Jonas lives in a world that is perfectly organised. And yet he is apprehensive because in December the Appointment Ceremony will take place. This is his 13th year and thus he will be appointed training for the task he will perform for the rest of his adulthood.
But as Jonas’ friends receive regularly jobs he is passed over until, at last, he is given the task of “The Receiver”. The Receiver carries all memory from back and back and back. It is told that this is necessary in order to keep the peaceful, organised society that is established.
As Jonas’ training begins the world as he knows it starts to unravel around him. As the old receiver, now The Giver transfers his memories to Jonas he begins to see and know things that were previously hidden to him and, more importantly, he begins to feel. Increasingly he begins to question the order of the world around him, should he change it? Can he?
I really wanted this book to make me feel things, but honestly it just raised to many questions for me. Like, if there is no longer sexual attraction why do they organise families into male and female partners? The constant construction of gender that seemed to take place for no apparent reason is probably what made the book feel the most oppressive to me and also why I never felt that this truly was a purely rationally organised society. Though some people describe it as utopia, this never seemed as nothing other than an oppressive regime to me. All characters felt flat to me and the descriptions of mundane things, such as snow, being experienced for the very first time did nothing to melt the cynical in me. I know what snow is.
[Spoilers regarding the ending here!]
I did very much like the ending – it proved mainly that it was hopeless and quite frankly that the Giver seems like somewhat of a dick. It felt very much like an adult sacrificing a child in a manner that felt very unnecessary to me. The Giver wanted to live, he wanted to have a purpose in life away from all the pain and in this process he is responsible for the death of yet another child. That only went to show that maybe the structured society was not so different from an unstructured emotional one; people always kill to get what they want.
Hm, I need to read this again before the movie (which I will probably see) comes out. I was enamored of it when I read it at about 12 or so, but your review has me curious to see what effect my adult perspective will have on reading it now.