The Giver – by Lois Lowry

Every so often, I come across a book that makes me think: “How the hell did they come up with this?” I hope we all have these moments as consumers of content. I think that’s why one of the top questions that any writer receives is “Where do you get your ideas?” I’ve watched numerous interviews with different writers, and when they attempt to answer that question, they appear to be just as baffled as the person asking the question. Stephen King will tell you there’s no shop where you can go and buy ideas. You have to hope they find you, and the good ones tend to stick around. The Giver by Lois Lowry is one of those books where I had to stop in awe, every so often, and ask how the hell she came up with a book like this.

Published in 1993, The Giver is set in a futuristic world where everybody who lives there thinks they are in a utopia. The place is never named, I suppose it’s left open to interpretation in that sense, only that the village is somewhat remote, with only a couple of neighbouring villages nearby that have identical values. In this world, there is no intercourse and no birthdays. All babies are created in a lab, and all people wear their age more like a title. For example, everybody born in the same calendar year would earn the title of One in December. The following December, they would earn the title of Two. And then Three, and so on.

Throughout their childhood, there are different milestones to look forward to, such as being allowed a bike and being allowed to volunteer in different sectors. But nobody is allowed to choose their career. That is determined for them when they reach Twelve. At that point, everybody attends a ceremony where they will be told what their career will be for the rest of their lives. From Twelve, there are no more ages. They are an adult from that point onwards. They can then apply for somewhere to live. Similarly, they must apply for a partner, and couples can then apply to be parents and have children assigned to them.

The protagonist of this story is a boy named Jonas who is an Eleven but approaching the ceremony where he will become a Twelve. Jonas and his friends are a mixture of naïve and excitement as the ceremony draws ever closer. While Jonas’s friends end up with roles like carers and labourers, Jonas discovers that he has been chosen by the council to become the new Receiver of Memory.

At any point in time, there can only be one Receiver of Memory; therefore, the incumbent has the job of training Jonas before their retirement. We never learn the real name of the incumbent Receiver of Memory; he only ever tells Jonas to call him the Giver. Based on his descriptions and the way he comes across in the book, we can imagine that the Giver has had his role for an extremely long time. I picture him looking similar to the way Family Guy depicts God. He’s exhausted and in overwhelming pain, both physical and emotional.

“But what is a Receiver of Memory?” I hear you ask. Well, as I explained above, this world is different to our own. They believe in what they call “Sameness.” It’s like a very extreme version of equality. There are no hills. The entire landscape is flat (don’t ask me how they did that). Through their plan of Sameness, the regular people can only see in black and white. Only the Giver and Jonas can see colour. Long ago, the community took away all memories of pain and suffering. The ordinary individual walks around in ignorant bliss that these things ever happened. Only the Receiver of Memory has any knowledge that those sorts of things ever happened. And it is the job of one RoM to hold onto that knowledge only so they can advise the council. They then have the job of passing on the memories to their successors, at which point the former RoM will forget that they ever knew it.

While the Giver gets a little bit better with every memory he gets rid of, Jonas becomes a little bit worse. It starts off with something small, like sledging down a snowy hill, crashing and breaking an arm. The people of this world have never seen snow. They have no concept of what it is. With time, Jonas learns about poverty, starvation, fire, and wars. He becomes haunted by the things he sees. It’s only then that he realises that the world he lives in isn’t as wonderful as he initially thought. If anything, he discovers horrible secrets that he wishes he had never known, but the problem is, he now can’t forget them. And he can’t tell anybody else what he’s seen, and they wouldn’t understand him anyway.

The Giver has become a banned book in some parts of the United States, while at the other end of the scale, Australia and Canada have considered it a core part of their curriculum. It has inspired numerous debates when it comes to the themes of colour and religion. Without giving away too much, I could make the case that Jonas’s community is a representation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Although I have no way of knowing if that’s what Lowry had in mind.

All in all, this is a brilliant dystopian novel which still holds up well after all this time. I’d definitely recommend it to fans of the Hunger Games. And in 2014, there was a movie adaptation released starring Jeff Bridges and Taylor Swift. Just make sure you read the book first.

My Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆ (4 stars)

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