A Reading Guide to the Giver (Scholastic Bookfiles)

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Summary: Thought Provoking! (5th Grade Class Combined Review)
Review: This book is sad and somewhat disturbing, but very well conceived and written. It is not light fun reading, but it's worth the effort to get through it. Lois Lowry's words and descriptions made her alternate future world come alive.
A common complaint was that the ending leaves readers hanging. While it's good to make readers think, it's also nice to have a complete story. (The Giver's sequels also have this problem.)

Overall, this book was excellent for students in 5th grade or higher.

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Summary: Review of Lowry's The Giver
Review: Throughout the centuries, Christians have been buoyed up by a utopian vision of the afterlife given in Revelation 21:4, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." However, what about creating heaven on earth? What price would people be willing to pay for a world in which there is no more war, hunger, or social strife? Lois Lowry gives a frightening look at one such answer in her book The Giver.
Through a young boy named Jonas, we are introduced to a community whose citizens live in nearly total conformity to society's rules. At first glance, the order and homogeneity of the community appears to have created a nearly perfect society. However, as we look more carefully at the eerie extrapolation of the trend to sacrifice liberties for law and order at any cost, we see that Jonas' community has lost many of the basic freedoms we take for granted: privacy, choice of occupation, the ability to express disagreement with society's norms, the ability to learn from the past, the choice of whom to marry and where to live, the ability to reproduce and experience sexual pleasure, even the ability to continue to live when not a productive member of society. This future society has even gone so far as to rob people of the memories normally passed down as stories from generation to generation. Incorporated into the storyline of the book is the ultimate symbol of the blandness of their regulated lives, the inability of the people to perceive color: they see the world only in terms of black and white.
Interwoven with flashbacks to illustrate, Lowry skillfully introduces concepts in a terminology that is easily understood, yet different from the way we normally speak: newchildren, birthmothers, nurturers, the Receiver, the Committee of Elders, the House of the Old, release, seeing beyond, and elsewhere. There are also various ceremonies: The Naming, The Ceremony of Twelve, Murmur-of-Replacement Ceremony, Ceremony of Loss, etc. This layered description produces a sense of "otherness," while the detail which it affords lends an air of reality to the story. Each of these words has a connotation special to the environment of the community. In fact, one realizes that the citizens have been trained to think that apart from the rigid structure of the community, there is no real meaning to life. To fulfill one's given purpose in service to the community has become the all in all. We learn later in the book that although any citizen is given the ability to ask for release from the community, to reject service to the community is in reality to ask for a summary execution.
When Jonas, a dutiful child, is chosen to be the next "receiver," the façade of perfection is ripped apart. He is stunned with the realization that release means execution, something foreshadowed as early as the second page of the book when a beginning pilot veers off course and a voice announces in an ironic tone, "Needless to say, he will be released." Jonas experiences true feelings and a depth of emotion which the average citizen is not allowed. With his new found emotions he is overwhelmed and abhorred by the thought of his father casually murdering babies who do not measure up to society's standards. And together, the old receiver and the new receiver determine to give something to their community which has been lacking for countless generations.
The conflict with society which Jonas experiences as the seed of individuality germinates within him is what makes his character development such an integral part of the story. Fascination with his increasing realization of reality and the struggle to fight against the wrong he perceives rivets the attention of the reader. In the beginning, there was no question as to what he would do when the ubiquitous Big Brother-like speakers announced that an unauthorized snack must be returned. But his exchange with the Receiver about color shows that his eyes have been opened in more than one way: "It isn't fair that nothing has color!... If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things!" The continued conversation reveals the reason why the community's founders took away choices from people. Jonas muses, "We don't dare to let people make choices of their own." And with uncertainty adds, "Definitely not safe." This juxtaposition of words "uncertainty" and definitely" is merely one example of how beautifully Lowry uses language to dynamically portray the conflicting emotions roiling within Jonas.
The growing conflict as Jonas' character develops is not the only thing that attracts and holds the reader's attention. It is his interaction with those in his life as his feelings develop that we can identify with. Along with the black and white view of the world, the people in the community have no ability to distinguish beyond the superficial. They may know likes and dislikes, but they don't know what it is to abhor or love with depth of meaning. When Jonas asks whether his parents love him, we realize just how meaningless the word is to them as they fail to relate to the question. The reader begins to realize the tremendous price that Jonas' society has paid for a lack of conflict. Their eyes cannot see color because their souls are vapid. On the other hand, as Jonas interacts with the Giver we are fascinated by the deepening understanding in the Giver's heart of what must be done for the good of the society. As the Receiver remembers his daughter's death and discusses his grief with Jonas, it is the stimulus for a new way of thinking. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, we see the Giver's spirit renewed at the thought of giving a new way of life to his community.
Truly this book succeeds in bringing to the fore many social questions. However, it succeeds on a deeper level by challenging our emotional IQ. The courage and strength which Jonas shows as he shoulders a burden for the ultimate benefit of his society is heartwarming and inspiring. The ending is left ambiguous on purpose, but it matters not. Lowry's purpose was not to provide a resolution, but rather to inspire further thought.


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Summary: My Review
Review: I realy enjoyed reading this book. It started off a bit confusing but as the story progressed, everthing began to fall into place and make sense. This was one of those books that keeps you thinking about it for several days after you read it. It involves a way of life unimaginable to the standard person and really presesnt the question "what if..." I would recommend this book to younger readers with an imagination.