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The Giver | Introduction

When The Giver was first published in 1993, Lois Lowry was already a previous Newbery Medal winner (for her 1989 World War II novel, Number the Stars). She was also widely admired and greatly appreciated by an avid following of young readers for her comic series of Anastasia books. The Giver was immediately recognized as a very special novel. It too won the Newbery Medal. And a large number of commentators concluded that it was the best book Lowry had written.

Lowry's other work is mostly grounded in the cut and thrust of family life. The narrative of The Giver, because of the futuristic and allegorical themes in the novel, is a considerably more spartan affair. Readers are made immediately aware that they are in the realm of fabulous rather than realistic fiction, and that Jonas is the principle player in a moral fable with political and social overtones.

Lowry spent a good part of her childhood living near the Amish people of Pennsylvania. Later she moved to Tokyo and lived in an American compound within the city. Both experiences seem to have made her suspicious of attempts by communities to protect a rigid self-identity. She is careful in The Giver to make the community she is describing extremely plausible. From many points of view, it represents a well-managed social order. But as the reader discovers, along with Jonas, more and more about the principles on which that social order is based—infanticide, enforced euthanasia—it becomes impossible to read the novel as anything other than a savage critique of such systems.

The Giver Summary

The Allure of a Perfect World
Lois Lowry's The Giver tells the story of Jonas, who lives in a futuristic society and who, until the age of twelve, has led a peaceful and normal, albeit regulated, life. Jonas has two parents, a mother who is happily employed at the Department of Justice, and a father who is happily employed as a Nurturer. Jonas occasionally quarrels with his younger sister Lily, and he enjoys riding his bicycle, visiting with his friends Asher and Fiona, and musing about his future. In Jonas's world, everything (from an individual's desire, to the weather, to a person's career) is regulated. The community's rulers see to it, for example, that every member of this nameless, timeless community occupies a productive role in the society. The plot of The Giver develops out of Jonas's changing perceptions towards his community after he is selected to be the Receiver of Memory and discovers that nothing about his idyllic community is what it seems to be.

In Jonas's community, a child receives a professional assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, at which time s/he becomes an adult. Jonas, who has waited apprehensively to find out what his assignment will be, grows increasingly agitated during his long-awaited Ceremony. His friends have received desirable and appropriate assignments like "Fish Hatchery Attendant," and "Assistant Director of Recreation," but it appears that he, Jonas, has been bypassed. Finally, after all of the other Twelves have received their assignments, Jonas learns that he, because the elders recognize his intelligence and courage, and because he has the "Capacity to See Beyond" (the ability to see colors), has been selected to become the next Receiver of Memory.

The Horror of a Perfect World
When Jonas is selected to become the next Receiver of Memory, his life is instantaneously altered. He had prepared himself to be separated from his friends, but Jonas had no way of preparing for the loneliness and challenges of his unexpected new job. The Chief Elder warns him at the Ceremony of Twelve, in front of all his friends and family, that his training will involve pain. "Physical pain...of a magnitude that none of us here can comprehend because it is beyond our experience."... » Complete The Giver Summary