The Giver by Lois Lowry (Fiction) is a tale of a dystopian world through the eyes of a boy, Jonas. In Jonas’s world, everyone is given a life chosen for them. They are given their career at a choosing ceremony, if they want a spouse they must file for one and then be assigned someone who is perfectly paired with them, they must file for children (which are birthed by specific women) and they can only have two children, one girl and one boy. Jonas is anxious for his job, and is surprised by the one chosen for him. He is given the job of the Receiver of Memory, he must know all the memories from the past, before they started their society. He is trained by the old man who had his job before Jonas, and Jonas learns that life is more than perfection. That without extremely terrible emotions, you can’t have extremely great ones. He begins to realize how twisted his society is when his father brings home a baby. Gabe is a child they have decided to wait to give to a pair of parents till next year because he isn’t advancing quickly enough. Jonas soon finds out that his society kills the babies, and anyone who isn’t “perfect” and they are going to kill Gabe. Can Jonas escape and reach the barrier so his memories can be dispersed to save everyone, or will they be stuck in this society forever?
The Giver is a legendary book, and I love it. It is the tale tell tale that warns us as to why things can’t be perfect. An idle society doesn’t exist, and every version of perfect will always backfire. It’s a story told over and over again, to warn humans, because if you haven’t noticed there’s a reason we have history books with warnings. Not to mention that most teachers relate to Jonas, having to choose the right choice over the easy one. He goes through multiple emotions extremely without much help, and has to make choices based off of his morals at the age of twelve. It’s a great book and riveting for anyone who is into dystopian books.