The Giver Lois Lowry

Introduction The Giver is a 1993 American Young-adult fiction-Dystopian novel by Lois Lowry. It is set in a society which at first appears as a utopian society but then later is revealed to be a dystopian one as the story progresses. The novel follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth and thirteenth years of his life. The society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to "Sameness," a plan that has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of Receiver of Memory, the person who stores all the past memories of the time before Sameness, as there may be times where one must draw upon the wisdom gained from history to aid the community's decision making. Jonas struggles with concepts of all of the new emotions, and things being introduced to him, and whether they are inherently good, evil, in-between, and if it's even possible to have one without the other. The Community lacks any color, memory, climate and terrain whatsoever, all in effort to preserve structure, order, and a true sense of equality beyond personal individuality.

Lois Lowry Lois Lowry (born Lois Ann Hammersberg; March 20, 1937) is an American writer credited with more than thirty children's books. She has won two Newbery Medals, for Number the Stars in 1990 and The Giver in For her contribution as a children's writer, she was a finalist in 2000 (and U.S. nominee again in 2004) for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books. Her book Gooney Bird Greene won the 2002 award. In 2007 she received the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for her contribution in writing for teens. In 2011 she gave the May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture; her lecture was titled "UNLEAVING: The Staying Power of Gold ". She was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters by Brown University in 2014.The GiverGooney Bird Greene As an author, Lowry is known for writing about difficult subject matters within her works for children. She has explored such complex issues as racism, terminal illness, murder, and the Holocaust among other challenging topics. She has also explored very controversial issues of questioning authority such as in The Giver quartet. Her writing on such matters has brought her both praise and criticism. In particular, her work The Giver, the first novel in The Giver quartet, has been met with a diversity of reactions from schools in America, some of which have adopted it as a part of the mandatory curriculum, while others have prohibited the book's inclusion in classroom studies. The Giver has also been made into a film, also called The Giver, which was released in 2014.The Giver

Utopian versus Dystopian Societies and the Role of Authority Your task is to individually brainstorm what sort of characteristics would make up a “utopian” society, but as well, what sort of characteristics would make up a “dystopian” society. You may want to refer to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to see some of the guidelines that shape our own society. Once you have done this, I want you to write out a set of 10 rules that you, if you were in charge of “the world”, would absolutely have.

Chapter 1 Describe a time when you were apprehensive. Imagine if every day we took a time for “feelings”. Describe three times today that you had a different feeling, and share them with the class. How do feelings seem different when we talk about them? Jonas was not looking forward to talking to his parents about the Ceremony of Twelve, but he knew he had to. What feelings tend to be more difficult to talk about than others? Why? There are a couple of obvious examples of authority described in this chapter. This authority, most notably “releasing”, draws emotions from Jonas and his family but it appears that it just seems to “be how it is.” Think of some laws in Nova Scotia that seem to just “Be how it is”, especially ones that may draw on emotions.