The Giver by Lois Lowry

I just finished The Giver, and I really have to say it was absolutely godly! I can’t remember a book I’ve liked more than this! It really is insane.

The Giver is about a boy named Jonas who lives in a very odd, but surprisingly not too unbelievable community. It’s like a very scary suburb, only a lot worse. Everyone always follows the strict rules that are laid out by the elders. For example, while you are growing up, if you pronounce something wrong, or use hyperbolic language like “I’m Starving”, you get hit with the discipline wand for “language precision”. Every year there are a procession of ceremonies. Jonas is about to enter his ceremony for becoming twelve, which is an immensely important one because it is then that you are assigned your job for life! You then proceed to learn the job and live your life out (which isn’t a life because there are no emotions, feelings or real love). That’s just a sample of how scary this book is.

One of the main topics that can be viewed for this book is the representation of injustice. All of the people in the community have fallen asleep in a way. They live by the rules, don’t bend, break or question them and have no life at all. We can identify this terrifying image with ourselves, because we sometimes fall asleep to the injustice happening around us every day. Take the Rwanda massacre for instance. That was with no doubt, horrible (especially after seeing the movie Hotel Rwanda). The whole outside world was ignoring that, and just letting everyone kill each-other for no major reason! Nobody really stepped up and took the leadership position to stop this tragedy. It’s different in The Giver though, because Jonas and his friend do step up secretly and try to spread some consciousness around to everyone. I won’t tell you how though, because that would be horrible for if you want to read it.

My experience of the book was amazing! In metaphorical terms, it’s like making preparing the butter for a batch of lovely cookies. Usually without micro-waving the butter, it is very hard to blend it in with the rest of the mix because its very hard. In this case, the butter had an additive called wisdom which made it very easy to mix. In other words, I instantly got into the book. I didn’t have to wait till halfway or anything, it grabbed me in and kept me completely in trance and imagining the world through my mind’s eye. This lovely effect composed of suspense, meaning and amazing writing ability kept me hooked until the very end.

I also found myself very moved by this book. There’s one part where Jonas finds out what the process of “releasing” actually is. If too many babies are born, the baby isn’t developing fast enough or a person gets too old, then the community workers perform “release”. Jonas finds out that instead of the common perception that the person getting “released” goes to another community to live their life, they actually get a lethal injection. When I read this part, I felt really angry! How can this community let this happen? Well its obvious because they aren’t aware of anything important that’s happening around them, but why? How can they accept the horrible “sameness”, where differences are against the rules to speak of and everyone is doped into believing the false side of things? For another example, once the kids hit puberty, they are given a pill every day of their lives to suppress the heightened feelings they would most likely gain.