Critical analysis of The Giver

¶ … Giver

Lowis Lowry's The Giver is a futuristic work of science fiction about a society that is devoid of memories and emotions. The reason that this society represses these vibrant expressions of life is that it perceives them as too much of a burden on people. To that end, the society believes that it is actually helping people by relieving them of memories and emotions, for the simple fact that many of them are associated with pain. However, a close examination of this book reveals that ultimately, this society is only masking what in fact are important aspects of human life through a beneficent conception of "sameness" (Ray). Instead of creating an ideal world in which there is no pain and suffering because of emotions and memories, this society has actually created a world that is based on lies and deceptions and in which only too few people know the truth -- an effective dystopia, instead of a utopia.

As in most science fiction works, there are elaborate rituals and customs that people take part in to demonstrate the fact that this is a fictionalized world and people that are different from that in which the author is writing. Lowry, however, cleverly manipulates many of these differences in her tale to emphasize the fact that the community written about is dystopian instead of utopian. For instance, there is a ceremony in this work known as the Ceremony of the 12 in which adolescents/children take on responsibilities that they will continue through their adult life. In this particular coming of age ritual, the novel's protagonist, Jonah, is given the highly valued position of the Giver, who is responsible for preserving all of the collective memories of the entire society. Again, the reason one person has such a charge is to protect people from all of the evil and bad memories that existed beforehand, effectively keeping them blissfully unaware of them. However, the metaphorical lie that is implied by such a process (in which people simply believe that life is good because they have no memories of anything else) is literally demonstrated to Jonah when he receives his instructions as the new Giver. Jonah is shocked and thinks to himself, "What if others -- adults -- had, upon becoming Twelves, received in their instructions the same terrifying sentence? What if they had all been instructed: You may lie" (p.71). This passage indicates that this society is so concerned with presenting a facade of an idyllic, peaceful society -- the perfect utopia, that it is willing to lie to maintain such a false image. The fact that this society is not perfect but instead is pretending to be perfect makes it dystopian, as Jonah finds out when he is told that lying to people as the preserver of all of their images is acceptable.

The fact that as the newly positioned giver Jonas decides to attempt to give everyone in this society their memories back illustrates that he believes that the false ideal of perfection that his society supports is wrong. Memories and emotion are simply a part of life and are also a basic part of humanity. There are negative feelings and remembrances, granted. However, there are just as many positive ones and those which combine both positivity and negativity, all of which helps to balance them out. Still, the fact that as the new Giver only Jonah and the old giver can access all of the memories of an entire society illustrates how perverse such a practice is. That perversity and the unnatural difficulty it places on those in the positions of givers is discussed between Jonah and the old Giver in which Jonah tells him, "…why can't everyone have… memories…it would seem…easier if the memories were shared. You and I wouldn't have to bear so much by ourselves…" The Giver sighed. "You're right," he said. "But then everyone would be burdened" (p. 112). This quote proves how difficult it is for individuals to bear the memories of an entire society. Such an occurrence is not natural and makes things difficult for those who have to bear bad memories, which is another reason why Jonah's society is dystopian and not utopian.