“The Giver”

By: Lois Lowery

Summary: The giver is written from the point of view of Jonas, we are looking through the eyes of an eleven-year-old boy mentally is living in a futuristic society where has eliminated all pain, fear, war, and hatred; his own utopia. In his world there is no prejudice, everyone looks the same. At age twelve every member of the community is assigned a job based on his or her abilities and interests. Citizens can apply for and be assigned compatible spouses, and each couple is assigned exactly two children each. The children are born to Birthmothers, who never see them, and spend their first year in a Nurturing Center with other babies, or “new children,” born that year. When their children are grown, family units dissolve and adults live together with Childless Adults until they are too old to function in the society. Citizens who break rules or fail to adapt properly to the society’s codes of behavior are also released. Jonas lives with his father, a Nurturer of new children, his mother, who works at the Department of Justice, and his seven-year-old sister Lily.

Evaluation by Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Dystopia and Environment. The Author uses language so that a young teen could understand. The story is told in the third person. The Setting is set in a community in a utopia atmosphere, where you are free to be yourself. In this community you can express your emotions, but something goes wrong in Jonas utopia. He sets on a journey on his bike to the unknown. The main theme of the story is that we have to face pain in order to grow-up. The main Motifs in this story are the perception through Jonas eyes which sometimes plays jokes on him; as he suffers from disillusionment of how the world should be. In his world no one is naked except for children and naked people, who are in fact children again. Jonas then escapes his community mentally and physically, he is finally released.  

Reader Response Questions: (1) Which of the following is an important value in Jonas' community? (2) What does the term release means in Jonas' community? (3) How does Jonas' community define family? (4) What does Jonas' gain from his training with the Giver? (5) What was the Giver's favorite memory? (6) Why does the community isolate Jonas' after he begins training with the Giver? (7) Who is Rosemary? (8) Why does Jonas flee the community? (9) What does the capacity for seeing beyond mean in Jonas' Community? (10) What happens to Jonas and Gabriel in the end?

Motivational Activities Include :( 1) Pass out copies of “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, while students write in their journals. (2) Brief overview of journal responses using students to share their answers. (3) Have students think aloud to help them maintain focus during reading, which increases comprehension. (4) Ask students questions, have them think, and make predictions as they read, and comprehend what they are reading. (5) Have students jot down notes as they read the chapters from “The Giver.” (6) Have students get in groups to discuss what they have written so they can get a classmate point-of-view. (7) After they finish the story, they can write what they liked/disliked about, “The Giver.” (8) For fun they can start their own Literary Blog.

If you like this book you could read: “Gossamer” “Gathering Blue” and “Messenger” all By Lois Lowry.

Personal Comments: The book “The Giver,” Is a must read for all young teens. I wonder is it possible to create a perfect society, a perfect utopia where everyone is healthy and happy. The story is set in this perfect world, this utopia, where all is well and there are no problems. It is weird that Children live in family units but not with their own natural parents. If they follow all the rules and conform then they will never go hungry or experience any pain.  Jonas, who is twelve, will soon engage in adulthood he will become the new Receiver of Memory; of death disease, love and loss. Jonas must keep these memories on behalf of his community, but he may not share them with anyone because no-one wants to experience the whole range of human emotion. It is too painful. And only Jonas can handle these emotions in his community. The ending confused me. What was the significance of the sled on the hill? It is a trilogy; I will read “Gathering Blue” next. Hope you like the book.

 I have learned in my studies that Science Fiction deals with the future. It deals with imaginative worlds which in turn enhances characterization and plot. It is stories that mentally could happen in the future, a place where everything is the way we want it to be. It is a world that can be plausible and could exist someday and yet it may never. Our writer takes us on that journey of the unknown, where mentally we are in that utopia of blissfulness and purity. (Literature and the Child, 17).

Cited

Whitman Galda, Lee, Bernice E. Cullinan, and Lawrence R. Sipe. "Literature and the Child." , 7th Edition by Lee Galda, Bernice E. Cullinan, Lawrence R. Sipe (9780495602392). Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, n.d. &, 1998. Print.

Lowry, Lois The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.

Post by: Terry M. Wheaton