The Giver

The Giver

Hardcover - USA - 1st edition.

Author Lois Lowry Published 1993-??-?? Type Fiction Genre Drama Themes Dystopia, Family Age Group Teen

The Giver is a young-adult novel written by Lois Lowry and published in 1993. It is the first book in what would later become a loosely-related series and, in 2014, was adapted into a movie. The book has been quite influential, being required reading in many schools, while being frequently challenged in others.

The setting is in a future society where everything appears perfect. Everyone has a place, they all take care of each other, and nobody ever starves, becomes sick, or is even unhappy for long. The story follows Jonas, a boy who is eager to discover what sort of career the elders will assign to him now that he's come of age having just turned 12. But he and his whole family is shocked to learn he has been chosen to replace the most important elder in their city.

Personal

Own?	No.
Read?	Audiobook read by Ron Rifkin.
Finished	2024-04-04.

I remember seeing this book prominently featured in book stores and again later when it was made into a movie, but I didn't have enough interest to read it, and the strange old man on the cover didn't help. After seeing it was one of the more frequently challenged books, and that it was also written by a female author, I became more inclined to read it.

After finishing it, I thought it was just okay, but I was amazed that so many conservative-minded people would want it banned. I can understand why they want to ban books about sex, drugs, or queer people, but, the overarching theme in this book is: giving the government too much power, even when they have good intentions, is very bad. This is awfully inline with the Conservative mindset, just like with other frequently challenged books like Nineteen Eighty-Four and Fahrenheit 451. I can only assume they either never read these books or simply don't understand them.

Review

Overall:

Good

• Like with other dystopian novels, Lowry does a good job of showing how concepts like "safety" and "equality" can be bastardized into an extremely sterile and undesirable world.
• I liked how, when Jonas is told he is allowed to lie, he very quickly realizes that others might be allowed to lie too, and, if they are, how would he know it?
• The reveal of what the strangeness Jonas was seeing was very interesting.
  Learning the elders had the ability to control whether people could see color was quite shocking, and certainly clarified just how much control they really had over people. The later reveal that the Giver began to experience music was another example of their power.
• For as much damage would be caused if a new Receiver died or went rogue, the elders don't try very hard to protect or monitor them.
• The scene where Jonas watches his father "releasing" the twin is, quite chilling.
• When Jonas asks the Giver to leave with him, and the Giver says he wants to stay behind to help people get through the chaos that will occur when Jonas leaves, and Jonas says they don't matter because they're bad people, I love how he realizes that the whole point of him leaving is to help them because they do matter.
• As Jonas begins starving to death, I like that he questions whether leaving a place where all his needs were met was really the right thing to do, then comes to the conclusion that, while there, he was starving in so many other ways.
• I like how the ending is kind of left open. Although, I think it's pretty obvious that Jonas was experiencing a fever dream as he and Gabriel froze to death, a direct interpretation allows for at least a glimmer of hope.

Bad

• I think a lot of the biological aspects of humans couldn't be overcome so easily as they are in the book. Biology is far more messy than simply taking a pill, and, while it's possible to make drastic changes to a person by altering their DNA, the interconnections of our genome would always cause unwanted side effects.
  Perfecting this to the point of being able to remove a parent's love for their children, especially to the point of euthanizing them, seems like it would be beyond the skill of the geneticists who couldn't even completely remove color vision.
• I would like it if more about the "stirrings" was discussed.
  I initially assumed the pill Jonas took was simply to eliminate his sexual urges, but if that's all it is, it didn't accomplish much later in the book. Had Lowry mentioned it also curbed aggressive behavior, it would also help explain Jonas's desire to leave after he stopped taking it.
• I would have liked some explanation for how the Receiver and Giver are able to transfer memories, or how memories that leave them return to the people in their society. All of that seemed like a magical aspect in an otherwise non-magical world.
• Because there aren't even any real close calls in Jonas's escape, the whole sequence ended up being drawn out and dull.

Ugly

• When it's revealed that everyone who "releases" undesirable people are actually euthanizing them and lying about it, I had a hard time squaring this with the culture. All these people are raised in a society where lying is strictly forbidden, and even exaggerating is chastised. So, to assume a bunch of 12-years-olds would be capable of out-right lying the moment they started training for their assignments, was hard to believe.
• If nobody in the society is ever injured or killed except in very rare accidents, why do they have fighter jets and anti-aircraft weapons? Why do the children know how to play war with pretend rifles and use terms like "ambush" or "line of fire?" If nobody in living memory has ever starved or even become really hungry, why does Jonas know the word "starving?" The world just isn't very coherent.

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are several women, but none are very important.
Bechdel test?	Pass	Jonas's mother and sister talk to each other multiple times.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	Nobody's race is ever mentioned.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

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