Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Book 4: The Giver
In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy. With echoes of Brave New World, in this 1994 Newbery Medal winner, Lowry examines the idea that people might freely choose to give up their humanity in order to create a more stable society. Gradually Jonas learns just how costly this ordered and pain-free society can be, and boldly decides he cannot pay the price.
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I love this book!!! We read this in school when I was a kid, and it was my first taste of the dystopia form. I can't wait to re-read it.
ReplyDeleteHi gang, I know I've been MIA for a couple of months but I just finished this month’s book, taking a day off from the trail in Wrightwood. I just finished the book so I'll have to mull it over on the next leg of the hike but here are the questions that jump out at first:
ReplyDelete1. Was this novel purely a hypothetical situations or in what ways have we relinquished our own humanity in our own culture?
2. How does history legitimate human experience or does it at all?
3. Is it worth it? Would you choose an authentic existence with good and bad extremes or a fabricated existence that is mostly good?
4. If the book portrays a fabricated meaningless lifestyle, what then is the catalyst for reality or authenticity?
Hope you guys are enjoying the read. I'm not sure when the next time I'll be able to chime in but I look forward to it.
Hi Gang, me again, your friendly hiker/blogger. I'm bummed no one has written in about this book but I guess real life can get pretty busy. Anyways, out of all the questions I asked earlier, I came to the conclusion that we as people, as societies can undermine our own being. This is not my own original thought. This book reminded me of a prayer that Billy, my guitar student once prayed. "I pray that humans and their technologies do not undermine themselves." Genius. Its true though. We have the copacity to undermine our very existance, and I don't think it happens in very earthshattering ways. Too much tv, not saying hi to someone to honor their presence- their existance, or even sleeping in too late. These things are no terrible injustices or anything, but they steal the gift of life in very small but significant ways. Think about it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a creative and interesting book! This is my second straight book club book that I have experienced via audiobook. While the narrator for this book didn’t have quite the esteem of Jeremy Irons, his narration was sufficient to distinguish the characters and portray some good emotion.
ReplyDeleteSo Nick, I’m glad I get to respond to your post first. Kim and I (along with Jake and Lisa Gilbertson) just left the original REI in Seattle, then had lunch at this chili place that has been around since 1922 (Mike’s Chili Parlor [featured on “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives”]), and we talked to the owner for a long time (a great guy), and now we are all laying on a bed of sleeping bags and blankets in the middle of this beautiful wooded park. Anyway, being up in your neck of the woods and doing the aforementioned activities has made me think about you a lot.
My questions following the book were similar ones: How much of our life is determined without our realization? How often do we simply buy into “the machine” without exercising our freedom to speak against the atrocities that our society (or we as a product of our society) is committing around us? Even though the society in the book seems so unbelievable, in what ways do we live out those same values in the midst of our own society? Is the church as guilty as our society of these things at times? Why is having a choice so important? Why, as the traditional Christian perspective goes, must God have created us with free will and a choice to either love God or not (or to do anything freely for that matter)?
One of the biggest themes in this book was the question of choice. The society only gives the product of a choice, never letting its members choose for themselves, because if it did, a wrong choice may be made (which could lead to pain or death or conflict, etc.). Two things: First, one of the biggest problems about the community was not that they took away choice, but that those who maintained the power to choose and to decide things for the community were making choices that resulted in unjust death. What’s the alternative though? Isn’t that the ideal way of running things: having a group of select, wise people make choices for the larger community? That’s how our country is run, right? Ideally, that would work well, but the problem is when the people who are making the decisions for the community are not actually very wise, or when they are not equipped with whatever it takes to make the right decisions. How is one equipped for that though? By what means is one empowered with the ability to make those important choices? Or as Nick asked, “what then is the catalyst for reality or authenticity?” Or by what qualities? Intelligence? Wisdom? Love? Humility? Servanthood? How are those qualities instilled? The community in the book sought out those who were naturally instilled with some of those virtues and then cultivated them even more, and assigned them in the way in which they would be most beneficial to the community. What’s wrong with that? (This is all very stream-of-consciousness style, but it’ll have to do : ] ).
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The second thing that jumped out to me is that the society removed the struggle of hard choices from its citizens. This is one of the most detrimental things I believe. There is so much to be learned from questions and situations that don’t have an easy answer. Life is lived in the midst of those conundrums and to remove the journey and the development that one experiences in those struggles is more than unfortunate. The society did their best to remove choice and always give the right solution to every situation, but what it failed to realize and discuss and accept, was the fact that it is not perfect, that none of us are, and to claim perfection or try to grasp perfection does nothing but result in terrible misunderstandings and atrocities. The best we can do is try to grow and be educated about the decisions we are faced with, and accept that we are going to make mistakes. I am someone who is naturally concerned with always getting it right, but what I am learning is that what is so much more important than the final product or decision, is the story that developed along the way, the people that influenced you, and the person you became through it (thanks Nick for your good examples!).
ReplyDeleteAnother notion that is becoming more and more powerful for me is that causing death can never be justified, no matter what the case, or how good the result. There is no greater good that one can claim over killing someone. Even if the person who is killed is a murderer, killing them serves only to join them in their depravity (more on this can be found in the just war section of the first book of our blog).
Well, I’m excited to move on to the next book. I know I was late again on this post, but I’m enjoying the time that summer has brought to be able to catch up. I hope the same is true for others.