The Giver: Summary

Jonas lives in a community that is perfect. Everyone lives in something called a family unit. In a family unit there is one mother, one father, one boy, and one girl. Though, the mother does not actually give birth to the children. Designated birthmothers give birth to new children. People in the community are assigned jobs at a special ceremony when they are 12 years old.  The community is ruled by a council and someone called the Chief Elder. In this community, there is no color. This year Jonas will receive his assignment. But, at the ceremony Jonas is chosen for a very special job. The receiver of memory. No one has been picked to be the receiver of memory for a long time, because the last time this happened it was a disaster. Jonas learns why this job is so important. The receiver of memory has memories of what everything was like before humanity decided to change like this. The receiver of memory is the only person that can see in color. The Giver is the person who gives Jonas these memories. Jonas’s father is a nurturer, and he has been caring for a boy named Gabriel. Gabriel has trouble falling asleep at night, so his father brings Gabriel home. If Gabriel keeps doing this, he will be released from the community. When someone is getting released, it is because they are very old, they have committed three serious crimes, or something is wrong with them when they are a baby. Everyone thinks that when someone is released, they go somewhere else, but what actually happens is that someone injects them with a medicine so that they die. When Jonas finds out the way things were before, he gets mad at the people who changed their lives to this. Jonas and The Giver devise a plot so that Jonas can run away. Jonas takes Gabriel with him because he knows that Gabriel will be released otherwise. Jonas takes his dad’s bike, and he starts riding away. He has been riding for a few days now, and he is very hungry and cold. Then, he approaches a large, snowy hill. It takes him a long time but he finally reached the top. When he got there, he saw the lights of people in a town.

The Giver: Analysis

I think that Lois Lowry wrote The Giver for many different reasons. One reason why I think that she wrote this book is to show us that every person should be able to make their own decisions. If one person ruled over everyone, that person would decide everything and no one else would have a voice. This is why I think that a democracy is better than dictatorship. In The Giver, the town is ruled by the Chief Elder and a couple of other people. No one argues with them because they have all been taught to not question anything. If one person controls everything, there is no fun. In The Giver, there are strict rules about when you get things, when you do things, how you do things, and more precise rules.

Another reason why I think that Lois Lowry wrote this book is because this might be what happens in the future, and to persuade people to not change like this. In the book, there is no color, and no one really has feelings. This is because all of the people take special pills that make this happen. In the book, when Jonas starts seeing things in color, he realizes that the world would be a much better place with color and feelings.

A third reason why I think that Lois Lowry wrote this book is obvious. It is supposed to entertain us. It makes us really think about things and imagining if we lived in this world. Would you like it, or would you not?  Personally, I think it is much better the way things are now, rather than the way things are in The Giver. These are some of the reasons why I think that Louis Lowry wrote this book.

The Giver: Recommendation

The Giver, by Lois Lowry is an amazing science fiction novel about a boy named Jonas. Jonas lives in a very strange community. At the age of 12, everyone gets a job in the community. At the ceremony, Jonas is chosen for a very special job, The Receiver of Memory. Over the course of this book Jonas learns just how important this job is.

I would recommend this book to people ages 11 and up because it is a very complicated book. I tried reading this book when I was 8 but I did not understand it at all. I think that most 10 year olds would like it if they read at a high level. Also, I would recommend re-reading it in the future because there are many details that I did not catch the first time that I read the book.

I like this book because it is very mysterious and there are many things that the author does not say explicitly but that you can learn and figure out during the book based off of what is happening. In this book, the characters do many things that you would not expect them to do. The characters’ personality changes throughout the course of the story. There are many cliffhangers in this book and you might not figure out something in the book until towards the end. These are some reasons that I would recommend this book. I think that it is very good and it is one of my favorite books.