The Giver

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lowry, Lois. 1993. THE GIVER. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 9780385732550.

PLOT
Jonas is an eleven year old boy who lives in a futuristic community unlike one we know. Speakers are present throughout the town, including inside individual homes so the Elders can hear what is being said and issue orders to be followed. The community is about sameness and void of color. People are not encouraged to think for themselves but rather obey the orders given to them. Rules govern the lives of everyone. There will be one male and one female child given to each family unit. With each passing year up to the age of 12, rites of passage occur, such as seven year olds (referred to as sevens) who get a front button jacket to show their first sign of independence. (Jackets were buttoned in the back before age seven). The nines receive their first bicycle; this is the main form of transportation other than walking. The elevens are assigned jobs when they become twelves. This job assignment is one that has been carefully selected by a committee. Jonas wonders what kind of job he'll get; he doesn't see himself as a Nurturer as his father does every day. On the eventful day, Jonas is assigned the Receiver of Memory. The Receiver was the most important member of the community and revered by everyone. Jonas' world begins to turn upside down as he learns of memories that have been blocked from the rest of the community. Jonas' mentor is The Giver. As Jonas begins to learn more about his community he realizes that when a community member is "released" it means they are killed. He always thought they went to another place to live. Armed with this knowledge and the realization that a small child living with them is about to be killed, Jonas and The Giver begin to plot his escape from the only place he's ever known. This book is the first in a trilogy.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Lois Lowry was awarded the Newbery Medal for this beautifully written piece of literature. To be able to create a world unlike anything we've known could be difficult. Lowry manages to make the place Jonas and his family live believable. When she describes infants and their "comfort object", the object becomes more impersonal, rather than describing a fluffy stuffed bunny to comfort them. The regimentation of the town is shown through privileges we take for granted that are awarded as a rite of passage. Getting buttons down the front of your jacket at age seven would be a very big deal if you hadn't had them before.

This book is meant for older elementary students. During the adolescent years, some teens question authority. Many don't like rules. This book would be appropriate for them to show a world where everyone lives by very strict rules. In the book Lowry writes of a Book of Laws that students spend their days memorizing. Maybe the world we live in isn't so bad after all! When nines receive a bicycle they are told "it is a symbol of moving out into the community". The eights are given a pocket, to be able to keep track of their own belongings. This teaches responsibility. Responsibility, independence, the ability to have our own thoughts are freedoms we take for granted. Lowry reminds us that we are fortunate to have those freedoms. It was chilling in the book to read the words from the Giver, "We need to protect people from the wrong choices". If you never fail, how can you learn?

To live in a world with no color or pain is hard to imagine. Jonas was selected to bear the burden of the townspeople. What a weighty assignment! Jonas was chosen because he was bright and insightful. At the end, this insight led him to the realization that he couldn't continue to live the way everyone around him did. The only way to break the cycle and transfer the pain back to the townspeople was to leave. We often protect younger students. This book treats them as a young adult by presenting a harsh example of life somewhere else and leaving the interpretation of whether or not they like it up to the reader.

Ron Rifkin narrates this book in a four CD collection. Mr. Rifkin does a fine job changing the voices between Jonas and The Giver. The words flow as he reads the book to the listener.

PERSONAL OPINION
This is the second time I've read this book, about five years apart. The first time I didn't like it at all but I had two daughters who were reading it in school. I worried about the content upsetting them. (It didn't). This time I listened to the audiotape, narrated by Ron Rifkin. His gentle voice highlighted the beauty of the words written. What a masterful book. I think every middle school student should be required to read this and engage in a discussion, whether it be at school or home.

AWARDS
Newbery Award 1994
ALA Best Book For Young Adults 1994
ALA Notable Children's Book 1994
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book 1994
Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award 1994
Kentucky Bluegrass Master List 1995
Virginia Young Readers Program Award 1994

REVIEW EXCERPTS
From School Library Review
"Grade 6-9-- In a complete departure from her other novels, Lowry has written an intriguing story set in a society that is uniformly run by a Committee of Elders. Twelve-year-old Jonas's confidence in his comfortable "normal" existence as a member of this well-ordered community is shaken when he is assigned his life's work as the Receiver. The Giver, who passes on to Jonas the burden of being the holder for the community of all memory "back and back and back," teaches him the cost of living in an environment that is "without color, pain, or past." 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."

From Kirkus Review
"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."
Maine Student Book Award 1994

CONNECTIONS
As a class, list the pros and cons of living in a society like the one Jonas and The Giver reside.

Of getting a bike, getting a pocket and getting buttons down the front of your jacket, which one would you want the most and why?

Living in a world without color, music or technology would be completely foreign. Set up the classroom for one day where the class tries to live as Jonas did. Nothing electronic except the lights in the room, memorizing rules, very strict. At the end of the day, have a discussion about the opinion of living this way. It would be most effective if the students didn't know this day was going to occur, they just walked in and found things this way.

Students who liked this book might like:

Lowry, Lois. GATHERING BLUE. ISBN 9780385732567

Lowry, Lois. THE MESSENGER. ISBN 9780385732536

Rowe, Robert. J. DETAINED DIFFERENCES. ISBN 9781424198559