The Giver

Hello, Ladies:

I'm late on this post I know but I will be early on the post for Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo.

But to get back to The Giver... I found this book fascinating and not to mention a very quick read. There were so many things that I thought were very sad about the whole scenario that they lived in. I realize that not one of them really knew true love, had an opinion, was able to make a choice or really live life like we all know it. It is all so static and going about this all "churchy" and stuff, truly what things were to be like if all we had to do was to get a body and have things made for us. We wouldn't have to decide what to be when we grew up, or who or when to marry or even how many children to have. (One boy and one girl...that is it.)

How tragic that they think being a birth mother was "job without honor," the lowest form of work anyone could do and how they really discouraged Lily from thinking that she would see what this "work" would be like. And I have to say that I don't think that the pills they were all taking were just to help "control" everyone into submission and believing that what was happening was the way things should be. It seems as though they started the pills when they hit puberty...perhaps to control other sentiments and feelings as well.

Everything about nearly everyone was superficial...even the conversations among the family. They would share but it was done without emotion; emotionally sterile. Even when Jonas is chosen to be the next Giver there was surprise, but life went on. Jonas was not to talk about the training, but his parents didn't know that. It didn't seem like they cared much. Life as they knew it was going on as everything did every day. I was also surprised about the "release" process. I cried when I found out what the process was, yet to the dad, it was just a job he did every day.

Another item I found interesting was all the different ceremonies they had...Naming and Placement, Release of the Old, Ceremony of the Tens, Matching of Spouses, Ceremony of the Twelves, etc. What is with all this pomp and circumstance? To keep the people in line? To keep it organized and sterile?

I liked the Giver. He seemed like the most real person there was. Truly sad and enthusiastic to get things turned over to Jonas...he had more emotions than everyone...duh, I know. I did worry about his plan to get everyone to experience more, however. Did it work? Who knows but that this and if Jonas and Gabriel arrived elsewhere are the two pivital debates. I don't know the the Giver's plan would have worked. When his own daughter chose to be released, there was some disquiet for a time, but things went back to "normal"...as they knew it. Did Jonas die...was there something else out there...did he find it? I like this ambiguous ending. I have debated in my head back and forth the outcomes and I, like Katie, came the conclusion that people did have to start feeling and Jonas and Gabriel made it elsewhere and lived happily ever after.

What can I say, I'm an hopeless romantic!

Good pick!

Michelle