The Giver

With the chant, Jonas knew, the community was accepting him and his new role, giving him life, the way they had given it to the newchild Caleb. His heart swelled with gratitude and pride.
But at the same time he was filled with fear. He did not know what his selection meant. He did not know what he was to become.
Or what would become of him.

The Giver by Lois Lowry is a children’s classic, but with its exploration of both moral and political themes, it’s equally suited for adults and children. While it has some flaws, I believe this book is more than worthy of your time.

Plot

Jonas lives in a community without war and pain, one that seems to be perfect in every way. Seldom does anyone get hurt, and only once in a lifetime does someone die. Every member of society has their own place of service, with everyone working together in harmony.

Sounds perfect, right?

But Jonas, upon becoming a Twelve—the community’s threshold of adulthood—is about to learn many dark secrets about the sanitized utopia in which he lives. He’s appointed as the new Receiver of Memory, holding all the memories of pain and sorrow, happiness and love, to keep the members of the community from having to bear them.

These memories give him a glimpse of the world that once was, a world that experienced death but also joy. They show him how empty his perfect existence is. And they also shed light on the darkness that runs his world.

With the former Receiver of Memory, now called the Giver, imparting the wisdom of the ages to him, how will Jonas respond? How can he continue to live as he has after experiencing vicariously the heights and depths of human existence?

My first note about the plot of The Giver is that is it short. I first read this book years ago and remember it being a lot longer; however, this time around, it only took me a few hours to read. This makes sense since it is primarily a children’s book, but it also means that no single part gets much attention.

The plot is slow-paced but doesn’t drag. It takes place almost entirely in two locations, with some other places visited once or twice. Despite the lack of edge-of-your-seat action, it still carried me forward, wondering what Jonas would do next.

And of course, the book’s ending is famously ambiguous. I’ve read that the sequels (there are sequels, if you didn’t know) give more explanation of what happened.

Characters

The cast of characters is the main place where this story lacks. None, except Jonas’ friend, Asher, stood out to me. I was rooting for the characters and didn’t specifically dislike them, but even by the very end, they’re flat and unremarkable.

This could result from the community being void of emotion and personality. Perhaps Lowry tried to show how the “Sameness” erases every mark of individuality, leaving all characters only shells that must conform to the society’s demands.

However, this doesn’t change the fact that the characters are forgettable. If you read this book, you won’t be reading it for the endearing cast.

Theme & Content Warnings

The Giver’s strength is its theme. This story explores the question, “What’s better? Safety or freedom?” It looks at a world that has given up its freedom to live, freedom to feel, to be protected by government, and shows the consequence of such a choice.

Though written in 1993, the points raised by the story are still valid today. Government control versus personal liberty is a hot political topic. While Lowry doesn’t cover every angle in such a short book, she makes the reader think.

One criticism one might give of the theme is that it fails to explore alternatives. For example, it portrays that there can either be large populations and starvation or population control and plenty of food. It only takes a glance into your kitchen to see that, even with eight billion people on the planet, there’s no shortage of food. (Yes, I understand that many of those people are starving. My point is that there’s food to go around.)

Another trade-off it covers is that there will either be freedom and wars or total control and peace. I’d say this is accurate since humans will always find something to squabble over.

So in some ways, the theme is one-sided—there can only be happiness and pain intermingled or neither of those things. But this is, mostly, an accurate representation of reality. It’s thought-provoking and makes one turn inward to their own values and ideas.

Briefly, The Giver also touches on euthanasia and abortion. It doesn’t go into detail here, only showing Jonas’ repulsion to the practices.

Only a few potential content concerns dot this story. At one point, Jonas bathes an old woman. It’s mentioned that she’s naked, but the scene is completely appropriate.

Jonas experiences puberty early in the book. He has a dream where he repeatedly asks a female friend to get undressed and go into the bath, but she thinks he’s joking and laughs it off. He tells his family of the dream later and internally recalls how he enjoyed the feelings it gave him.

Later, without detail, it’s said that he’s had more such dreams and felt guilty about enjoying them.

In one memory Jonas receives, he sees the aftermath of a battle, bodies littering a field. One young soldier asks him for water and then dies shortly after.

[Spoilers] Jonas watches a recording of a baby killed by lethal injection, and there are mentions of how the elderly are dealt with the same way.

Overall

The Giver is a children’s book, yes. But as we’ve seen, its content is anything but childish. This would be great reading material for the middle-grade audience, and a source of discussion about current political events. But, while the prose can be juvenile, it’s also suited for readers of any age.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll write you in the next one!