Introduction
The Giver is a novel by Lois Lowry, in which Jonas, a twelve year old boy, dwells in a futuristic society where pain, sorrow, or conflict is non-existent. Up until the age of twelve, Jonas apparently had been leading a quiet and ordinary life, even though regulated. Jonas is fortunate to be living with both parents. His mother is employed at the Department of Justice as well as his father employed as a Nurturer (Lowly, 1993).
Apart from sporadic squabbles with his younger sister, Jonas seems to be living in a perfect world. His life, however, takes a new turn at the moment the community’s rulers select him to be the Receiver of Memory, which gives him the task of storing all the past memories before Sameness, in case they are ever required to assist in making critical decisions that others are deficient in the experience to do (Lowly, 1993).
Analysis
After being selected by the community’s rulers as the Receiver of Memories, the young boy starts to find out how people used to live in the past, where pain, love, hunger, as well as happiness had been the order of the day. He then makes a decision that the society is worthless and decides to sacrifice himself in order to allow the community to familiarize itself with the attainment of life rich in color, snow and love. Throughout the story, a striking thing that is revealed is that in as much as humanity may try to get rid of awful things, other good things are also lost even as bad ones have been eradicated. Consequently, it becomes very difficult to achieve the perfection striving to accomplish.
At some point, Jonas finds out about snow as a result of ride which he receives in reminiscence. What he fails to understand is why such a magnificent incident is held in reserve from the society, at large. The Giver tells Jonas that as a result of snow, it was not easy to grow food and travelling was very difficult (Lowly, 1993). During snowy days, the normal day to day activities were very hard to accomplish. However, when the snowfall was stopped by the climate control, the community missed the mysterious pieces of snow. This is basically due to the fact that for the society to get anywhere near flawlessness, something exhilarating and extraordinary had to be taken away from them.
The community, in which Jonas is dwelling, is also clueless when it comes to the aspect of color (Lowly, 1993). There are no colors in sight, and it is for this reason that Jonas wants colors in order to allow all to have the opportunity of seeing them. For instance, envisage situation in which the skies are colorlessly grey instead of being blue. Or even the sunflower is being without its jolly yellow petals. In as much as the aspect of color may give the impression of an undamaging satisfaction, humanity has been at loggerheads with itself over colors since the time immemorial.
Apparently, these color wars are still happening in some places. So the moment the society decided to do away with color, other challenges were also disposed of. This included the prejudice that came with color of skin. In many ways, humanity is far from perfect when people clash as a result of differences in skin color. However, the world is still imperfect when it lacks the splendor of color. Consequently, realizing the world-wide precision is unattainable.
One of the emotions being completely strange to Jonas is love. No wonder is his first experience of love that he comes to the decision for the love to be the best sensation all over the world. This is because love makes him get the feeling of completion (Lowly, 1993). In as much as it is definitely great to love somebody, there are the issues that come with it. For instance, the aspect of life also comes with death, thus, triggering sorrow.
This implies that whenever people are not able to love and to become sensitively close to other things, then losing them would not be so upsetting. This means that the moment the community did away with love, anguish as well as misery had been made fading away. So, how would the world look like in the absence of love? Of course, this is far from perfection. This basically means that if people are not able to withstand the unpleasant thing, they ought not to do away with something truly attractive and valuable.
Eventually, Jonas comes to discover that even though his community may look like perfect at the first glance, there are so many things that it lacks. However, some of these things make life very special. This basically implies that when bad things like war, pain, as well as sorrow are all gotten rid of, they also go away with such precious things like love, snow and color. As a matter of fact, the elimination of negative things results into other wonderful things being sacrificed. Consequently, it becomes almost impractical to attain flawlessness.
Conclusion
In spite of the controversies it has faced initially, The Giver is in essence one of the most admired books, especially for young adults today. The book comes up even in the college-level philosophy as well as for the classes involving political science. By and large, the clear answers are given regarding such intricate issues like individuality, freedom, life choices and similar. Throughout the pages of the book, a lot of things are taught about contentment as well as the aspect of appreciating life with its imperfections.
