Review: The Giver

Hello dear readers!

Today's post is a review of the book The Giver by Lois Lowery.  If you have not read the book, you might want to skip this post as there will be spoilers in the discussion.

The Giver follows twelve year old Jonas.  Jonas lives in a community where everything is full of sameness - there is no color, no free will, no pain, no joy, no anything.  Families are picked for each individual and you have to apply for spouses and children.  Jobs are assigned to individuals when they turn twelve and are chosen by a committee of elders who observe the youth throughout their lives; these jobs range from birth mothers (the women who keep the population going) to nurturers (who care for the babies) to trash collectors.

At Jonas' ceremony, he is selected for a very different kind of a job: to be the next Receiver.  The position of receiver is basically the keeper of the memories so that the members in the community do not have to carry them.  Jonas begins training with a man called The Giver.  Through the placement of The Giver's fingertips on Jonas' back, the memories of all human kind are transferred into Jonas.  He learns colors, sounds, beauty, hatred, violence, and love - all of the things that the community has purged in their pursuit of sameness.

Once this training has begun, Jonas realizes he can't look at his life in the community the same.  He realizes that he can't live in a world without love, without color, without flavor.  The Giver and Jonas then come up with a plan that will restore the memories to the community and free Jonas from the confines he now can not stand.  But when a catalyst is triggered, Jonas leaves earlier and the plan is jeopardized.

The book is very well written, with an ambiguous ending that forces the reader to think beyond the pages of the story.  It has won many awards, including the Newberry Award.  It is required reading for many middle schools, and has also been turned into a feature film with Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada, Into the Woods) and Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski, Iron Man) as The Giver.

I read this book once in 6th or 7th grade.  While I enjoyed it, there was a lot I don't think I fully grasped or that I really took away from it.  But upon re-reading it for this young adult literature class, I found The Giver had a lot more meaning for me.

One thing I found through this second reading is how the idea of sameness feels a lot more repulsive as an adult than as a middle schooler.  I can't even imagine a world without love, color, or free will.  The control of the government for the good of the community in the book was horrifying to me.  I do not want that for my children.

Another thing I really took away this time was the suicide of the receiver before Jonas.  Her name was Rosemary and while I think there were only like three sentences devoted to her, she stuck in my mind.  She was The Giver's daughter and she killed herself because of the weight of memory.  My heart ached and I can't shake her from my mind.

The Giver really is filled with a lot of emotional and mental complexities.  It deals with government control, genocide, nothingness, suicide, lying, and so much more.  One of the articles we read as a class to complement the story discussed how because of these complexities, maybe it's not a read suitable for middle schoolers.

On the one hand, I kind of agree.  I know (as I mentioned before) that I really didn't fully comprehend the story when I read it in middle school.  But I also know that it's good to expose students to this kind of book early.  And since Jonas is twelve, it makes sense to me that middle schoolers read it.  What do you think?

Overall, I really enjoy The Giver and re-reading it was great.  I highly recommend it to everyone and I think it should be on every life book list.

~Meaghan

P.S. : Here is a link to watch the trailer for The Giver.  I haven't seen the movie, but it does look like they've changed a few things from the book.