The Giver

1. Bibliography

Lowry, Lois. 1993. The Giver. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0395645662

2. Plot Summary

The Giver is about a young 12-year-old boy, Jonas, who at the ceremony of twelves, is assigned to be the receiver. He soon discovers that he is living in a controlled community where everything is predictable and the people have no memories, feelings, or emotions.

3. Critical Analysis

The Giver has realistic and believable characters. Throughout the story the reader can relate to the characters feelings; especially to Jonas, the young boy chosen to receive the memories for the entire community. One example is when he discovers the community has no choices, "But I want them!" Jonas said angrily. "It isn’t fair that nothing has color!" (Lowry, 97). The reader can feel his frustration and anger. Along with Jonas the reader comes to realize the society is living without pain or suffering, and without happiness, family, and love. The Giver sates, " We gained many things. But we had to let others go (Lowry, 5). This helps you relate with The Giver and gain a sense of his emotions about sameness.
The plot of the story is very distinctive and interesting. It really gets the reader questioning a life without any choices or freedom. The plot is well constructed and tells a good story. Lowry ends it where Jonas and Gabriel see different colored lights shining from trees though windows and it states, " For the first time, he heard something that he knows to be music. He heard people singing (Lowry, 10). This leaves the reader with a hopeful ending that Jonas was free and had helped his community to also be free from sameness and able to experience memories.
The setting does not take place in a specific time or place, yet it’s in a society where the reader comes to find out it is run by the elders and based upon sameness. There is no choices or individuality.
The theme of the story is a world without choices or independence. A world where everyone is the same. This is a theme worth imparting to children to let them examine the positives and negatives about being individuals. The theme is woven well throughout and does not overpower the story.
The style of the book was very well done. The narration and dialogue is balances. Lowry uses symbols to help intensify the meaning. For example in the memory of family, " What did you perceive?" The Giver asked. "Warmth, "Jonas replied, " and happiness. And – let me thing. Family."

4. Review Excerpt(s)

Children's Literature

Lowry won the Newbery award for this book, her first science fiction story. Jonas is an adolescent living in a world that has a decidedly futuristic feel. When he turns twelve, he gets the job that will last him the rest of his life. He's the Receiver of Memory, the one who receives from the Giver all the memories of his society. Jonas is given great privileges, new privacy, and information that allow him (and readers) to see through the society's apparent Eden. At first his world seems great, but then, bit by bit, she tears away at the perfection she has built.

Publishers Weekly

Winner of the 1994 Newbery Medal, this thought-provoking novel centers on a 12-year-old boy's gradual disillusionment with an outwardly utopian futuristic society; in a starred review, PW said, ``Lowry is once again in top form... unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers.'' Ages 10-up. (Sept.)
"Wrought with admir-able skill -- the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly provocative novel."

5. Connections

· Encourage students to discuss the pro’s and cons of living in a society where everything is controlled and there is no individuality.
· Invite students to write an extension to the story and what they think happens to Jonas, Gabriel, and the rest of the community.
· Students can write about a memory they have.