The Giver by Lois Lowry - Book Review

The Giver is a book that is set in a utopian society created by the government to prevent crime and suffering to the extent that it has erased any feelings of pleasure.

Lois Lowry creates a thought-provoking book that questions the ideologies of life and what a person should sacrifice for the sake of living a life that is free of pain and suffering.

The Giver imagines a world where everything is controlled by the government to the extent that parents do not even choose their children, but are ‘assigned’ to them instead, and everything in the community is the same: no colors, no animals, and equality amongst all to avoid differentiating between the members of the community and causing dispute or pain.

At the age of twelve, each child is assigned their job and Jonas gets the most honorable one that is only assigned every ten years: the memory keeper. Lowry portrays Jonas as the character that defies the system due to his ability to experience both good and bad memories and starts to see the community for what it truly is: a dystopia.

The book’s uniqueness lies in its abstract concepts that force the reader to consider the importance of all of the little things that are taken for granted on a daily basis and see the consequences of not having them displayed within society.

Lowry tackles themes of freedom and the importance of making choices throughout the entire book making the reader question their own way of living and what rules they should or shouldn’t abide by. While the book is targeted to children, it is best understood by teens and even enjoyed by young adults.

Themes such as individuality, the link between memories and wisdom and the importance of human emotion are all a huge part of The Giver, making the book extremely gripping -it could be finished in a day or two due to its simple language.

This book is perfect for anyone who has ever imagined an ideal world without pain or suffering and helps the reader understand the importance of bad memories to be able to appreciate the good ones.