The Giver
by Lois Lowry
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Book Reviews of The Giver
Book Review: Technology's Role in our Lives
Summary: 5 Stars
Now, as technology touch every inch of our existence, how much we think and to what extent should we allow them into our lives?
The reason I am reflecting is that I read a book entitled The Giver which is written by Lois Lowry. This book actually is for a book for children, and in fact have won a good number of awards, including the John Newbery Medal for most distinguished contribution to American Literature for Children. It was originally read by my son who told me it was good, and I took it. Incidentally, it is always good to take an active interest in what your kids are reading, and ocassionally won't harm much if you actually read it as well. That i believe, always create good talking points with your kids.
The story is quite thought provoking, and basically centers on a community in which the people, years into the future, use technology try to create a world where everything is perfect. It might seem bizarre, but overall, it does seem plausible that if we are too overzealous and if we could do it, we will be headed in that direction.
When you consider that a lot of grief or sorrow is because of poverty, then solve poverty. A lot of bad things come because of war, then use technology to acquire peace. If hunger is the issue, then insure that there won't be any hunger. But the policymakers in this book went beyond that -- they noted that a lot of grief comes from pain, so they were able to work out the perfect medicines that will cure pain and disease. Much grief comes from love, envy, anger, and greed, so basically they develop the pills to control that as well.
If you consider that people also becomes sorrowful because they make the wrong choice so they eliminated choice as well. So in this community, a committee of experts make the evaluation what jobs you get ( depending on detailed recordings and observations on your interests and talents), who you marry, and also they have systems to insure that only healthy kids are born, and these are assigned to the right 'nurturers' to insure comformance of the system.
In short, this was supposedly a story about a society where there is supposedly no fear, or no pain. Something like nirvana, or heaven, where everything works and is programmed to be just right. There is nothing unexpected, unusual or even inconvenient. Everything works according to plan, just like clockwork.
In short, the author perceives that we can actually not only use technology to improve our lives, but if we are not controlled, we will be moving forward to using it to shield us from everything that would cause sadness or grief, and if we allow technology to do that, sooner or later, we will come up with technology to do precisely that.
Isn't that what we all want? Or where we are heading?
The hero, a 12 year old boy was selected to receive special training which allows him to experience true pain and pleasure. He later tries to opt out of the system, because he believes being 'human' is something that is different. Which begs the question that if you don't know sorrow, would you know happiness? If you don't know or have experienced failure, would you appreciate what it is to be successful. If you never experience hunger, would you know how lucky you are to always have food in the t able?
Now , more and more, as our society advance, we do start to being able to get practically everything we want, but we think we are doing our children a favor by doing everything to shield them from the bad things that we as parents also have experienced before. We shield them from pain, from hunger, from anything inconvenient or anything closely resembling hard work?
Are we therefore using technology the right way? Is that how we envision technology to increasingly play in our lives - shield us from the real challenges of the world?
by: wilson ng
My blog at : www.ngkhai.net/bizdrivenlife
Book Review: The price of safety, comfort and conformity
Summary: 5 Stars
The Giver is novel about a community and a society optimized through governance by a strong central committee of elders, which are only briefly encountered in the book.
The book focuses on one boy's transition from youth to early adulthood, Jonas. Through his eyes, we come to know his family and community. Everything is very structured and orderly. People's careers and mates are assigned to them based on observance and psychological profiling for optimal fit. Even reproduction is assigned to specific people who engage in sex for reproductive purposes. Children are then raised by nurtures. People chosen to rear children until they are two years of age, at which point, the children are assigned to families for further upbringing. Once children reach the age of 12, they are assigned their careers and begin training. The old are well cared for in retirement communities where care givers see to their needs.
The high degree of structure is even found in people's daily lives where we find everyone eats sleeps, plays and works based on the schedules dictated by the governing body. Families even have designated sharing time. Where each family member is suppose to share their feelings based on their experiences during the day.
At first, there is something seductive about this society. People are well treated; there is no war, poverty or crime. However, as we see the community through the Jonas' eyes, one cannot help but notice unsettling aspects to the community. Jonas' mother's comments that no woman should want to be a breeder as these women are assigned to physical labor after three years of producing children. The elderly are "released" when they reach a certain point in their lives as are small children whose behavior is too unruly. The people seem to need the orderliness and any disruption in their serene existence results in almost child like responses expecting someone to take care of them.
Jonas is selected to be the new "keeper of memories" a prestigious position awarded only when the old keeper is nearing retirement. His first instructions are to discontinue sharing and he is given permission to lie. This is the beginning of his introduction into the world behind the community's pristine façade. He learns of love and his parents' inability to express it as the concept lacks the precision the community expects in language. Love is too messy to nebulous to truly be meaningful in the community. His journey of discovery ultimately leads to death or salvation depending upon the reader's hopes.
