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Summary: It's a very Bizarre book.
Review: "THE GIVER" Author: Lois Lowry Report by: Shelton Amerman In my own personal opinion, "THE GIVER", by Lois Lowry, is an extremely bizarre book. It's a book about a future world. This world is supposedly perfect; no crime, no poverty, no starvation, no war, no prejudice, no overpopulation, no divorce, no pain, good educational system. Children grow up learning different jobs, rules of the community, good manners, and proper speech. When they reach the age of twelve( they celebrate birthdays all at the same time), they are assigned a job that fits with their abilities, if they want a spouse, they are assigned one, if they want children, they are assigned one male and one female, no more. When they are old, they go to a special facility. It's perfect; on the surface. There is also no freedom, no privacy, no emotion, no color, no music, no sunlight, no weather, no understanding of the past, no choice. When someone gets to old, they are "released", if twins or an extra child is born, they are "released"(releasing is what they call killing). The book focuses primarily on the experiences of a boy called Jonas. When he turns twelve, he is selected for the most honored position in the community, "Receiver of Memories" from the "Giver of Memories". The position is one in which "The Giver" gives memories of the past, both good and bad, to Jonas. Jonas learns that the community is not the perfect place he once thought it was. Then something happens that causes Jonas to do something drastic. At the end he......well, you'll have to read the book to find out. The book is very well written, very descriptive and imaginative, But the ending leaves you hanging. All in All, It's a good book.
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Summary: what society doesn't know, can't hurt them
Review: This book is about a boy named Jonas, who is chosen out of a group of kids to take on a role of the reciever. This book takes place in the future when climate is controlled and colors are no more, all of this to make living easier. So no one can make their own decisions or have their own ideas. Everytime a child is born their life is already assigned to them, their job and also their mate. The people are just born into this with no recalection of how the world really works. A guy who used to be called the reciever is now called the Giver. He teaches Jonas about colors and winter and everything before it was all controlled, and he cannot share this with anyone. I liked this book. I would recomend it to anyone who likes books that are about what the future might be like.
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Summary: The Giver and the importance of Folklore
Review: In the story THE GIVER, the importance of folklore in a culture is shown. This story takes place in a futuristic time, though it's not like the people seem to be more advanced, just more controlled. No one can make any choices for themselves, though they don't want to because they could get it "wrong". Animals are mythical creatures, the sun, colors, snow, hills, and everything that could be an inconvience to their society is gone. All are supposedly equal, though it doesn't seem that way. The Giver in this story is an Old man who has generations of memories from many other givers, and when his time comes to be "released", he has to have passed on all of the memories to a chosen person. Neither the Giver nor the receiver can share any of their knowledge with anyone else, this is how the people want it to be, without pain, but without pleasure. No one knows their was a past, no one knows there will be a future, they just exist. Jonas is assigned to the job of Receiver of Memory, and his ignorant life has ended. As he learns more and more about the past, the different feelings and things that exist, he can't understand why the whole society doesn't want to know of these things. So he and the Giver devise a plan in which memories will be released back into the community, and they would learn what life should be like with memories, culture, and love. Folklore is important because of how it can teach and relay ideas to help improve a culture or a person. Without folklore, then our societies would be as boring as the next, nothing to set us apart from others. I think THE GIVER tells this in a very different way, and I hope that you will enjoy the book as well.
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Summary: Great book dealing with a controlled society
Review: I really found this book really interesting and eye-opening. The topic on controlled societies has been around for a long time. The idea of 'releasing' people who are not qualified for living in the community was also used by Plato. He also emphasized giving people a specific job they are responsible for in the community, just like the community in The Giver had done. In this book, there is a society that is totally controlled. What the people do, who they marry, their schedules for the day, etc. are all decided by the Elders. The members socialize with people in their groups; the children with their appropriate age groups, and the adults with whom they work among. The people know no real pain, pleasure, and memories. They do what they are told and expected of them, and no questions are asked; for them, life is perfect. In this community, there is a boy, Jonas, who is anticipating the Ceremony of the Twelves, where the eleven year old children are assigned the job they will be responsible for the rest of their lives. He is worried that he will be disappointed with the assignment he receives, but is semi-reassured by his parents who tell him the Elders know each child and what is best for each one. The ceremony finally takes place, and Jonas is skipped over. However, Jonas is called last in his group. He has not been assigned, he has been selected as the Receiver of Memory, the most important job in the community. This job will require pain, something the people in the community do not often experience, and when they do, only for a short amount of time. Up until the part where Jonas starts to receive his training, the extent of the controlled society is not fully explained. What Jonas learns and experiences from the current Receiver of Memory is unexplainable and not to be talked with to the other members of the community. They would not be able to handle it. The experience of seeing how someone is released causes Jonas to begin to think the controlled society is not right, and he can not just sit back and do nothing about it.
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Summary: It makes you appreciate today!
