LS 5603 LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS

Review of THE GIVER

A. Lowry, Lois. THE GIVER. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.


B. Plot: The main character, Jonas, grows up in a quasi utopia where no one can think for themselves and “the rules” must always be followed. There is no crime, no love or sex between spouses, no variations in weather, no hills, no mountains. But there are good manners because everyone in the community is subservient to “The Elders” While no disease, no wars, no hurricanes may sound good what the citizens of this new world order give up are emotions, trust among family members, friends, and neighbors. Everyone wears identical clothing and has identical bikes to travel the community in. “The Receiver” is the most important member of the community. The only person who retains any memories of the former world, a world like you and I inhabit now. Jonas during the “Ceremony of 12s” learns he has been chosen to be the new “Receiver” which made the current “Receiver” become the giver. In the end Jonas and a young child escape and have a chance, at least, to find their way back into the real world.

C. Critical analysis:
THE GIVER is a very readable, approachable tale of science fiction. Lowry always tells a good tale and this title is no exception. She takes us into this “safe” and unchallenging life to make us think about what life would be like if everything were grey or white in color and you never even knew that colors existed. Lowry portrays a life where euthanasia for the old and the unhealthy or troublesome young is an everyday occurrence and members of the community think being “released” is a most wonderful thing. The characters are very well developed, especially those of Jonas and The Giver. Their relationship grows in a realistic way at a realistic pace. The two of them are the only citizens allowed privacy (the intercom can be turned off in the Giver’s compound.) permission to lie, and permission to be rude. They also have total access of all community and personal information about each citizen. Most important events like group ceremonies or releases are videotaped.

The book has a very nice flow about it. We are so pleased that Jonas and the Giver have a warm and mutually rewarding relationship that is first centered around their place in society but in the end is centered around creativity over neatness, love that is deep enough to be tough and realistic and at the same time sentimental. Jonas and the giver come to master that most human of all emotions, trust, reasoned, logical trust, based on experience and emotions.

There are many reasons that children will like the adventure of THE GIVER. Jonas, the protagonist is of middle school age and futuristic fiction is often popular among young people. In my experience girls don’t care much if the main character is male or female, but after Junie B. Jones in the kindergarten and 1st grade classroom, boys want to read about boys in the leading role. This would be an excellent volume to discuss with students as you read aloud. I can see the suspense building to a tremendous level if one or two chapters were read aloud after lunch each day. I expect many would try to check it out of the library media center so they wouldn’t have to wait until the next day to see what would happen.

One of the most wonderful parts of the book is when the Receiver tells of his love for his daughter who was to be the replacement Receiver, the post that Jonas holds now. Because of her father’s love for her he could not release all the painful memories to her as soon as he should have. But even the memories and experiences he shares with her make her beg for her “release.” She gives herself the injection of death and her name, Rosemary is never to spoken in this idyllicd world ever again. The dual systems of reality in the book that most people live and know as to the “truth” the Receivers, new, and old know and understand add depth. THE GIVER is a quick and provocative read. I would recommend to 3rd-4th graders through mature adults.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS:
Amazon espouses, “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…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.

Publisher’s Weekly pronounces, “
In the "ideal" world into which Jonas was born, everybody has sensibly agreed that well-matched married couples will raise exactly two offspring, one boy and one girl. These children's adolescent sexual impulses will be stifled with specially prescribed drugs; at age 12 they will receive an appropriate career assignment, sensibly chosen by the community's Elders. This is a world in which the old live in group homes and are "released"--to great celebration--at the proper time; the few infants who do not develop according to schedule are also "released," but with no fanfare. Lowry's development of this civilization is so deft that her readers, like the community's citizens, will be easily seduced by the chimera of this ordered, pain-free society. Until the time that Jonah begins training for his job assignment--the rigorous and prestigious position of Receiver of Memory--he, too, is a complacent model citizen. But as his near-mystical training progresses, and he is weighed down and enriched with society's collective memories of a world as stimulating as it was flawed, Jonas grows increasingly aware of the hypocrisy that rules his world. With a storyline that hints at Christian allegory and an eerie futuristic setting, this intriguing novel calls to mind John Christopher's Tripods trilogy and Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. Lowry is once again in top form--raising many questions while answering few, and unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers.



E. REVIEWS ACCESSED FROM:
http://www.amazon.com/Giver-Lois-Lowry/dp/0440237688/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196833437&sr=1-1

F. CONNECTIONS: BRAVE NEW WORLD and ANIMAL FARM come instantly to mind. For younger children and looking from a different vantage point I am thinking about the relationship with Jonas and his little sister, The age and characteristics of the family make it similar in age with the hero of ZUCCINIHI by Barbara Delaney and her shy brother. Crescent Dragonwagon also has a great book about a brother and sister entitled, I HATE MY BROTHER HARRY.