In my opinion it leads to death as Jonas' last moments in the book are too conveniently similar to the collected memories given to him. Also, ending in death leads to a bitter poignancy. The realization that his society has made him into someone that cannot hope to survive outside its rigid confines. His new memories are the only thing left from lives lived before sameness.
Lowry's book is a brief, well written book on the dangers inherent in wanting too much safety, ease and convenience. The result is a society with no pain, grief, longing or suffering. However, there is no love, passion, joy or deep appreciation. Life is functional, but not meaningful. The world has become gray, not because the people are color blind, but because they are numb from a society that protects them from being human.
This book is excellent cautionary tale for our own society. We have become a society afraid of any form of discomfort, and seek to isolate ourselves from it. In the pursuit of isolation we have separated ourselves from our extended families. We text instead of greet. We email instead of talk. We have successfully insulated ourselves from each other, making for a safe, rarified environment bereft of the messiness that comes with real living. Lowry shows us the final result of the decision to make efficiency and safety paramount and impossibility of breaking out of these chains once they are forged.
Book Review: A Must Read For Teachers!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is about a boy, named Jonas who lives in what seems to be like a special community that is protected from everything. At first, it is a bit difficult to understand the rules of the community because they are not displayed early on for the reader. However, they are learned throughout the entire book. The rules of the family consist of: you cannot lie, each family must eat at the same time, they must tell about their dreams and fellings, and there are no secrets. Every child in the community experiences the same thing, and even receive the same gift for their birthdays. It is not until age nine that they can even ride a bicycle. However, age 12 is the most important brithday. This is when the children are assigned their job or duty within the community. The protagonist, Jonas, is given the most important job of the Receiver. He is allowed to lie, have secrets, and may not tell anyone what occurs at his job. The Giver is Jonas' trainer for his job, and he receives many things from the Giver. He is told he will learn about rain, snow, fire, the sun, and another world. The first memory he recieves is of snow, where he is sledding. The next memory is pain, while he is sledding he goes over ice, falls off his sled, and hurts his leg. At this point in the story it is explained that every time someone gets hurt, they receive a pill, and they don't receive pain. Jonas is the only one in the community who can feel pain.
At the beginning of the book Jonas' father (who is the Nurturer), brings home a baby named Gabriel. Jonas realizes that him Gabriel are the only two in the community with Hazel eyes. Everyone else has dark eyes. Later, Jonas also notices that the Giver also has Hazel eyes. He puts all of this information together, and knows that Gabriel will be the next Receiver. One night, when Gabriel is crying Jonas accidentally gives him a memory. Throughout the book Jonas is faced with hardships. He is traumatized when he realizes that his father actually kills babies that don't belong in the community. THis transformation, and growth in his character makes him begin to think about leaving. His last memory that is given to him is the memor of the outside world. Jonas decides to try and find the place, and leaves one night with Gabriel in search of it. In the end, Jonas and Gabriel die of starvation and freezing temperatures.
All of the aspects of this book are very dramatic and shocking for readers. It is a fantasy story, but could also be classified as a science fiction novel. Due to the content of the book, and the depth at which it can be analyzed it would be more appropriate for Juniour High or High School students. Children in this age range will be more able to think about the book and its true meaning about social norms. Classroom debates about having a sheltered community could be held with these students. The novel presents these topics in a very shattering way which draws in readers, and sparks motivation. However, a concern would be the emotional readiness of the reader to tackle a book that speaks out against things that are different from our society. One example is that, in the novel children are not nurtured by their parents while they are infants. They are nurtured by the Nurturers in the community, and then assigned to a family. This is a concept that may be too abstract for a younger audience. This book could be tied into any type of skill development while teaching reading. These skills included questioning, prediction, and of course the idea of forming opinions as readers. I na Social Studies class when introducing classroom debates, this story could be shared to illustrate a different culure, and teams could be formed to support various reader opinions on some of the themes in the book. It is a high quality book, that while it uses simple language it messages are brought with very descriptive words that help readers picture what is going on throughout the story.
Book Review: Illegal Suffering
Summary: 5 Stars
Science fiction is the mythology of the present, giving us intuitions about current conditions in an age of continual change. Lowry's book as not about the future, but about society today.
In Lowry's society, suffering is illegal and must be eliminated -- if it can't be, the response is euthanasia. Jonas hurts his finger - an ambulance is called, and he must be given an anesthetic that totally relieves the pain. A jet pilot mistakenly overflies Jonas' small, self-contained community; the pilot is liable to undergo an intolerable level of embarrassment, and must therefore be "separated" from his community -- a euphemism for euthanasia. Children who aren't judged to have sufficiently bonded with family units, and elders who reach an age which is judged to have "life unworthy of life", are euthanized.
Our response to people who are undergoing suffering which makes us uncomfortable, is not to become truly "compassionate" (suffering-with), but, really driven by a sense of our own intolerable discomfort, our response is to eliminate suffering at its root, by eliminating the sufferer. Pope John-Paul II speaks of the fact that in "...a social and cultural context which makes it more difficult to face and accept suffering, the temptation becomes all the greater to resolve the problem of suffering by eliminating it at the root, by hastening death so that it occurs at the moment considered most suitable.
