Rating: 10/10
Value: It is around $5.00 for both paperback as well as the
kindle version. I highly recommend
getting this book in the paperback version for your personal library.
Readers: I believe someone with at least a middle school
reading level would not struggle with this book. The writing is simple and is intended for
young adults.
Summary: The Giver is a book about the evolution of society
with a communistic government and social system. The society brought forth in Lowry’s book is
one in which everything for everyone is decided for. The elders pick the peoples job’s, mate’s,
and children. The community supplies the
food, medical necessities, and everything else required to live. The goal of this society was to stomp out any
differences and individuality creating what the book refers to as “Sameness”. The main character is a boy named Jonas who
for the first half of this book lives in this world attempting to follow the
thousands of rules imposed. When he is
twelve he gets the job of The Receiver.
The job entails receiving all past experiences, emotions, and memories
which the community has decided to no longer deal with.
Positive: There is so
much going for this book. First and most
importantly is how Lowry develops a successful communism. On the outside the society seems extremely
happy and even perfect. If everyone
follows the rules then it eliminates all negative experience. Lowry does a brilliant job creating this
world in which it would seem to be a pleasure to live in, but then through
depth of character shows the reader that losing all individuality and ability
to choose would be impossible to bear. This is a very short book, but the
length of the book matters little as Lowry packs in a story with everything
explained. In many cases this may seem
like an extreme world and one never dreamed up before, but if you look at many
different governments around the world it has been attempted multiple
times. I believe that Lowry does a
wonderful job showing both the lure and flaw of this system of societal structure.
Negative: It has been
a very long time since I was unable to put a book down. I read every day and usually over 20k
words. This book I was unable to put
down and I place it in my highest esteem.
There is absolutely nothing about this book I would change it is one of
the best books I have ever read.
Characters: The depth of character was simple yet extremely
deep. There are only seven characters
within the book which hold crucial supports to the storyline. Jonas of course is done amazingly well. He is someone easy to identify with and
understand. The Giver who is his boss is
another character I found just done perfectly.
These two people within the society have all of the thoughts of the
society for hundreds upon hundreds of years.
This could have been the biggest flaw of the book giving characters such
intense knowledge. The author did it in
a way in which I believed these two characters had all the generations of
knowledge. The most difficult thing to
do as an author is create something which you are not. There is no one with knowledge of the ages,
but Lowry really stepped up to the plate creating these two and making us as
readers believe they hold all this within.
Writing: Like I said
earlier the writing is extremely simplistic.
You will not find any difficult to read prose within the book. That being said it is difficult to wrap your
mind around the society the author creates here. Even the use of simple language does not
diminish the amount of wisdom the author stuffs into so few pages.
Quote: “It's the choosing that's important, isn't it?” Lois
Lowry
Final Thought: This book is of course categorized as
fiction, but I think it blows most philosophical literature out of the
water. Just because this world does not
exist does not mean it won’t. Time and
time again to reach an easier life people have given up everything. Even here in our United States we give up our
privacy and choice for increased safety.
I really felt that Lowry in this book brought forth the consequences of
such weakness.
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