The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Wow. I had so many thoughts about this book after I finished it. I honestly didn't know how interested I would be in this book when I first started it. A science-fiction related book is not usually my first choice to read. But as soon as I started it, I was pretty hooked! I think I have more questions than comments on this book! The Giver brings about so many different angles of life to look at. It made me want to know what the author was aiming for when writing this book. I had questions such as, "Is it better to be protected from pain..and joys in life?" What consequence does that have in our lives? If we didn't have pain, we wouldn't know the depth of potential healing. What was the significance of the shielding of memories? Even the joyful ones? What was the goal in developing a utopian like society? Was it to preserve orderliness in society? What was the significance of having one person with all the memories?
I also thought it was interesting that being a birthmother was not a notable career-one for somewhat lazy girls. When reading this book, I thought about how horrible it would be to live in a society where pretty much everything is dictated for you. But then thinking more about it, we do have certain things that could be similar in our society today. Sometimes when people don't fit the "social norm" of something they are closed off from people or treated differently-like in the book the citizens were given a couple chances to make their behavior better and if didn't change, they were released. I did enjoy reading this book even if it did leave me wrestling with a lot of questions about the aim and purpose.