"Various considerations usually contribute to such a decision, all of which converge in the same terrible outcome. In the sick person the sense of anguish, of severe discomfort, and even of desperation brought on by intense and prolonged suffering can be a decisive factor. Such a situation can threaten the already fragile equilibrium of an individual's personal and family life, with the result that, on the one hand, the sick person, despite the help of increasingly effective medical and social assistance, risks feeling overwhelmed by his or her own frailty; and on the other hand, those close to the sick person can be moved by an understandable even if misplaced compassion. All this is aggravated by a cultural climate which fails to perceive any meaning or value in suffering, but rather considers suffering the epitome of evil, to be eliminated at all costs. This is especially the case in the absence of a religious outlook which could help to provide a positive understanding of the mystery of suffering.
"On a more general level, there exists in contemporary culture a certain Promethean attitude which leads people to think that they can control life and death by taking the decisions about them into their own hands. What really happens in this case is that the individual is overcome and crushed by a death deprived of any prospect of meaning or hope. We see a tragic expression of all this in the spread of euthanasia -- disguised and surreptitious, or practised openly and even legally. As well as for reasons of a misguided pity at the sight of the patient's suffering, euthanasia is sometimes justified by the utilitarian motive of avoiding costs which bring no return and which weigh heavily on society. Thus it is proposed to eliminate malformed babies, the severely handicapped, the disabled, the elderly, especially when they are not self-sufficient, and the terminally ill."
Palliative medical care has become so sophisticated that in reality no sick person need undergo an intolerable level of pain. But those who refuse to engage in real, personal relationships with suffering people can't expect to understand, either the ill person's need for palliative care or for counseling to deal with depression. Those who are uncomfortable with other people's condition should deal with their own discomfort, not try to eliminate the discomfort by eliminating the suffering person.
Book Review: Book Review of The Giver
Summary: 5 Stars
Jonas, the main character of The Giver, lives in a strange, "utopian" community of the future. Here, no one makes their own decisions - the Committee of Elders chooses everything from jobs to family members for the people, and the rule book sets forth how all of the people must live their lives. Everything in the community is clean, organized, orderly, safe, and well-planned. There is no crime, no poverty, no competition, and no rudeness. However, this perfect existence comes at a cost. Lois Lowry has written an interesting, exciting, and thought-provoking novel. Although it is categorized in the science fiction genre, I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a suspenseful story.
When the story opens, Jonas is a careful, compliant young man, who is anxiously awaiting the Ceremony of Twelve, at which he will receive his Assignment - the career which will be chosen for him by the Committee of Elders. He lives in a dwelling with the other members of his family unit (a mother, a father, and a younger sister). They have been selected and assigned to each other by the Committee of Elders.
Life in this community is very structured. Sameness and Climate Control ensure that each day is well-planned and that there are no surprises. People, including children, who do not fit in are released and sent Elsewhere. Trained Nurturers are responsible for the care and nurturing of the newchildren for the first year of their lives. Trained personnel of the community also care for the elderly members of the community. When their usefulness to the community is over, they, too, are also released and sent Elsewhere.
At the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas is selected for a great honor - he is to be the new Receiver of Memory for the community. He will be trained by the current Receiver, who tells Jonas to call him The Giver. As part of the training, The Giver will transfer to Jonas all of the memories he is now bearing for the whole community. "Memories are forever," The Giver tells Jonas. The Committee of Elders will occasionally seek the advice of The Receiver. He must rely on the memories and experiences to guide the Elders when unexpected things happen in the community.
As the new Receiver-in-training, Jonas learns about many things that existed before Sameness and Climate Control. He learns about many feelings, which only The Giver has experienced. He learns of war and hunger - things which are also unknown to the community.
It does not take Jonas a long time to he realize that his life will never be ordinary again. He realizes that the great honor he has received is also a great burden. The memories and new experiences cause him to feel frustrated and angry at times with his friends and family. He is upset that they are satisfied with their programmed lives. Jonas tries to make them understand some of the things he has experienced, but he is unsuccessful. Without the memories, they cannot understand. The Giver tells Jonas, "The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared."
After almost a year of training, Jonas and The Giver develop a plan to return the memories to the community. In order for the plan to succeed, Jonas will need all of the memories of strength and courage that the Giver can transfer to him. However, something that Jonas never expected happens which affects Gabriel, a newchild who has been living with Jonas' family unit for the past year. Jonas is forced to alter the plan and improvise a new, much riskier one, without The Giver's help.
Read The Giver, and you, too, can discover the price that Jonas' community paid to live in a "perfect" world, and whether it was worth it. Then, decide for yourself what you would be willing to give up to live in a "perfect" world.