The Giver

Book Report - The Giver

The Giver by Louis Lowry was published in 1993. I did not choose this book it was recommended to me I classify this book as an inner adventure. As in Jonas goes through an emotional metamorphosis (if you will)

Jonas lives in a community where pain, rudeness, and war are non-existent. All children undergoes a ceremony in December every year until they reach twelve years of age, at which point they receive their Assignments, the jobs they will perform as adults. A committee of Elders carefully watches each child in order to determine which adult occupation best suits his or her talents and interests. The committee also takes the greatest care in matching spouses in order to ensure stable marriages. No couple is allowed to raise children until the committee determines they are capable of being good parents. Every day, families undergo rituals of sharing, in which they analyze their feelings and dreams with one another. As his Ceremony of Twelve approaches, Jonas is apprehensive because he has no idea what Assignment he will receive. His parents try to allay his fears by explaining that the committee takes Assignments very seriously, so they rarely make the wrong choices. Meanwhile, Jonas' family begins temporarily caring for a newchild, or infant, named Gabriel. Gabriel is lagging behind the other newchildren in development, so Jonas's father, a Nurturer, decides to care for Gabriel in his home at night in the hopes that it will help Gabriel catch up with the other newchildren.

If Gabriel fails to meet the standards of normal development, he will have to be "released." Release of a newchild is a sad event because Jonas' father and the other Nurturers feel that they have failed to do their jobs. The release of the elderly is a celebrated event because it signals an acknowledgment of productive life-long contribution to the community. Release is also used as a punishment for those who break the community's rules. Jonas does not know exactly what release means, but he thinks that it means sending people to live "Elsewhere"--away from the community.

When the day of the Ceremonies arrives, Jonas discovers that he has been selected to be the next Receiver of memory, the position with the highest honor in the community. Ten years before, a girl named Rosemary was chosen, but she failed to li...

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...properly. Jonas decides to flee earlier than he had planned(Climax), taking Gabriel with him. For days, he and Gabriel elude the search planes until they reach Elsewhere. Jonas, half-starved and exhausted, climbs to the top of a steep hill in a snowstorm where he finds a sled. Cradling Gabriel, he rides down the hill on the sled.(Resolution) He thinks he can see lights shining through windows in the distance.

I enjoyed The Giver because it shows how important feelings even bad ones are to life. The best part of the book is when Jonas finally escapes to the “past world”. The story made me realize that even my most saddening memories help me in the end. Unfortunately I do not get feelings from books, especially fiction. I would recommend this book to friends; I don’t particularly like this author’s style so I wouldn’t specifically read another one of her books. I learnt from this book that with out feelings and memories we are all practically dead.

In the end this is an O.K. book, but because of the idea of the story it should be read by everyone. What I am trying to say is the idea of this story is a wonderful one. But the author (in my opinion) could have done a much better job.