The+Giver

=//The Giver//=

Lois Lowry. 180 pages. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers. $6.50.

By Warren Skoza Imagine a society where 95% of what we would consider “personal choices” are predetermined. Imagine if every “family unit” (which consisted of selected spouses and selected adopted children), held the same daily routines, including “dream-sharing” every day. You receive symbols of your maturity, such as your own bicycle, when you may participate in community service, and most importantly, your job (which of course is chosen for you) at the same time as everyone else, based on how old you are. This is the society where Jonas, the character at the center of //The Giver// by Lois Lowry, lives. He is the same as every other child his age: attends school, does community service, and of course, participates in recreational activities with his friends. He is anxiously awaiting The Ceremony of Twelve where everyone in his group will turn twelve, and have their most important decision of their life chosen for them: their Assignment. This is described in a passage preceding the ceremony: “This is the time,” she began, looking directly at them, “when we acknowledge differences. You Elevens have spent all your years till now learning to fit in, to standardize your behavior, to curb any impulse that might set you apart from the group. But today we honor your differences. They have determined your futures.”

Jonas, although he is not sure what job he will be given, expects an average job, such as Engineer, Instructor, Caretaker, or Instructor of Recreation. He receives anything but; his //Selection// (not assignment) will unveil the secrets behind his society and its uncanny ability to keep everyone in line. He will experience things other people in his community aren’t even physically capable of experiencing: But suddenly Jonas had noticed, following the path of the apple through the air with his eyes, that the piece of fruit had – well, this was the part that he couldn’t adequately understand – the apple had //changed//. Just for an instant. It had changed in mid-air, he remembered. Then it was in his hand, and he looked at it carefully, but it was the same apple.

//The Giver// is a unique example of a bildungsroman both because Jonas “officially” becomes an adult at the Ceremony of Twelve in his community, and also because he discovers many things unbeknownst to him when he was a child. He also receives great responsibility with his job, all characteristics of becoming an adult. I found myself spending more time thinking about the concept of a society such as Jonas’ than the actual plot itself, although the plot is, for the most part, well organized and thought out. The concept of how this society came to be and how people are different not only in culture and character but also in their physical capabilities is interesting, but not elaborated enough for it to be an intended topic of thought for this book. Basically, the characteristics of humans in this setting are to be accepted as just how people are in this time. The book does not go into much detail of how people came to be this way, which does not leave anything left out that would cause problems, since the people’s origins are not the point of the book. A reader may be interested in reading the book for its plot and essentially the ending, but in my opinion the quality and meaning of the ending to this book is less than complementary to the story body. This book provides a very good starting point for someone to think about the thought processes of humans: how we interact, develop societies, and how these societies maintain control over its citizens. It is interesting to compare the way of rule demonstrated by the leaders of our world today with this seemingly futuristic depiction of how humans may develop over time. This is a good book for anyone who enjoys not only reading, but thinking about topics brought up in the reading. It is also good for r