The Receiver Of Memory In The Giver, By Lois Lowry

In 1993, Lois Lowry released a book called The Giver. It about a boy, Jonas, who lives in an apparently utopian society. The book starts out with Jonas concerned about the Ceremony of the Twelves, where the children of a certain age will be given their job assignments. Jonas is assigned to be the new Receiver of memory. This is a very rare job as there is only ever one in the community at a time, and you must have a certain quality to do it. He begins work and the old Receiver of Memory, now The Giver begins to transfer all of his memories to Jonas. When the community was created they wanted “sameness” so they got rid of memories, except the Receiver who is used as a reference when making decisions. Upon realizing that the way their community works is not right, Jonas and The Giver make a plan for him to leave, thus returning the memories Jonas has to the people. The ending of the book is ambiguous, so the reader does not know what happened to the characters. Nonetheless, The Giver is a wonderful book because it is insightful, it is otherworldly, and Lowry describes in incredible detail. The giver is first and foremost extremely insightful. Although many people know about war and pain, they have never really felt it. Yet Jonas must experience these things while the rest of the community doesn’t even know about it. “’But why can’t everyone have the …show more content…
Reading this book puts the reader in a completely different world than the one they are used to. It provides fantastic entertainment, but it also fits for a need to study a book and get something out of it. Because of the different themes and ideas that make up the text, it has the potential to change how people look at the world, and therefore change how they look at life. Overall, this is an extraordinary