The Giver

The Giver, by Lois Lowry is a good short novel to read. It is written from the point of view of Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy living in a futuristic society that has eliminated all pain, fear, war, and hatred. There is no prejudice, since everyone looks and acts basically the same, and there is very little competition. Everyone is unfailingly polite. The society has also eliminated choice: at age twelve every member of the community is assigned a job based on his or her abilities and interests. Jonas is selected to become the communities receiver of memory. The community is all happy and don't have any sad, emotions, in their life because of the receiver. The receiver takes in all the hurt and bad from before so that nobody else has the hurtful experience. This book is interesting because it shows a good sense of imagination but the people in the community lack individuality and love, among others. They have their life chosen for them, that wouldn't be ok with me if someone else chose everything for me and I had to be exactly like everyone else. I also would not like how I couldn't make up my own family or by in love. I do think this is a good book to read in classrooms though. In teenage years, I remember reading it in school, this book would be appropriate and have conversations about the differences in choices in our world and the lack of choices in theirs. There are other topics that could be discussed throughout this book but I feel like students, classrooms, and teachers would learn a lot from reading this book and carrying out conversations throughout it.