The Giver

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.

Annotation: Imagine a perfect community. There is no crime, no homelessness, no sickness, no war. Or is it so perfect? Jonas discovers more than he wants about his society and has to make a difficult choice.

Justification for rejection: Jonas lives in a society where everything is taken care of for everyone that lives there. Everyone who lives there contributes to the community and obeys the rules. If the rules are broken, the violator is “released”, once you become to old you are “released”. If a newborn can’t adjust in the recommended fashion then they are “released”. The author creates a riveting, thought provoking story by introducing young readers to complex themes such as individuality, tolerance, empathy, social and personal responsibility, sex, euthanasia, and infanticide. Although, these themes are controversial and have led to the banning of the book, it also causes the reader to search within themselves and own thoughts about how they feel about these issues. The central conflict is the letting go of highlights in life to get rid of the low points in life. The young protagonist Jonas discovers that through the goal of sameness, freedom of choice and uniqueness has been eradicated. These themes are stepping stones towards thought provoking discussions among young adults. The author gives a vivid description of the killing of a child because it is flawed, which I believe teaches the importance of acceptance towards an individual no matter what or how many flaw that person may have. That being said, I did enjoy the brilliant beginning and middle of the story. The reason for my rejection is the ending. The ending is ambiguous with fabled overtones. For me, getting through the ending was a chore. It felt as if the author was in a hurry to finish so she cut out all the dialogue and quickly led the protagonist on a quest seeking journey, but the reader never really knows what the quest really is or where he is going and then it just ends. Some aspects of the story were not fully explained and as long as the reader can accept that it should be an enjoyable read for most people, but is not in my opinion award worthy.

Genre: Science fiction/fantasy/coming of age/challenged