The Giver

For my Newberry Award winner I read "The Giver" by Lois Lowry. I had never read this book before which I guess may be surprising since I know it is very popular and now I see why. This book was incredibly interesting and unique. The book takes place in a society where everyone is forced to conform to what those in charge have decided is best for them as a whole. There is no pain, war, disagreement, or choice in life. Everyone is assigned jobs when they turn 12, you may be assigned a spouse if you wish and married couples can be assigned a maximum of two children. If a member of society fails to fit in or adopt the ways of life that the community follows they are "released." The people in the community believe that being released means being sent to the world outside of their community when in reality it means death. The main character Jonas is assigned the role of the Receiver. Since there is no war or pain in the world the memory of these things is also absent from the minds of all the people in this society save for the receiver. The receiver alone holds on to these memories in order to keep them safe and prevent society from repeating the same mistakes. Jonas meets the current receiver who begins passing these memories down to him. When Jonas begins receiving these memories from the current receiver or the "Giver" as he calls him, he realizes how dull life in their society is and that everyone has lost the ability to feel any type of passion towards anything. He also finds out that release is actually death and becomes infuriated. Eventually Jonas becomes fed up with the system and with the Giver's encouragement he devises a plan to escape society and return these memories and emotions to the people. I thought the whole concept of this book was really amazing and in my opinion it offers a bit of social commentary on how people in today's world are constantly forced to either conform to the norms created by society or face being outcast. I absolutely loved this book and wish I had read it sooner as I think it is extremely relevant and well written.