Learn the way to a meaningful life with “The Giver” by Lois Lowry
Week #3: reading a book by a female author every week of 2024
“If you were to be lost in the river, Jonas, your memories would not be lost with you. Memories are forever.”
This week’s book turned out to be a delightful surprise — it was a children’s book, yet it didn’t feel like one at all. It’s the kind of book that you can revisit multiple times throughout your life and always discover something new to resonate with — something deeper to glean from the text you thought to be so familiar with.
“The Giver,” published in 1993, is one of Lowry’s most famous and acclaimed works. The idea for the book came to her during a visit to her aging father, who had lost most of his long-term memory. The novel was also influenced by Lowry’s observations of political and social events, including her concerns about conformity and the loss of individuality in modern society.
Upon its release, “The Giver” received widespread critical acclaim and won numerous awards, including the Newbery Medal, one of the highest honors in children’s literature. Its success led to the creation of three companion novels, forming “The Giver Quartet.”
“The Giver” tells the story of Jonas, a young boy living in a tightly controlled society where the concept of Sameness and utter lack of pain are so ingrained in the minds of the citizens that they cannot see it ever being any other way. All people in this world have assigned roles that they perform for the community, and Jonas, being the curious and special protagonist-boy he is, gets the most distinguished and honored role in the community — The Receiver. When the society finally cleansed itself from the mistakes of the past and optimized its functioning to a point where there’s no need for feelings at all, all memories from the past: of big family gatherings, the sun, the snow, war, hunger, and everything that is more than being upset after losing a few hours of sleep or the pleasant bliss of rereading the Book of Rules on a weekend afternoon, were (instead of storing it in an archive, might I add) sentenced to one person — The Receiver — to carry the cross of the past, safeguarding their memories just in case if they ever need them or ask The Receiver for advice once every few decades.
When Jonas is chosen to receive memories from the past, he meets the current Receiver, whom he calls (surprisingly) The Giver, who passes to Jonas the entire burden of the memories he had to bear for decades at that point. As Jonas receives the memories, he learns about all those scary things people were so afraid of that they decided to discard. He sees greed, hunger, loneliness, death, but he also sees pleasure, love, and the happiness of seeing the sun and experiencing colors. His childlike confusion becomes an acute sense of awareness and melancholy about the world he lives in, which only isolates him from the people around him.
“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”
No matter how much he tried, he knew his parents simply could not love him back, nor would Asher ever understand the horrors of warplay as he runs around the playground pretending to shoot his friends with an imaginary gun. Jonas suffers. He suffers from loneliness, lack of understanding, and a desire to help — help his friends, his family, all people feel again. Even the memories of warfare, abandonment, or starvation could never overpower the feelings of love, warmth of a family home on Christmas morning, or the sound of music.
“Even trained for years as they all had been in precision of language, what words could you use which would give another the experience of sunshine?”
The book might be read as another dystopian fiction, trying to criticize the way our world is slowly going downhill, an attempt to make us feel shame and sadness as we reflect on the structure of our world. Well, this is one way to look at things.
However, only when we look past the facade of a dystopian novel, can we see its beautiful implication: the good things about what makes us human will always be greater than the bad ones, no matter how painful or terrifying it might feel in the moment. It shows us that even though our choices might come back to bite us, what we really value is the ability to make the choice in the first place.
“Things could change, Gabe,” Jonas went on. “Things could be different. I don’t know how, but there must be some way for things to be different. There could be colors. And grandparents,” he added, staring through the dimness toward the ceiling of his sleepingroom. “And everybody would have the memories.”
What we need, Lowry suggests, are not the same hot meals served for everyone at the designated hours, same pills taken to suppress any hint of feeling, the same clothes worn by everyone, the same houses furnished in the same way, or the same days spent under a fake sun. Well, some of those things wouldn’t be that bad. But what we need more is diversity — diversity in thought, in emotion, in experience, and we must be the agents in our lives, steering ourselves in the best way we can, even if it might cause pain.
We crave the richness of life, the richness of experiences from joy to sorrow, love, and loss. It is in the differences that we find meaning, for it is through diversity that we truly discover who we are and what we are capable of.
Yes, diversity can be messy. It can be uncomfortable. It can be downright painful at times. But it is also beautiful. It is the foundation of life, the fuel for growth, the tool to make our lives truly meaningful.
“The Giver” has long been praised for its ability to make readers reflect on the significance of a meaningful life and I am glad to be able to share a few reflections on this truly unique work.
If you're still hesitating about whether to read this book, I advise you to do so as soon as possible. Plus, it's a short read that took me no more than 3 hours to finish. But in such a short book, Lowry managed to raise so many fundamental questions about meaning, belonging, and the desire to be loved that it's going to leave you pondering them for a long time even after you've finished reading the book. As I continue this challenge, grow, and mature, my perception of this book might change, and I'll happily return to it one day, ready to see something new on the familiar dog-eared pages. Next week I’ll be diving into “Bunny” by Mona Awad.
Thank you for reading, and I hope to cross paths with you again in the future.
