Review of The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Giver, by Lois Lowry, published in 1993, entails lives of persons living in an artificially utopian futuristic community founded on Sameness, which includes strict adherence of community rules, allowance of solely superficial thoughts and feelings, no recognition of Transcendence, and at some point “releasing” a person or persons from the community when said person or persons are considered to be different or not to be useful to the community anymore. Pain, strife, and war are averted through Sameness, or are they?
To preserve order, a committee of elders designates spouses; spouses are consequently assigned children who are born of women whose sole communal role is to give birth. The Elder committee also names all babies. When a child is twelve years old, community elder committee members choose a life-long career for him or her, based primarily on demonstrated skills and abilities; the child is subsequently sent to job training. Community members believe Elder committee choices are uniformly correct and are therefore non-negotiable.
Hormonal changes in boys that contribute with marital love development are communally repressed in the dystopian community. Being different is observed as being dishonorable. Parents go to live with a community group called “Childless Adults” after children that they raise are grown. Designated sick, infirm and old persons are “released” and therefore, sent to live “Elsewhere”. Only the community Receiver of Memory knows where Elsewhere is.
When he becomes twelve years old, a boy named Jonas, a primary character in the story, is chosen to be the next Receiver of Memory, because community elders have recognized within him “an ability to see beyond”. The Receiver of Memory position is valuable because the Receiver of Memory holds all the memories of the community, before it was converted into Sameness. The current Receiver of Memory, who trains Jonas, is an elder man named “The Giver.” Unlike training for additional community positions, training for the Receiver of Memory position and the job itself is required to remain secret.
As the Giver teaches Jonas about the Receiver of Memory position, about what community life was before it became defined by Sameness, aka Superficial living, Jonas experiences unimaginable joy. Simultaneously, he struggles with newly discovered deep thoughts and emotions. In turn, he is confronted with choices between right and wrong, and ultimately, concepts of good and evil that he has not previously undergone. Why? He has not before been allowed to undergo experiences that evoke any questions about or objections with Sameness.
Reading The Giver was a personally unsettling, challenging, and ultimately gratifying experience. Having read the novel has found me appreciating being a believer in Transcendence, specifically a believer in God and therefore, it has found me being grateful for having been taught and continuing to believe that every person is dignified, that all persons were created for specific, wondrous and irreplaceable purposes. The Giver underscores that all relationships with people, places, and things are precious, all relationships are limited, all relationships end, and all relationships endure.