It is the end of the month and time for everyone who would like to comment on "The Giver", to do so. I hope that you all enjoyed it. It is a different sort of book. I love it!!So, I guess I will go first..... I have not read the book in several years, and so it was fun for me to read it again. I love this book mostly because of how thought provoking it is. It makes you really think about life the way it is, and possibly how it could be. Not that I think our world could ever be like it is in this book. However, had our Heavenly Father not chosen Jesus' plan, our world may very well be exactly like this. Maybe worse though, who knows?
There are some aspects of the community that I wish our world had though. They all work together and for the good of one another. They all focus on being kind to one another. I think that if everyone was required to spend several volunteer hours a month, the world would be a much better place. People would love one another more. Since service is the greatest way to gain love for someone. I am not claiming to be a noble person, I just see in this book, several ways that I can improve myself.
I love the parts where the Giver transfers memories to Jonas. It is just so cool. You feel like you are there and experiencing for the first time with him. The Giver in a way makes me think of our Savior. I don't know if Lois Lowry is a religious woman, but the character of the Giver is a very sweet, caring man who loves everyone in the community. He sacrifices his life in a way. He does not die, but lives a life of solitude because of the knowledge that he has. He believes that he has to protect them from it. He takes on all of the different possible emotions. Pain, love, fear, sorrow, joy, and many others. He takes them on himself. So, yeah, very different from Christ's story, but I can't help but think of Christ when I read this book.
I love that in the end, Jonas and the Giver are brave enough to put a stop to their world as it is. I recognize that there are several things about the community that are very disturbing. The way they treat birthing mothers, the elderly, and children who do not seem to develop as fast as they think they should. That is so sad. If that were the case in our world, my sweet Luke might not be here. It took him longer to talk than it does most children I think. But that is ok. Well, I think this is long enough, I could go on for a while, but I wont. I am anxious to hear what you all thought.
Well hello to all, this is Ben. This is my very first time contributing to a blog in person. I would like to say thank you to all of you wonderful bloggers out there. Especially to my wonderful Lynsey for keeping the family and friends so connected even when there are so many miles between us.
ReplyDeleteSo about "the giver" I would first like to say thank you very much to Heidi for your selection. I am very glad that I have read this now, I had not read it before. And I must confess that I did (no shock here) procrastinate, sorry Mom. I read the whole book this past Sunday, and I really enjoyed it. Like Heidi said it makes you think about alot of different things, which I liked. For me it was a great reminder to not take the choices and blessings we have for granted. I agree with Joce that they made it to the house alive, and I also would like to think that maybe someday they went back. I have lots of thoughts on what they might have done on a return trip, but I won't expound on that to keep this short.
Again thank you Heidi for your choice, and for being invited to book club.
Ben
WooHoo!!! Ben is on a blog! Great to read your thoughts little brother!
ReplyDeleteI have so many thoughts about this book. I'm sure I won't think of all of them right now, and I'm sure that reading everyone's comments will trigger completely new thoughts, so I'm just saying that I might make more than one comment on this post.
Ok. This was the second time I have read the Giver. The first was way back in high school when Heidi and Mom first read it and said I should read it too. I really didn't remember much about it. There are so many sad things about this book. No Color, no animals, no grandparents, no real family or real love, and no choices. It certainly does make me think about what life would have been like had everyone gone with Satan's plan. How horrible!!! It was also very interesting to me that on the surface everything seemed perfect and yet everyone was really lying about so much. Again it reminded me of Satan.
I had to wonder about the rest of the world, and how this one society could have evolved to its current state. How and in what ways could the rest of the world changed? And how could this society separate itself so much without having a huge impact on the rest of the world? I know that's really not part of the book, but it's something I thought about. Although our world is not even close to having the same values, laws, or living conditions. Hmmmm.
And then there is the poor Giver. I felt so sad for him. To be so completely alone, and to carry such a great burden, and to not do anything about it for so long! Way to go Jonas! He had more courage than he ever realized! I was excited there at the end, when everything looks so bad for him and Gabe, and Jonas realizes that he does have some happy memories of his very own and a feeling of joy comes over him. I also choose to believe that all ends well for Jonas and Gabe. I'm a big fan of happy endings.
I think that's it for now. We'll see if I think of anything else.
I need to comment and say that when I first posted this, I accidently left out a very small but very important word. I said, "However, had our Heavenly Father Chosen Jesus' plan..." I meant to put the word "not" right after Father. I think that everyone got an e-mail of my original post, the one with the error. I am so embarrassed about this. I feel horrible. Sorry guys :(
ReplyDeleteHello All!
ReplyDeleteWell this is the first time I have read this book and I loved it. I found myself wondering how would we get to such a society, but then I realized that through out history we have had similar occurances.
The biggest one that came to my mind was the holocaust. The germans were trying to create a perfect society and so they got rid what they deamed to be an imperfect disgusting human. Similar to what would happen to the old or young who didn't fit in.
I felt sorry for the Giver and Jonas when they both had the knowledge of the world before and couldn't share it with others. What a burden that must have been to carry all that with you, not unlike Jesus Christ when he was in the Garden of Gesthemane.
I was so happy that Jonas was able to change things and save Gabe. I think that in the end they were able to find happiness. Well that's all for now.
Like Lynsey, I wonder how their society got to be the way it was. I'm sure it happened by degrees; a people would never give up their freedoms, families and individuality all at once.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Heidi's comment about service being a great way to gain love for another person, but I'm afraid that if we were required to do that same service it would loose some of it's effect. It's in making the choice to serve another that we really give of ourselves and can then feel that Christlike love.
These people lacked a basic respect for life, there was no remorse at the "releases," they were just accepted as what was best, sometimes for such selfish reasons as in the Mother's case, lack of sleep.
I've read this book three times over the years, and each time I'm disappointed with the ending. I'm like Ben and I think some others who could or would add to it or at least give us some closure. Who volunteers to write the sequel?