The Giver

Lowery, Lois. The Giver. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell. 1993

There are many words to describe the community in "The Giver." Everything they did in the story had to pretty much be done in unison, as everything had to be perfect, feelings were not a real option and responsibility was the biggest factor in the community. Although it's very difficult to describe, the people in this community all had to follow certain rules and regulations.

Responsibility was a big part of every ones life. From the time each person turned 12, or became a 12 as the story states, they were given a certain job that they would perform for the rest of their lives. Such jobs as Laborers to Birth mothers, everything was taken care of. If a certain someone couldn't perform a task, they could file for an appeal (which were rarely granted) or file for a release. All these things together made the town run, no matter how strange it was.

Perfection also seemed to be an important part of the communitys history. No mistakes were to be tolerated, everything from language to behavior. For example, Asher often messed up on the pronunciation of words during his young years, and often got smacked in the head and legs for it, which eventually made Asher stop talking for a while. Disciplining children for bad behavior and bad grammar was not uncommon, and it was normal in the community.

Freedom was not really an issue here. The people in the community did have some privileges, but most of what the people did was tradition and they apparently didn't know any better. Everything everyone did was pretty much normal, nothing was unusual because it was expected of the person to do.

The community in "The Giver" would probably be called a success by the people in the stories minds, as everything was perfectly done. Maybe it was a form of brainwashing , but the leaders in "The Giver" made a perfect community, by their standards.

Characters: Jonas, The Giver, Jonas Parents, Lily, Gabriel, Asher, Fiona, Rosemary Larissa, Caleb

In this book if Jonas was a girl he probably wouldn't have been given "His Role". He might have been a Birth mother. He probably wouldn't have left his town. A lot of things would have changed.

If it were set in our period of time things would be a lot different. It makes the town seem as if it is the only civilization for hundreds of miles. This kind of reminds me of another story called "The Lottery." Every week this town draws peoples names and whoever gets drawn gets stoned to death. In both stories its like no one cares. The people are detached from their feelings.

If I were to film this story I would eliminate