My favorite children books are not the picture books, nor the ones that were challenging but you enjoyed anyway. They for me, are the ones that were easy reads, no more then 250 pages. But they were never simple. My favorite children books are the one that you don't get at first, but something makes you keep coming back for more. The ones that you eat, devouring each bit. Wincing sometimes at the sour taste, that's what makes this book for me.
Isn't that for everyone? A perfect book provides no interest for the reader, it only is interesting when there is loss, and forgiveness. It is what we thrive on. The Giver is a science fiction novel that revolves around a strict community, where if you make a mistake you die, but one person holds memories from the past and Jonas is selected to receive these memories. But that is the beauty of it, stuck in this bland world, where even colors have been taken away from them, Jonas see's change.
In the book, it says that Jonas has the power to see beyond, slowly revealing true colors and the truth of the safe community he lives in. It is like a flashback form the future, (technically impossible) but The Giver shoves itself in your face, it shows you every day life from the most innocent person of all. A boy who does not know the true meaning of death, he barely knows what death is.
The Giver makes you see beyond the things that you hold true. Right and wrong is one big issue in Jonas's world. What is right, to let people go on with there bad ways, to try and punish them, and make them see what they did was wrong, or to take away the bad as soon as it enters, even it was slight. Is it right to take someones life for disturbing the balance? In the first chapter, it explains how a man misread the navigational instructions. He had made a mistake "Needless to say he will be released," announced the loud speakers. he was killed because he misread something and flew in the wrong direction. But how could anyone know which way to deal with things is right?
"But now that I can see colors, at least sometimes, I was just thinking: what we could hold up things that were bright red, or bright yellow, and he could choose instead of the sameness."
"He might make the wrong choices."
"Oh, I see what you mean, it doesn't matter with a newchild's toy. But later it does matter, doesn't it? We don't dare to let people make choices on their own."
"Not safe?"
"Definitely not safe, what if they were allowed to choose their own mate and they choose wrong? or what if they choose their own jobs?"
This was a conversation held between the Giver and Jonas, and it brings up so many questions, is it better to be that way? unknowing but safe, from all of the worlds harm a world were you are tucked away all decisions made for us? Or is it better to live exposed, the worlds pain ready for your ears to hear.
The Giver is truly an amazing story, it is a story of innocence, it is a a story of the discovery of love and hate, and death. And what is that, but everyday life, discovering the truth of it all. Learning about ourselves and the world around us. Seeing the world in a way you have never seen it before. We all know some kind of pain, whatever it is the question is, would you rather live without it?
That, I believe is the true meaning of books, to show you, and open your eyes to something in that you have never even imagined imagining before.
This is really why I harbor a deep love for The Giver, it holds in secrets that all good books need. It has just the right kind of ending, that leaves you hanging wondering why that you sitting on the end of your seat, when you turn the page and find that there is no more to go. This book is thought provoking, brings out the best in all of us making you think. It does not have a full ending that ties up all of the loose ends, all of your wonderings, it leaves your imagination to unscramble it and finish the book off.
No comments:
Post a Comment