What is the ideal society that you can imagine? Would you like to be happy? Does a society with no war, no disease, no pain or suffering appeal to you? Would you like to have someone else choose a very compatible mate for you and not have to worry about dating? How would you like a job that is guaranteed and is enjoyable and fits your interests and personality? The Giver is about such a society. What is the trade-off? What is missing in the people’s lives? The Giver is a very thought-provoking book. Jonas lives in this community. His thought his childhood was delightful. However, at age 12, he knows he will be assigned a job. He is apprehensive about the prospect. What does he really want to do? He is not sure. Everyone in the community is assigned an occupation that suits his or her abilities. In a special ceremony, children who turn 12 years old in a given year are grouped together. He sits in the auditorium and watches and listens as all the other children in his age group are assigned jobs. Jonas is the only one left without an assignment. Is something wrong? At the end of the ceremony, he is finally called up and told he is to be a “Receiver”. This is the highest honor. He is to be trained by the Giver. The Giver is the only one in the society that has any sense of history; he is the depository of memories. The others live only in the present. The Giver is to transfer his memories of the human race to Jonas, for the Giver is old and tired and needs to be replaced. This society is one of conformity. “Sameness” is fostered and rewarded. All the houses are identical. Haircuts, dress and activities are strictly regimented. Everyone sees grayness; no one even sees colors. Only the separate job assignments differentiate the members. They are told how to act; they are told how to live. Everyone takes a pill to keep all passion at bay. Only superficial discussions of one’s feelings are allowed; only certain feelings are appropriate. The people know vaguely about “Elsewhere”, the outside world, but they stay in the Community and do as they are told. When Jonas starts receiving memories from the Giver, he experiences pain and suffering but also love and freedom of choice. He also begins to see the world in color. He is told he can lie about his training and not tell anyone what he is experiencing. Jonas is careful of what he says at home now. When he is asked if he dreams, he says “no”, because his dreams would not be acceptable. He does not tell them that he has stopped taking the pill to suppress passion. His feelings and emotions grow, and he tries to hide these from his family and the others in the Community. The Giver is the only person who knows what he is going through. Jonas thinks the other people in the Community tell the truth about their jobs. Then one day, the Giver allows him to watch a video recording of his father at work with his job taking care of infants. Jonas had always thought his Dad liked the infants that were in his care. This view was reinforced since his father brought home an infant named Gabriel who needed some extra care. Gabriel was not learning to sleep through the night; he was different than the other infants in the ward. If he did not learn to sleep through the night he would be RELEASED. Jonas soothes the boy to sleep by acting as Giver and sending the child peaceful thoughts. The child does not sleep when he is in the new infant ward, however. Jonas learns that Gabriel is to be RELEASED. In the infant ward, twins have been born. Twins are not allowed in the Community. Only one of the twins can be kept. The other is be RELEASED. Jonas watches as his father weighs each of the twins and sets aside the smaller of the two. Then his father calmly injects the smaller twin in the head with a lethal chemical. The boy dies. Jonas is devastated. He had always looked up to his father. Jonas now knows what RELEASED means. He had thought that those who were RELEASED, including the disabled and the elderly went to a heavenly place in another community. Jonas now knows that RELEASED means death. Shocked and scared, Jonas knows that his father has been lying to everyone about what he does. Is everyone lying about his or her work? Jonas is disillusioned and decides to leave the Community, something that is forbidden. He realizes that the Community is a horrible place; it is a dystopia, not a Utopia. Jonas hoards some leftover food (all leftover food must be put out in front of each house) and prepares for the right opportunity. The Giver helps him escape. He escapes with Gabriel and is pursued by helicopters. Freezing and nearly starving, they reach a hill and look down upon a lit up house below. A family is sitting cozily in a living room with a lovely Christmas tree. The scene is a memory that Jonah had received from the Giver. Is this real or is it just a memory? Are Jonah and Gabriel safe in “Elsewhere” or are they dead? What information is kept from us in today’s world? It is easy to see distortions of truth in our media. Misinformation is spread rapidly though the Internet as well as television, and, probably, our newspapers. We see many different cultures in the world, and they all have their version of reality. Medical doctors often give tranquilizers and antidepressants to dull patients’ emotions. There is some parallel here to the pill that every 12 year-old child in the Community must start to take daily to get rid of passionate feelings. Does not great art and music need passion and intense feelings to be inspired?

