helping young people realize that they do have great potential to change the world for the better.
Along with the symbolic nature of the book, Lowry does an outstanding job of creating a visual feast for the readers of her novel. As I read it, I become a part of it; I can see so clearly in my mind everything that she is talking about. One of the most striking examples of this is how she uses color-in a book?-to show how limited this society is. People in Jonas' community see only in black and white, but occasionally Jonas sees red-on an apple or in the flesh tones of people's skin. Over time, he begins to see more colors and with the colors come wisdom and understanding of the suppressed nature of his people.
These are the some of the things that make this a powerful and moving book. The nature and content of the book appeal to so many because it addresses the basic needs of all people. To sum it all up-a book for all ages with timeless lessons to be learned from it!