If you appreciate the genius of 1984 &/or A Brave New World, you will also love The Giver. This is a sentiment expressed by other reviewers that I would like to echo. An important area where I disagree with other reviewers though is that just because the main character is a child, that that makes this a book only for children. Many very adult issues are discussed in The Giver about the direction in which the world is moving. But I am very gratified that adolescents are also reading this book in school. It will help them to think about the future and what kind of world they would like to inherit.
The society described in The Giver leads "The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without color, pain, or past." (p.164) This is largely due to societies' conscious group decision, referred to as the "Sameness," to eliminate pain through constant medication (similar to A Brave New World). While everyone is assigned a job in the community, and even a family to raise them (not their natural parents) from the time they are babies. There are no longer conscious choices to be made in life. Societies' collective memories of pleasure and pain are the burden of one individual: the Giver, who then passes on collective pain and pleasure to a child, who succeeds him. Old people also no longer have any use in society and live together in group homes until society decides to "release" them, a term that loosely describes euthanasia.
The Giver is beautifully written and there are many amazing plot twists along the way. The world described by Lois Lowry seems deceptively utopian in places until shocking revelations are disclosed about the truth of the future community. The society described is also similar enough in places to the world in which we live today as to make the reader both uncomfortable and wonder about the collective choices being made in the name of social harmony. The Giver is a very important, prescient book.Get more detail about The Giver.
No comments:
Post a Comment