Anthony Perez's Book Review of "The Giver" By: Lois Lowry

Citation

Lowry, L. (1993). The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
     ISBN 0-553-57133-8
Intro

     For my first book review I chose to read the book “The Giver” by Lois Lowry. I chose this book because it is a childhood favorite that I still enjoy reading and examining. This was my 3rd time actually reading the book so it gave me an opportunity to take a deeper look into the reading.

Summary


     “The Giver” is the story of an 11, going on 12 year old, boy named Jonas who lives in what appears to be a very utopian society. The society Jonas lives in does not have much diversity; all families have 2 children, 1 boy and 1 girl, and all tasks are learned at the same age. People in the community also take pills to suppress feelings of love and sexual desires. When it comes to careers, one does not choose their career; it is assigned to them at the “Ceremony of Twelve”. This ceremony marks the change of 11 year olds to 12 year olds. The Ceremony of Twelve is where the books main focus is; it follows Jonas and his job assignment of “Receiver of Memories”. Jonas’ job is to take on the memories of pain, fear, love, and all other memories that have been forgotten by the community to ensure their utopian lifestyles. After awhile Jonas realizes that his community is no utopia at all, there is no true happiness and people are basically robots living a daily routine. This leads to him fleeing away to an ambiguous place at the end of the novel.

Critical Thinking

      After reading this novel a number of times I have been able to think more critically about things beyond the text. As a future educator I would love to find a place for this book in my classroom. When I think of themes in this book I think of a great spark of imagination, gender roles, the idea of a utopian society, the similarity to the book “1985” by Anthony Burgess, and the idea of no real choices.

     I believe this novel is a great book for early teens and young adults because of its ability to grab the reader’s attention and push to use imagination. As one begins reading the book, Lowry’s description of the society and their way of life is very intriguing and influences one to continue to read. I found myself making many assumptions as to where Jonas’ lived and wanted to learn more about the rules and traditions of his society. When it comes to a book like this I believe description is a very good trait. Since there are no pictures, description is the only thing that our minds can feed on to make an understanding of the environment we are reading about. I believe this book is a good book to teach students how to use imagination. For younger students you could ask them to make pictures of what they think the town might look like.

      Another thing that I found interesting about the book is the depiction of gender roles. When it comes to Jonas’ parents his mother works in the judicial field and his father is a caregiver. In my mind these gender roles go against the “traditional” gender roles of our society. Where the male would be the one working in the judicial field and the mother, being the “nurturer”, would work with the newborn young. This makes me wonder if the author did this on purpose to go against the social norms of our society. Although gender roles are switched back when it comes to the job of “birthmothers”, which is a career that is looked down upon in Jonas’ society. Although it would be a little controversial, I would ask my students to make up some lists of gender “stereotyped” careers and as a class see if everyone agrees. I feel like the females in a younger classroom would have a completely different list than the males.

      One topic from the book that could be open for a classroom discussion would be “Is Jonas’ society truly ‘Utopian’? “. Since there is no real sense of fear, death, or loneliness, people don’t need to worry about crime and other situations that occur in our lives every day. So in that sense the answer would be yes. On the other hand there is no freedom of choice, love, or sexual happiness. So the debate would be, which is truly utopian; to be happy and a little unsure of what is going to happen, or have no true happiness and be safe everyday. I would really enjoy hearing people’s thoughts on the idea of a utopia and what their particular “utopia” entails. I believe this would really engage students’ minds about utopian societies. With this I would have them make a list of what their own utopian would be like.

      Another idea that comes to mind when reading this book is the similarity it has to the book “1985” by Anthony Burgess. If I were teaching a high school course I would also want to have my students compare and contrast “The Giver” and “1985. I think the two are similar in many ways but “1985” takes a more rough approach. It would be nice to have the students thinking about if the two societies really were all that different. Although, portrayed in different light by the text, I believe the actual underlining of the two societies are very much alike.

      Lastly something I think about every time I read this book is the idea of no choice in careers. I believe this is one thing about the society Jonas lives in that really makes it not my idea of a utopia. I would use this idea of the “Ceremony of Twelve” as an activity in my classroom if I were to use this book. I would have all of my student write down a scrap piece of paper the career they dream to have one day and put them into a box. I would also add some low level jobs and labor jobs into the box as well. I would then have my students pick out of the box the career that they would have the rest of their time alive. I would then have the students research their randomly chosen career and give a small paper on their career and how they feel about what they were picked to do. I feel like this would be both a good window into the feeling that the people in Jonas’ society had when they went through the Ceremony of Twelve, and it would be a good educational piece on careers.

Final Thoughts

      I have always loved “The Giver” since the first time I read it in 8th grade. It has and will always be one of my favorite books. I can’t wait to share it with my class and use some of my ideas within the classroom to have students fall in love with the book, just as I have.