The Giver Literary Analysis

The Giver meets the criteria for quality adolescent literature. This novel takes young adults away to another world. Like an escape from what is real to something that is fiction, making fiction seem real. Though the novel is neither science fiction or fantasy, it still shares the same characteristics. In the novel The Giver, everything is controlled from climate to color; families to jobs; life to death. The climate stays the same all year round therefore, they have never seen snow or humidity. That keeps them comfortable and free from sunburns and painful experiences. They can not see color because it may result in making the wrong choices. Each family has one son and one daughter. In order to retain a family the adults must apply for one. They are then chosen a spouse and later a child of the age of two. The children names are chosen for them and each year the child is to learn something new. Their adult jobs …show more content…
He undergoes training for a year and a man who Jonas calls The Giver transfers all the memories he knows to Jonas. He then learns about pain, pleasure, color, snow, war, and everything else the people in his society have been sheltered from. But the real suspense is when he learns that when someone is “released” they are killed. This terrifies him the most and Jonas becomes angry. He feels that his society is not living right. Jonas becomes strongly attached to Gabriel, a child his father brings home from the nursery. Once he finds out that Gabriel is going to be released because he is not sleeping through the night, Jonas becomes furious. He ends up escaping from the society taking Gabriel with him and they both end up in the woods and start to freeze. The end of the story leaves the reader wondering if they came to a new society that is waiting for them and singing upon their arrival or if it was all just an illusion and both Jonas and Gabriel died.