The Giver

Reason Book Chosen

This book is my favorite book from all of high school. It won the Newbery Medal, has sold over 5 million copies, is considered a classic and is controversial. It has been banned by some schools and embraced by others.

Bibliographic Information

Author: Lois Lowry

Publisher: Bnatum Books

ISBN: 0440237688

Copyright Date: 1993

Genre

Science fiction, Dystopian

About the Author

Lois Lowry is a children’s author whom has written many books and a few series. She often writes about complex issues. Lowry won the Newbery Medal for The Giver and Number the Stars

Reader’s Annotation

Utopia is an illusion not everyone is privy to see.

Plot Summary

Jonas lives in a world, presumably the future, and resembling communism, that is supposedly a utopia. Jobs and children are assigned to members of this world, by a governing body. Each person is to fulfill the part they are given and everything is regulated, even births and deaths. Jonas and his younger sister, Lily, have been raised by the mother and father they were given to, after being taken from the birth parents. This is standard procedure. The reason for all of the rules and regulations in this society are to make things easy and painless for citizens to minimize the emotion people have to experience (ex: in making hard decisions). People even have to share their dreams. Privacy does not really exist and is certainly not encouraged. Careers are assigned at age 12, at a special ceremony. Jonas is approaching that age and is nervous and unsure about what career he will be given. Jonas is given the special job of being the “receiver of memory” and has to meet with The Giver, an older man, whom was the receiver but is now ready to pass on the memories.

Critical Analysis

This is a great book for people who like (soft) science fiction, psychology (especially Jungian psychology), and philosophy. The setting and plot are what make this book particularly interesting, but the characters are also well developed, and the relationship between Jonas and the Giver is complex, interesting, and magical. This book raises some really interesting and important ideas about what perfection really is. This is great for teens, whom often feel idealistic and cynic at the same time, and whom are dealing with or thinking about questioning authority. The language is very simple and so this is also a great read for teens whom may be at a lower reader level.

Character- Jonas’s “Receiver of Memory” job description”, p. 68

Themes/Issues/Tags

Socialism, Communism, Collective Pain/Trauma, Utopia, Future Society, Safety, Freedom, Choice, Suicide, Euthanasia, Choice

Challenging Subject Matters

This book has been banned in many middle schools because of its suicide references and because it details euthanasia and suicide as a means of keeping a “Utopia” in tact.

Defense: This book does not promote suicide or euthanasia in any way. It challenges the reader to look at these issues as complex, complicated ones that are not black and white. It brings about discussions of morality and “the grey” and pushed readers to think.

Other reasons this book has been banned are because it is deemed to be “negative”, violent, sexually explicit, objectionable themes, offensive language.

Curriculum Ties

History – Communism

History - Hitler –Aryan Utopia

American Government/Domestic Policies (ie. Terrorism/Patriot Act) – Safety vs. Freedom

Reading Level

11+

Interest level

12-17+