The Giver: A Critique Essay The purpose of this book was to show us a possible version of a “Utopia”. It was a fantasy oriented book, that was suppose to make you think about thepossibilities for the future. The setting is a supposedly perfect society whereeveryone is taken care of and no one is different.
The author Lois Lowry does afine job portraying this supposedly “ideal” society. This book began with a description of sameness and release the twogeneral principles the society functions on. It then continues while Jonas (themain character) waits to receive his assignment in the community. Waiting tofind out what his assignment is, and what it entails doing are rises in action. The climax is when the plan to escape the society is being conceived and theactual escape itself.
The falling action is when he is escaping from the searchplanes and trying to keep himself and Gabriel alive. The ending is when hefeels triumph at the top of the hill and then sleds down it to his new family,his first memory that belongs to him. There were many characters in this book the main one being Jonas. Jonas isa child in this supposed “Utopia” who ends up with the most important assignmentof all the “Receiver of Memory”.
The Receiver holds all the memories of thewhole community so the community does not have to be bothered with feelings andthe emotional baggage that comes with them. Jonas’s trainer the “Giver” is aold man who passes the memories on to Jonas and eventually thinks of the plan toescape. The Giver also adopts Jonas and Rosemary as his own kids in a way. Hehad a previous “Receiver” named Rosemary who applied for and received release.
Release is the term for death in this community. So when Rosemary was releasedher memories went back to the community. Jonas and the Giver were talking aboutthis when the Giver got the idea of how to get Jonas away from the community andget the community back its emotions and feelings. Gabriel was a anotherinfluential character he was a baby staying with Jonas’s family till he wasready to be given to a family unit.
He was scheduled for release however andthis convinced Jonas what he had to do. Which was to escape with Gabriel andget away from the community. His father was a nurturer and one day Jonas wantedto see a release so the Giver showed his father releasing a newborn twin becausehe was lighter and having two identical people walking around would be tooconfusing. After Jonas saw his father murder the young newborn he was verydistraught and the next day he learned of Gabriels scheduled release and sinceJonas had become attached to Gabriel he decided he must leave. These were themain characters in this story. The theme of this book was the idea of sameness and how we would mostlikely react to it and what it would be like.
The book is based in thisfictional society where everyone is provided for, everything is the same. Theold are killed after a certain age and the young are too if they do not gainenough weight or sleep normal. The word love is a defined a sloppy andimprecise word. Differences are frowned upon and being the same as everyoneelse is encouraged.
The laws are strict and no one dares disobey them. Thisbook portrayed what could possibly happen if we give the government too muchauthority. My evaluation of this book was that Lowry accurately portrayed a certainkind of “Utopia”. A “Utopia” that might not be that far off in the future. Heused foreshadowing to keep the reader at the edge of his or her seat.
The titlewas intriguing as well as accurate. This book was a real eye opener and reallymade you think of the possibilities for tomorrow. .
