The Giver Review by Nick B.


Hello, reader! This is my review of The Giver, written in 1993 by Lois Lowry. I originally read this book in school a couple years ago, but I have reread it since then because I liked it so much and I felt that there was a lot of information I may have missed when I originally read it and that reading it again would make me notice some interesting things that I hadn't before. 

I really liked The Giver when I first read it. I thought the concept of a perfect futuristic society was interesting because it was what many people believed life would be like right now a long time ago. One of the largest differences between the society that the main character, Jonas, lives in and ours is that there is no choice or prejudice. Everyone thinks the same and is assigned the job at age twelve based on their interests and abilities. Adults can apply for a compatible spouse with which they are allowed to have exactly two children and once those children grow up the family unit disbands and the adults live with other adults without children. When people get old they are sent to the "House of the Old" and are cared for until they are "released." Being released translates to death and in problematic situations younger members of society can be released if they pose a threat to the happiness of the society.

Spoilers past this point:
Jonas is an 11 year old boy who lives with his father, a Nurturer of new children, his mother who works at the Department of Justice and his seven year old sister Lily. Unlike almost everyone in his community Jonas has pale eyes and an unusual ability to see sometimes see flashes of color outside of the society while most people see the colorless world without any problems. Jonas turns twelve and is assigned to be a Receiver of Memory. The Receiver of Memory keeps the bad memories that have been removed from the society, but still need to be kept to prevent mistakes from being repeated. The only person who is able to see the pain of these memories is the Receiver who teaches Jonas by transmitting memories. The Receiver tells Jonas to call him the Giver

I found it very interesting that Jonas learns about the outside world through experiences that are somewhat regular for people outside of their closed-off society. For instance the first memory he gets is of someone sledding down a snowy hill. He is exhilarated and wants to share this memory along with most of the others he receives with his family, but would be doing so at the cost of their peaceful lives. Jonas's life is filled with richness and many different memories throughout his training, but is unable to share any of them as they have lost emotion and are unable to truly experience suffering or real joy. During Jonas's training with the Giver he begins to get upset with the people in his society and how they don't make any decisions and don't feel real emotions. The Giver encourages these emotions and the two begin to form a Grandfather-Grandson relationship. 

Jonas begins taking care of a problem newchild named Gabriel, who has trouble sleeping through the nights. Jonas helps him by transmitting soothing memories to him and the two form a close bond like that of the families in the memories he received. When Gabriel is in danger of being released the Giver tells Jonas that being released means death. Jonas shows so much anger and frustration over this that the Giver is inspired to help Jonas change the community forever. The Giver tells the story of his daughter who was a receiver before Jonas and how she became too sad to handle the memories so she asked to be released, but the sudden amount of memories were too much for the society starved from emotion. The Giver suggests that Jonas should escape to Elsewhere, outside of the society where his emotions can disperse with lesser impact, allowing the Giver to help people come to terms with the new feelings, changing society forever.

Jonas is forced to do this earlier than expected when his father tells him that Gabriel will be released the next day. Jonas steals a bicycle and some food and leaves to the Elsewhere. Slowly he enters a colorful world with animals and changing weather, but also hunger and exhaustion. While avoiding search planes, Jonas and Gabriel travel for a long time until snow makes the bike travel impossible. They are freezing, but Jonas is comforting Gabriel with warm memories and they eventually reach the crest of a hill where Jonas finds the sled from his first memory. They slide down it and think they see village lights where Jonas is sure someone can help them.

I found this book extremely interesting because of its unique plot and characters. The reader gets a great sense of growth in Jonas almost as if they are watching a baby turn into an adult as he learns what real emotions are. I thought that the concept of transmitting ideas to evoke emotions in certain people was really interesting and I found the book difficult to put down because Jonas was constantly making revelations and realizing how messed up his society was day by day. The Giver had well developed characters that the reader gets to see grow, lots of detail and depiction, and an amazing plot. For these reasons I would recommend this book to anyone. It's not a long or difficult read, but it is very interesting and well worth the shorter amount of time required to read it compared to longer books I have read that I have found far less interesting.

Jonas is forced to do this earlier than expected when his father tells him that Gabriel will be released the next day. Jonas steals a bicycle and some food and leaves to the Elsewhere. Slowly he enters a colorful world with animals and changing weather, but also hunger and exhaustion. While avoiding search planes, Jonas and Gabriel travel for a long time until snow makes the bike travel impossible. They are freezing, but Jonas is comforting Gabriel with warm memories and they eventually reach the crest of a hill where Jonas finds the sled from his first memory. They slide down it and think they see village lights where Jonas is sure someone can help them.

I found this book extremely interesting because of its unique plot and characters. The reader gets a great sense of growth in Jonas almost as if they are watching a baby turn into an adult as he learns what real emotions are. I thought that the concept of transmitting ideas to evoke emotions in certain people was really interesting and I found the book difficult to put down because Jonas was constantly making revelations and realizing how messed up his society was day by day. The Giver had well developed characters that the reader gets to see grow, lots of detail and depiction, and an amazing plot. For these reasons I would recommend this book to anyone. It's not a long or difficult read, but it is very interesting and well worth the shorter amount of time required to read it compared to longer books I have read that I have found far less interesting.

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