The Giver Giveth and Taketh Away

Banned Books Review #15
Written by ediblewoman.

Lois Lowry’s The Giver must have been awarded the Newberry Medal on the merits of the first 125 pages. The end of the book leaves readers feeling cheated. The fate of the protagonist, a twelve-year-old named Jonas, feels like a cop out. It seems to contradict everything Lowry has written in the preceding pages, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just leaves a lot of questions.

Jonas lives in a utopian community of the future, in which any difference that may cause conflict has been eliminated. Every choice has been eliminated. School is nothing more than memorizing rule books and manuals for living in the community. This applies to babies, the elderly, and anyone who fails to abide by the conventions of the community. Their lives are so scripted that the citizens of the community have lost the ability to see color or feel emotion. The conventions are seldom questioned.

Professional assignments are received at the age of twelve. Jonas is given the role of Receiver, a keeper of memories. To protect themselves against the chaos of memory and emotion, the community keeps one person of extraordinary sensitivity as the keeper of all of mankind’s memories. The outgoing Receiver transmits these memories to Jonas, who becomes aware that the community is built on lies and oppression. This is where Lowry has the opportunity to produce a great work of literature, but instead plunks down a half-conceived, ham-fisted allegory.

The role of Receiver is an obvious allegory to Christ, in that the Receiver must bear the woes of the people. But there are too many inconsistencies in the allegory to make this mean anything substantial. First of all, in Christian mythology, belief in Christ reveals everlasting joy to the believer. In this case, the Receiver must protect the people from joy. Does Lowry intend to suggest that Christians are vapid drones who do not know joy and who believe whatever is fed them? Or is her thesis that independent thinkers are the saviors of humankind?

The ending does not support either of those messages. The ending suggests that ignorance and conformity are the safest and wisest course of action and negates the preceding 200 pages. This, perhaps, reveals the real theme of the book. Certainty is safe. Uncertainty is frustrating, dangerous, and sometimes, but not always, rewarding. The Giver is rich with symbolism and metaphor, but those devices only give way to more questions. The rewards of the book depend on how comfortable one is with dwelling in uncertainty.

In addition to a Newberry Medal, The Giver achieved a top ten ranking on the American Library Association’s list of most-challenged books. Parents object to the references to sexuality, which are quite tame and described only as “the Stirrings,” suicide, and euthanasia. The scene in which a baby is euthanized is quite graphic and matter-of-fact, but it is the pivotal injustice of the book, the catalyst for Jonas’ almost heroic escape. Taken in context, it is not out of the realm of middle-school understanding.

Parents are often quick to jump to conclusions about a book’s value based on a single concept taken out of context. When they do this, they often miss values that trump any perceived negative effects. In the case of The Giver, banning the book denies students the opportunity to question social conventions versus anarchy, creativity versus order, and blind faith versus critical thinking. Parents opposed to the teaching of this book engage in the same kind of social engineering Lowry examines. The protest against The Giver is perhaps the best evidence of its value.

I give it four out of five stars. Had the second half of the book been as thoroughly fleshed out as the first half, this would be a five star read and a classic.

The Giver by Lois Lowry can be ordered for $6.99 new on Amazon.com.