The Giver
Over time, the literary world has become saturated with dystopian novels. There are many that are well known, like Nineteen Eighty Four, and, Brave New World. There are also those that are not so well known, like, The Handmaid’s Tale, and, The Giver. While many dystopian novels seem to rely on the same basic format, The Giver is a novel that breathes new life into an old idea. Rather than feature an adult man reconciling the idea of a dystopian world they have always lived in, it features a child, Jonas, who is only eleven-years-old when he begins to learn the futuristic utopia he lives in is not all that it seems.
Jonas lives in a world that has managed to eliminate violence, war, hatred between people, and even pain. Everything seems to be perfect, primarily because everybody acts the same. This is, essentially, the only way this book and other dystopian novels are similar and primarily why I enjoyed it: everything else is different. In an effort to keep things as happy and peaceful as possible, Jonas’ society has eliminated individual choice. People are brought through life by a series of rites of passage. For example, on certain birthdays children receive bicycles, and at the age of twelve, every child is assigned a job based on what interests them. Jonas becomes the Receiver of Memory, otherwise known as the Giver.
The Giver, in this sense, knows all of the memories of the past. He holds all of the old ways that were demolished before. This concept was interesting because it proved there was a time before all of this presumed perfection, and it forced Jonas to challenge his own views of the society he lived in, which were already shaky at best. Jonas receives memories of the old world from The Giver, and they begin to give his life a new meaning. He experiences true beauty and love in the memories, but also true horror and pain. In contrast, be begins to realize the people around him have traded real emotion, and real life, for the peaceful and safe existence they live before him. The dichotomy was interesting to me, and while it is seen in many other novels, this is usually where those plots end. The Giver assumes the characters in the role of heroes who demand the townspeople face the emotions they have so long neglected. In so doing, Jonas and the Giver devise a plan for Jonas to escape from the community, thus allowing the Giver to transmit emotions to the townspeople, allowing the town and their lives to revert back to how they had been before. It was brilliantly written.
My only issue with the book and the plot in general, is the foolhardy idea that releasing Jonas’ memories into the community would result in positivity. Eliminating prejudice for decades only to release it all at once would result in immediate mayhem. It did not appear the two had thought this through, but only those they demanded a change. I would have hoped The Giver, with so many experienced years to ponder these memories, would have thought of a more amicable solution to the problem. However, I am willing to admit after the loss of his own daughter as a Receiver of Memories that he understood a drastic change was needed at all costs and the benefits no longer outweighed the risks.
In sum, while The Giver is a dystopian novel, and those have become a dime a dozen, it is not the same as the others. The novel offers a different look at what a true dystopian society is, and the desperation that develops within those who begin to realize it. The Giver and Jonas are caught in the middle and will do whatever it takes to give those around them a real life; the reader is left to surmise whether it will be worth it in the end. While their solution may not have been the best, it may have been the only one they had. The complexities the novel offered were some no other novels discuss, and it did so in such a creative way. It is worth a read.