The book came in the perfect condition but the contents of it is what really matters. I had to read this book for school and let me say I was INVESTED. it usually takes me forever to get into something for school but I loved everything about it. Great read!!

The Giver is a children’s literature novel written by Lois Lowry. It takes place in a monotone, perfect world that shuns individuality. Jonas, the hero that is followed throughout the story, begins to notice the true imperfection of the world he lives in. He is accompanied by a man who is only known as “the Giver.” It's amazing what The Giver has to offer the children that have read it. It is a book that is, in a way, simple in its complexity. Simple in the aspect that a child can be exposed to it and still understand the basic plot and foundation; Complex in the aspect that an adult can be exposed to it and be able to analyze the true meaning and theme that is hidden beneath its surface. Jonas really questions what individuality truly is. The truth is uncovered to him by the Giver that humans are afraid of being subjected to peculiar situations. When Jonas talks about releasing one of the twins that were recently born with the Giver, he exclaims, “Well, they can't have two identical people around! Think how confusing it would be!" (182). It would be easier for one of the twins to be released then for everyone to be possibly subjected to awkward situations such as mixing up two people that look identical to each other. Another example for this theme would be how everyone is required to accept one another's apologies. The thought behind this is that if someone does not accept your apology, it can lead to future skirmishes. No body likes to be caught in a situation where they are trying to mend a relationship between two people, so it's easier for everyone to be uniform and friendly. It is more comfortable. Comfortable is a key element in this novel. Lowry does an amazing job of exposing human nature. Everyone hates being singled out, put in awkward situations, and just simply being different. By making everyone uniform, same number of people in the house, we all act the same, wear the same clothes, it minimizes suffering. In no way can suffering be totally and utterly eliminated, there will still be things that irritates people individually. What Lowry enforces through her protagonist Jonas is that if there is minimal suffering, then there is minimal happiness. No one is truly depressed, but no one is truly happy either. When having dinner with his family and everyone was sharing their emotions of the day, Jonas had experienced sadness first hand, and realized that all the “emotions” everyone spoke of during dinner were fleeting feelings that held no true meaning: “But now Jonas had experienced real sadness. He had felt grief. He knew there was no quick comfort for emotions like those” (166). Jonas came to the conclusion that no one truly new what raw emotion was, only himself and the Giver. No body could truly love, hate, or feel sadness. He began to realize how empty his society profoundly was. In conclusion, this novel was amazing. Lowry does a fantastic job by setting a sober tone for a novel that explores the theme of humanity's natural fear of individuality. Though there is no true physical conflict, the true problem lies within the society itself. While a very good book for adults, it is also a true masterpiece for its intended audience, children. If ever taught in a classroom setting, a fun way to incorporate the book into activities would be for children to pair up into groups and assign them to create a utopia of their own. A way to expand this assignment would be for the children to write their own dystopian fiction with plot, character, and theme. Questions such as: Can there ever be a true utopia? Are humans naturally flawed, leading to the conclusion that all society is imperfect? Can be addressed. This can be also seen as a lesson plan, incorporating other books that are similar to The Giver, such as The City of Ember, written by Jeanne DuPrau, and The Roar, written by Emma Clayton. Both which are dystopian themed novels that are aimed toward children. If students are having difficulty interpreting the text or understanding it two great sites would be: randomhouse or loislowry.com. For teachers who need lesson plans or activities that pair well with the novel these two sites are very informative: englishunitplans or webenglishteacher.com. This book was overall incredible and I'm glad that I was able to read it, even if it is classified as children’s literature! Works Cited Lowry, Lois. The Giver. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.

The copy of this book that I read had a transcript of the authors Newberry Award acceptance speech as an appendix. She talks about the experiences in her life that lead up to the creation of this story and I feel that the context gives the story even greater meaning, not that it needed it. In particular, I was very moved by the fact that the man on the cover of this book is actually a painter (known personally by the author) who went blind in his old age and could no longer see the colors he loved. The story truly stands on its own but her speech made it feel all the more important. I was never assigned this book to read in school but I see why others were. It is a truly impactful story that makes me feel oddly grateful and appreciative of even the most god awful and horrific parts of life.