Kyle+G+Lowry+The+Giver+(Extra+Credit)

__The Giver__
By: Lois Lowry  **All about the Author:** **Lois Lowry** (1937 - Present) Age 71 Lois Lowry was born in March 1937 as the middle of three children, to Robert and Katherine Hammersberg. Lois Lowry’s father, being a military dentist, moved his family around the world multiple times during Lois Lowry’s childhood to locations such as Japan. In 1952 Lowry graduated from high school and entered Brown University. By 1956, Lowry was married to Donald Lowry, an officer of the U.S. Navy. Together the couple had two sons and two daughters. During Lois Lowry and Donald Lowry’s marriage, Lois Lowry was again forced to move around the country to satisfy the demanding needs of the U.S. military. This time in her life, Lowry lived in areas such as Florida, Massachusetts, and South Carolina. As she grew older, Lowry decided to pursue her degree in English Literature which she received from the University of Maine in Portland in 1972. From here in her life, Lowry began her career in writing. She started out small writing journalism for a magazine named __Redbook__ when one day her stories were “discovered” by an editor at Houghton Mifflin Publishing. With this publisher, Lowry wrote novels such as __A Summer to Die__. Once Lowry’s writing career began, there was no stopping her.  Through the 1980’s and early 1990’s, Lowry wrote great novels such as __Number the Stars__, __The Giver__, __Autumn Street__, and a series of books about Anastasia Krupnik. Although some of Lowry’s writings receive poor reviews, Lowry has established her name in the writing world. She is currently living a quiet life at her home in Massachusetts where she remains an active writer today.

All information regarding the biography of Lois Lowry was found on the site below: "Lois Lowry." __Wikipedia__. 2008. 7 Nov. 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Lowry

 **Novel Synopsis:** An 11 year old boy named Jonas lives happily in a futuristic society in that every member of the society is equal and none are discriminated against. Yet when Jonas becomes the apprentice of the societies all knowing and mysterious “Receiver,” will Jonas be ready to handle the truth about life which he has been naive about for all his life?

 **Plot Summary:** __The Giver__ is a tale about a non-discriminatory and all equal futuristic society. In this society, the town leaders handle all disputes and assignments of food, supplies, and jobs and there is no pain or suffering within the community. Yet this society is also peculiar in that families are not blood related. Instead, members of the society are assigned to be Birthmothers where they have babies and the town leaders distribute these infants to family units. As the infants grow up in their family units, they are constantly preparing for The Ceremony of Twelve in which one’s career and future is determined.

The main character and narrator of the novel is Jonas who is an average 11 year old boy living with his family unit of a father who works in the Nurturing Center and a mother who works in the Department of Justice. Jonas also has a younger sister named Lily who is seven year old and constantly wants to act as if she were older. All seems normal for Jonas except that he is unusually nervous for the Ceremony of Twelve because he has no particular career interests. Yet another abnormal characteristic of Jonas is that he has pale eyes rather than average dark eyes. The community believes that citizens of pale eyes have the unusual ability to see objects “change” such as seeing colors. As Jonas approaches the Ceremony of Twelve his characteristics will come into play.

Later on Jonas’s Ceremony of Twelve commences and he watches his fellow "12 years" receive their careers, but when Jonas’s name is skipped and he receives no career, he begins to worry. At the conclusion of the Ceremony of Twelve, the town leaders inform the community that Jonas is to be the next “Receiver of Memories” for the town. After the ceremony Jonas was congratulated many times because of the high status of his future career. Yet Jonas is extremely apprehensive about being the Receiver of Memories as he knows this career will be a long, hard, and a lonely path to take in life.

The following morning Jonas reports to the town’s current Receiver of Memories which Jonas begins to refer to as the Giver. This title is earned because Jonas’s training to become the Receiver of Memories is simply the Giver handing over memories to Jonas so that the memories may be stored in a new mind as the previous Receiver of Memories is released, dies. In time Jonas forms a relationship and special bond with the Giver. Also over time Jonas gets let in on many of the secrets of life.

Meanwhile Jonas’s father brings home an under developing child from the Nursery named Gabriel. Gabriel’s problem is that he can not sleep through out the night so he requires extra care at home with Jonas and his family unit. While taking care of Gabriel, Jonas realizes that Gabriel can be put to sleep if Jonas gives memories or dreams to Gabriel which is just what Jonas does. Over time Jonas develops a strong sense of love for Gabriel.

So everyday the Giver transfers memories to Jonas, Jonas sees what the meaning of dreams and pain are. Over time Jonas realizes what life is really like rather than the all equal no anger society of the community. Soon Jonas can see colors and the truth behind the actions of the town leaders. For example, before meeting the Giver, Jonas believed that all old people, bad people, and under developing infants were merely sent away or “released” when in reality these people are killed by poisonous injections and sent down a garbage chute when deceased.

At this time it turns out that Gabriel is to be released as he is not developing quickly enough. Yet Jonas with his new information and discovery about what releasing really is decides to save Gabriel’s life. Towards the climax of the story Jonas attempts to escape from the community with Gabriel and from there on events occur that will change their lives forever.

**What Worked Well:** __The Giver __ by Louis Lowry is overall a very cool book. The greatest part was the entire futuristic society part. Lowry was very creative and imaginative in creating a community in that the mass population is basically hoodwinked from all of life’s true characteristics. The relationship shown between the Giver and Jonas is very heart wrenching and touching seeing the two start out as having an awkward acquaintanceship to becoming very comfortable with one another.

  **What Did Not Work:**

The most confusing portion of the book is the history of how exactly the community in the story came to be as it is. In today's society, the reader is conformly set in a frame of mind that pain and unequality is present that reading a story about a society without these characteristics is too far fetched.

 **Literary Information:**

This novel was written in first person. The genre of this novel is fiction.

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