Review: The Giver was an extremely good book. It portrayed a town that was controlled by their government of elders. The people didn't care that they were controlled because that's all they ever knew. In the book a boy, Jonas, gets chosen to recieve the memories of a time forgotten by most. That was a choice that the elders of the town made for him. They expected him to be strong and help the town by being the all knowing. Nobody could see color except Jonas and the reciever before him. Color, rain, snow, the sun, weather, the knowledge of happiness, pleasure, and pain was lost to this town. They had conformed to 'sameness',as they say in the book. The memories were lost and only passed on from one person to one other. This process that Jonas went through to recieve the memories was and example of "shared remembrance". It is important to all people and none should be denied of that remembrance. It carries on culture, difference, and the power to chose. It gives people their own minds and although that might be dangerous it is not anyone's place to chose for them. Jonas agrees with this idea and runs away from the isolated town. This would be an appropriate book for folklore study because it shows that no matter how impossible the idea of something is, that if you believe in it then it may come true. It also shows that people can make up their own minds if they have the right knowledge. If you don't have the right knowledge then you become dependent on what others tell you. In the world of unexplained phenomenon you need to share knowledge of what you know and remember or you might make a decision under false pretences. Here comes another example of "shared remembrance". Folklore is a difficult subject and this book sets an example for the people in the field of study for folklore. It sets an example by showing determination in what you believe. If you are determined then you can help make people understand you and your view on things.
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Summary: Absoloutely Marvelous!!!!!!
Review: Fantastic. The book really makes you think about a "perfect" society would be like, and how important things like choices and strong feelings, like love and fear and grief are. Lois Lowry makes the charecters real and the setting chilling
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Summary: Surprise! They Liked it!
Review: I read this book when selecting it for an elementary public school library. I really liked it and wanted to include it with other books by Lowry. But I really didn't think the kids would like it much (or understand it). Was I ever wrong!! My fifth graders all stood in line for that little paperback copy! We all had some great discussion about the meaning of the ending. And I got a better understanding of the depth of a fifth grader's comprehension!
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Summary: Review for high school class
Review: This book was a very interesting one that paints the picture of a community with no color, no hills, no hurt; just sameness. It made me think of all of the differences that are around now and how different cultures record them and their mistakes for the future to learn from them. In this culture that Lowry has created in the book they record them in a fascinating way . With one person that unlike the others has to be responsible for all of the previous horrors along with the joys that none of the others get to experience. Another thing they never get to experience is making any real choices. They lack the right to choose their jobs and women . It is a reflection on today's society about those choices and how because of the high divorce and unemployment rates if people did have a board researching and deciding for them that it might work a little better. It might work a little better but, the only problem with this utopia is that when you take away people's choices you take away their freedom and with out freedom you can't have a utopia. This community however is happy with these choices that have been made for them and that is because they never knew the alternative. No color, no hills, no hurt, and no death. In the book they take away the concept of death and replace it with a concept of release. Most cultures have their own ways of dealing with death and this one just camouflages it. So when all of these things become clear to the main character he leaves and by doing that forces the others to bear the load of history which had been alone on he and the Giver's shoulders. The book ends with out telling what has happened where he left from. It leaves that for the reader's imagination to kick in and think about what they are going to do know after the failure of two Receivers. This obviously was the weak link in there chain so maybe next they go back to writing pictures on the wall...
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Summary: "shared remembrance" & The Giver appropriate for folklore
Review: Although in the beginning of the story Jonas is portrayed as an average kid in his society, he has been given this immense task. Throughout the book the idea of sameness angered me more and more, Jonas's society thought that through nothingness they they could avoid pain. This is true, but they are also avoiding the happiness that they could have. I think that having your own wonderful memories is one of the best parts of life, and it seems almost not worth living if we can not have them. The Elders in the book think that they are learning from past mistakes and bettering the lives of people, but they are not, you have to take the good with the bad. The concept of "shared remembrance" should be very important to each and every culture, this is how we learn, as well as how we are entertained. The Giver is an appropriate book for the study of folklore because it shows the importance of being different, like almost all cultures are. If we were all the same life would be boring.
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Summary: A Utopia World
Review: A perfect world. It'd be nice to have a perfect world, but would things be really perfect? In the book, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, the setting is utopial, in a close knit community where there is no crime, war, prejudice, pain, or love. The Giver is all about a community giving up their human race in order to establish a close knit and safe haven. People who live in the community consider themselves living in a perfect world. Jonas is a twelve years old boy who receives his assignment. He is to become the receiver, the highest honor of the community. The receiver holds all of the community's memories, pain, and love. Jonas begins his training with the Receiver, an Elder, whom he calls the Giver. As Jonas receives the memories from the Giver, he see colors, what snow is like, pain, and love. The more Jonas learns, the more afraid he is. In the community he lives in, there are no colors, no sun, no love and pain, and no choices. People of the community have their beliefs and that is to let others decide their future and their fate. He then discovers a ceremony, "release," is murder. Jonas realizes the "perfect" community he lives in isn't perfect after all. The book was very fascinating. I read the book in less than two days. I was immured in the book from the start and I just wanted to read to find out what would occur. One thing led to another thing. At the end, I was mystified.
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