By: Maggie Z

The Giver by Lois Lowry is set in a dystopian society with no love, color, weather, pain, memory of the past, or anything else that might make someone different from another. Each child is given a number at birth and named at an official ceremony. Spouses, jobs, and children are chosen for each person after they are examined closely for a long time. At a certain age, they are given a Ceremony of Release, which is a way to get rid of old people in the community while making it seem like the Ceremony is a good thing: the person is given a party where they celebrate every good thing that they have done or fond memories of their life and then led into a closed room, where a poison is injected into their arm. Within moments, the person dies, and a new spot opens up in the community.

Before birth, each Birthmother (the ones whose jobs are to give birth to the next generation) is assigned a genetic scientist who will make the necessary tweaks and changes to the embryo so the child will be born with the community-chosen desired traits. A group of people called the Elders make the community’s decisions for them, and any contact with the outside world is either banned or strictly regulated.

Difference and diversity are warily regarded as a negative thing, and there are cameras everywhere that strictly enforce the unyielding rules. And as the Elders of this society believe that memory and knowledge of the past can be harmful, each generation has one person, and one person only, to take on the world’s history from the time before the Elders of long ago decided to make each person live the same monotonous life as everyone else.

The main character in this book is the new Receiver of Memory named Jonas. The Chief Elder (the person who runs the community) warns Jonas that his training will include both physical and mental pain, and that he can only be trained by the previous Receiver, who will pass on the memories of the past to him. Jonas’ mentor takes on the name ‘The Giver’ to distinguish himself from the new Receiver, Jonas.

One day, after Jonas had seen a memory of war that The Giver accidentally let slip, he immediately understood why the Elders had abolished memory. But the next day, Jonas saw love. He decides he can’t let something so important, so wonderful as love, be taken away from him and everyone else.

So, he sets off to the edge of his known universe and sees for himself how spectacular the world can be.
I thought this book was great! I first learned about it when it was assigned as the first book my class would read together, annotate, and take notes on. I read this book several times over, but I never got tired of seeing all those creative descriptions in my mind’s eye. When my class finished the book, we also watched the movie version, but it wasn’t quite as great as the book.

I would highly recommend reading this book. I give it a ten out of ten. But if we’re the movie . . . when it comes to that, we’ll talk.

Image Credit by Caio