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The Giver

The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, is a novel that explores themes of memory, loss, and identity through the story of a young boy named Jonas who lives in a seemingly perfect community devoid of pain and emotion. As Jonas is selected to be the Receiver of Memory, he begins to experience the complexities of life, including joy and suffering, which leads him to question the morality of his community's practices. Ultimately, Jonas decides to escape in order to bring awareness of these painful truths to his community, embarking on a journey towards a more authentic existence.

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19 views

The Giver

The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, is a novel that explores themes of memory, loss, and identity through the story of a young boy named Jonas who lives in a seemingly perfect community devoid of pain and emotion. As Jonas is selected to be the Receiver of Memory, he begins to experience the complexities of life, including joy and suffering, which leads him to question the morality of his community's practices. Ultimately, Jonas decides to escape in order to bring awareness of these painful truths to his community, embarking on a journey towards a more authentic existence.

Uploaded by

pagaranjr1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Giver: A Novel Review

The Giver is an existential novel written by Lois Lowry, which was


published on April 26, 1993. Lois Lowry is a great American author who wrote
over thirty novels. She was born on March 1937 in Hawaii. Her father was an
Army dentist and her family lived all over the world. She received her degree
in the University of Southern Maine. As of 2023, Lowry divides her time
between Maine and Naples, Florida, and she still remains an active writer
and speaker.
Accordingly, one relevant influence on The Giver was Lowry’s
experience of memory and loss. During the early 1990s, Lowry was
struggling with the recent death of her father, a painful experience that
affected her perspective on memory and the process of dealing with loss.
This personal experience led her to ponder that memory plays a significant
role in shaping our identities and our understanding of the world. The novel’s
central premise, where a controlled society suppresses memory and emotion
for the sake of maintaining the order, can be seen as a reflection of Lowry’s
own analysis within these themes.
Summary
The story revolves in the life of a young boy named Jonas. This young
boy lives in a community where everyone believed as perfect. A community
without pain, sorrows, sufferings, starvation, and everything is in order.
Every citizen has a duty assigned according to their abilities and skills. The
Elders are responsible for the observation and assignment of every citizen to
their particular job, and the highest position is the Receiver of the Memory.
Each assignment will be given through a ceremony every December of the
year. The ceremony is divided into two: The ceremony from the age of one to
eight, and from the age of nine to twelve. The ceremony of the ones is the
naming, and after they received their names, they will be assigned in a
particular family unit. The ceremony of the fours to sevens are only to give
them jackets, and the difference in each year is the buttons. The Ceremony
of the eights is to allow them to volunteer to any job, after this year they will
receive their bikes. However, the ceremony of the elevens upcoming to
twelves is different, for this assignment will determine about their future.
Jonas is one of the elevens, and he is apprehensive about his future. As
December is approaching, Jonas is apprehensive because he doesn’t know
his true passion and all of his volunteer hours were divided to any job. He is
only the eleven who was not sure about his assignment. When December
came, Jonas felt the excitement, but he is also anxious about the future that
awaits him. When the Elder assigned the elevens, Jonas was skipped and he
thought he was not capable to any assignment, leading him to feel unease
and shame. Unexpectedly, Jonas was not assigned, but was selected to the
highest position—the Receiver of the Memory. He was again anxious for he is
informed that this assignment brings an unthinkable pain. However, since
Jonas is intelligent and brave, he still faced his assignments and trusted
himself that he can survive in his training.
When Jonas started his training, he begun to received memories.
Primarily, the Receiver gave him the memory of snow, sunshine, and colors.
Through these memories, he felt comfort and happiness. Jonas tried to
convince his friends to see the differences that he saw, but it could only do
nothing without the memories. Jonas already felt the sameness and the
stagnation of their community. When Jonas received the memory of war and
death, he experienced the unthinkable pain, which led him to regret of
receiving the memories.
One morning, when Jonas’ father (a nurturer of their community) was
about to release one of the identical twins, Jonas tried to ask the receiver if
he could witness the ceremony of release. It is because he is curios how the
Old and unhealthy newborn is released from the community. The Receiver
let Jonas to witness and what Jonas saw led him to take an incredible
journey. Jonas saw that their way of releasing the Old and unhealthy
newborn is to kill them through injection. This led Jonas to think that their
community is responsible for the deaths of the innocents and of the Old,
which the community knew nothing about. When Jonas realized all these
painful realities, he told the Giver that he wanted to escape from their
community. To escape the community means to leave the memories to the
people so that they will realize the pain and the realities that is happening in
their community.
The Giver allowed Jonas to escape. In the middle of the night, Jonas
started his journey. He brought Gabriel (a child who will be released in the
morning) to escape the death that awaits this innocent child. As he
continued to paddle his bike, Jonas finally escaped the community. He saw
the things he saw in the memories. He experienced reality and saw another
world that he thought there wasn’t. Jonas succeed in his journey and finally
embrace the life away from the colorless, murderer, lifeless community that
he once thought as perfect.

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