Essay on The Giver: Critical Reader's Analysis

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1. Provide context regarding the author of the novel. Outline any influences upon the author that may have impacted their novel.

The Author of the book The Giver is Lois Lowry, this book was written in the year 1933 and won many awards. Lois Lowry’s main influence to write this book was her 90-year-old father. Lois Lowry mentioned interaction with her 90-year-old father at a nursing home. She remembers that there were pictures of their family on the walls of the father’s room. She also mentioned that this time her father pointed to the wall with the photo of her older sister who died of cancer at a young age. What Lois Lowry found shocking is the fact that her father pointed to her photo but was unable to remember what happen to her first-born child. Lowry thought about how much better the world be without memories. This was the biggest inspiration of The Giver as the story rotates around memories as it is about a tiny community with no memories about the past excluding one person who is the receiver of the memories. The main part of this story is that the elders always take memories to eliminate all pain from their lives, to do this the whole community gave up their memories of the society’s experience together. The biggest influence on the author of The Giver is her 90-year-old father who forgot the pain that her first daughter died young.

2. Analyse the choices made by your individual author to portray the setting (time, place, mood, and atmosphere). Consider how the reader is impacted by these choices.

The setting was carefully crafted by Lois Lowry in the novel The Giver. The story of The Giver takes place at an unknown time in the future within a community where life is safe, boring and predictable. The main protagonist of the story, Jonas lives in a tiny society along the river, the place where most of the important events take place is at the Annex where Jonas spends time with The Giver. In The Giver, climate is controlled by the scientists and made music and colours out of date which means that nobody can see colour. This makes the reader think that this is a perfect Utopian society because everything is controlled and there is no hunger, poverty and crime, this perspective will change throughout the book. The mood of the novel drastically changes from the beginning of the novel compared to later in the book. In the beginning of the story the readers feel a comfortable and pleasant mood as Jonas at the start of the story is playing and doing fun activities. This clearly contrasts to the mood later in the novel as when Jonas turns 12 and starts receiving the memories from The Giver, the mood turns darker, angrier and sadder as Jonas starts to find out more about his society and what is really taking place without the citizens knowing. This makes the reader re-evaluate their view of the community as a Utopian society. As the readers find out more about the society, the more it looks like a dystopian society. The author of The Giver, Lois Lowry cleverly created the setting to change the mood and atmosphere of the Novel.

3. How has the author conformed to or deviated from dystopian literature conventions and norms? Remember to provide examples.

The author of the novel, The Giver conforms the dystopian literature conventions. Many dystopian literature conventions are used in this novel such as no independent thought, sameness, lack of free will and oppressive government. This community at the beginning of the book is made to look like a Utopian society which later shows a dystopian community. One of the biggest mistakes that the community made was that the people gave up the human characteristics in exchange for security. The rule of sameness or Uniformity is followed in the novel because everyone’s houses are the same from the inside and the outside and everyone are the same as nobody has individual thought which takes away most of the citizen’s choices. The community had taken their sense of colour and emotions such as happiness. There is not independent thought within the society, as the government does not want oppression from the citizens. This is controlled by medication that suppresses dreams. The people of the community have done all of this for exchange for a climate-controlled and secure existence. This novel closely follows the norms of a dystopian society as there is a higher being or the government controls everything in the society. The elders/government in the novel control the people, their memories and their thoughts. The elders in the society always watch the citizens as the elders can listen and speak anywhere. The author of this novel confirmed the norms of dystopian literature closely.

4. Identify and explain how the author has conveyed the perspective of an individual character within your novel.

The author uses third person limited perspective in the novel to show the perspective of the main character, Jonas. In The Giver the narrator uses “he” to speak of Jonas and hiss thoughts which shows that Jonas is not the narrator. The narrator also says, “but now Jonas had experienced real sadness.” (pg 135) it can be seen with the help of this dialogue that this novel is written in third person limited point view. This is where the narrator only knows the feelings, thoughts and opinions of only on character, which is Jonas, the main protagonist. This quote shows that the narrator knows their emotions and thoughts of Jonas. “The apple had changed. Just for an instant. It had changed in mid-air, he remembered. Then it was in his hand, and he looked at it carefully, but it was the same apple. Unchanged. The same size and shape: a perfect sphere. The same nondescript shade, about the same shade as his own tunic.” (pg 29) this was Jonas’s thought when he was playing catch with an apple. The narrator can see only Jonas’s thoughts as it is limited, this quote shows that Jonas is a careful observer and can see mistakes and changes easily. The Point of view helped convey their perspective of Jonas which was that the community they were living in takes away individuality and the rule of “sameness” is followed. Ever since Jonas started receiving memories, he began noticing differences in the real world and their community. The author uses perspective effectively in the novel to convey the perspective/viewpoint of the main protagonist, Jonas.

5. Explain and analyze how figurative language or imagery has been implemented by the author within your novel.

The author of the novel The Giver carefully implements figurative language and imagery in the book. The first instance of figurative language is used in when the main character, Jonas met The Giver. Jonas says, “then the men were gone, speeding towards the horizon in a vehicle that spit pebbles from its whirling tires” (pg 104). Jonas is personifying the car as it cannot spit as a person does. Lois Lowry had use personification as Jonas received his first violent memory from The Giver where an elephant was killed. Personification is a literary device that has been used to give objects human-like characteristics. Jonas was unsettled and scared as this was his first exposure to violence. This shows that Jonas was so startled that the car seemed violent as it sped down the street, Jonas says “spits” because people only spit when something is disgusting and not pleasant. This relates to Jonas as he thinks what the poachers have done was not pleasant and was disgusting. One of many times Imagery has been used is when Jonas feels pain for the first time when he gets sunburnt. This is described in the book as “His skin began to sting. Restlessly, he moved one arm, bending it, and felt a sharp pain in the crease of his inner arm at the elbow.” (pg 90). Sensory imagery has been used to put the readers in the shoes of Jonas and shows how he feels. This has been used in the novel to create a mood and an atmosphere for the reader. This envelope the readers in certain feelings and thoughts. Lois Lowry employed figurative language and imagery to create visual representations of objects, ideas and actions

6. What is the message of your individual novel and how is this relevant to the reader? Consider ways in which this message is relevant within modern and present contexts.

The Giver is a novel with many messages that are relevant to the reader and are also relevant to real life. The message in The Giver is to follow your dreams and faith and also that having no choice is very destructive. This can be seen throughout the novel because the main character, Jonas is innocent and very clueless at the beginning of the story. This quickly changes as he starts receiving and experiencing different kinds of memories including pleasant and unsettling ones. Jonas felt that people in his community having no choice was unfair as they could never experience colour, love and joy. This resulted in Jonas risking his life for the community he lives in as he wants everyone to know the truth. This shows that Jonas never gave up and followed his faith and dreams even though he risked his life for it. This message is relevant to the reader as it is applicable to a wide range of audience as most people would like to reach their dreams/goals in life. Another message of The Giver is that having no choice is more destructive to the community than having choice. In Jonas’ community, all the choices are made for the people including where they stay and what where which results in the people losing all kinds of humanity they have and act like robots. Some governments and different political systems in real life forces people to perform activities and tasks without taking the perspective of the citizen in count. This can make people lose human-like characteristics and follow everything that the government says which makes them robots. The messages of The Giver are that people show follow their dreams and that the absence of choice is destructive.

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Essay on The Giver: Critical Reader’s Analysis

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