The Giver - Isaac Tan

   

     The book that I have been reading is ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry. In the story, it takes place in a dystopian society where very little privacy is allowed and people are controlled and brain washed by ‘the Elders’. In this community, there is no suffering, hunger, war, colour, music, or love. Essentially, the Elders control everything. They control who marries whom, where the children are placed, and the career that gets assigned to people. In the book, Jonas is assigned to be a receiver of memory which means that he receives collective memories from the Giver of the community. Then he has to help bring the community wisdom when it is having any problems. Jonas soon realises that something in his community is not right and feels that there is something missing.

     This book demonstrates Lois Lowry’s concerns about humanity and our modern day society. Throughout the book, Lois Lowry attempts to tell the reader the real dangers that exists when people choose for conformity over individuality and for the unexamined security over freedom. In my opinion, I think that Lois Lowry is trying to say that individual freedom is better than equality between everyone.