The Giver by Lois Lowry

Book Rating: 4 of 5

Many spoilers ahead.

The Giver is a classic piece of Teen/Tween fiction and is often read in Schools. I did enjoy the first 80% of the novel the last 20% was less great.

Reflecting on “The Giver” I’m not sure how I feel about it. The summary of the story is that Jonas, a twelve year old boy, lives in a gray fictional future called “The Sameness”. Everyone plays a very planned role in the society and no one goes without. For me one of the strongest parts of The Giver is the design of the fictional world that Jonas lives in. A few interesting things about it.

• Jonas does not live with his biological family. Rather a family unit was selected by the central planning committee and Jonas joined it when he was one.
• Failure of compliance in the fictional society results in “release” which is death.
• When Jonas begins puberty he’s given pills to suppress his sexual urges
• Everything in society is shared - toys, bikes etc.
• Sense of color seams to have been lost not because they can’t “see it” but because people in the sameness have no concept of it.

Much time in the story is spent describing how the children’s schooling prepares them to function in the Society. Small things like young children’s coats having buttons on the back so that they are dependant on each other to button up their coats to teach “interdepenance” is interesting.

The story is a classic “revelation” story where Jonas receives his adult profession of being “The Receiver” for the social group and then begins to learn about the price his society pays for its “sameness”. The breaking point comes when Jonas learns his father is going to “release” a young baby named Gabriel and Jonas intervenes taking Gabriel and running away from the Society.

There’s a lot of narratives to unpack in The Giver and I do think its an excellent youth novel. As a pedagogical tool I think there’s a lot of thoughts and themes that youth can explore. I felt like the novel was very much in the tradition of A Brave New World and does push you to think a bit if you contemplate the story and its many possible meanings.

My biggest complaints about the giver is that at times the story is a little unbelievable. Unlike the oddly believable terror of a Brave New World the giver feels pretty far fetched. Examples:

• The Giver transmits his memories to Jonas via touch
• Jonas escapes from a modern and complex society on a simple bike
• The sameness has a odd smallness to it.
• As the keeper of memories Jonas remembers how the world was so others don’t have to if he dies or goes far from society his memories return to the people in the sameness

As the book develops it morphs from Science Fiction to Fantasy and a lot of magical realism is injected into the narrative. I think this is where a youth/teen Novel just doesn’t work. I think the Giver needed a darker ending to be a truly great novel. An ending that would serve a warning rather then the magical and hopeful ending we are given. As a teen novel I think the hopeful ending makes for a book which is more fun and ultimately more popular. But I would like to see an alternate darking ending.

Even as an adult I do recommend reading the Giver. Give it to a kid you know. I think you and they will enjoy it.