“The Giver” by Lois Lowry

Words: 801 Pages: 3

Lois Lowry is the author of the story “The Giver”. She is an American writer who has written almost forty children stories. Lowry lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Lois Lowry’s place of birth is Hawaii. She was a calm and introverted child who liked reading. During childhood, she had to live in different locations because her father was a military officer. Lowry started hew writing activity in 1977 with the novel “A Summer to Die”. The following works were written in various genres. Such a diversity represents author’s versatile talent and creativity.

The novel “Autumn Street” (1979) and a humorous story “Anastasia Krupnik” (1979) are two books of the author.

“The Giver” is the story of the eleven-year-old boy Jonas. He lives in the utopian society where people have no private life. They are deprived of pain, feelings, hate, music, and love. Jonas becomes the Receiver of Memories, a job that includes pain and realizing the injustice of life. Jonas meets the Giver who tells the boy the truth and makes him feel that it is a wrong way of living. The boy decides to escape to Elsewhere — the unknown world where the life is usual and without rules.

Reading for Meaning

DESCRIPTION	RESPONSE
I. Purpose
Describe the author’s overallpurpose (to inquire, to convince, to persuade, to negotiate or other purpose)	The author’s overall purpose is to answer the question of many teenagers: “Why there is so much pain in the world?”. Lowry presents the world without pain and feelings and possible consequences.
How did the essay or text actually affect you: did the author’s purpose succeed?	The author wants to change the reader’s perception of the world. She is aimed at showing the world from the different perspective.
	The author’s actual purpose coincides with the objective of the story. It reveals the negative sides of equity and total lack of control and feelings.
II. Audience/Reader
Who is the intended audience?	Children from middle school comprise the intended audience.
What assumptionsdoes the author make about the reader’s knowledge or beliefs?	Lois Lowry believes that teenagers often think of the injustice of the modern world.
From what context orpoint of viewis the author writing?	The story is told from the point of view of the narrator who knows the main character’s thoughts and feelings.
III. Thesis and Main Ideas
What question or problemdoes the author address?	The author addresses the problem of the proper organization of society.
What is the author’sthesis	The author’s thesis relates to the wrongness of such a world. In Chapter 8, Jonas thinks about the world where people can lie or feel. He is afraid of his new knowledge, and it changes him (Lowry, 2014).
Whatmain ideasare related to the thesis?	The main ideas refer to the role of the sameness, choice, and pain in society.
What are thekey momentsor key passagesin the text?	The key moments include the realizing and feeling of pain, the role of choice. The second key moment is when Jonas sees that “the release” means the death. Third, Jonas decides to escape.
	The contradictions of the story include the right to choose and the proper way of life.
	The most bothering thing concerns the fact that readers have to choose what is better: to live in pain with all problems but love and have the choice or have no choice but live without illnesses and worries.
	I agree with the primary purpose of the novel — the world without pain can be terrible.

IV. Organization and Evidence
Where does the author preview the essay’s organization?	Chapter 1 previews the further development of the story. Strict rules of the society are described here, and it gives the hint about the following events.
How does the author signalnew sections of the essay?	The author uses Jonas’ story to signal new sections.
Whatkinds of evidencedoes the author use (personal experience, descriptions, statistics, other authorities, analytical reasoning, or other).	The author employs the description of Jonas’ feeling of anxiety as evidence.
	The author relies on assertions at the beginning of the story. She does not provide proof and just states that something is forbidden.
V. Language and Style
What is the author’s tone(casual, humorous, ironic, angry, preachy, distant, academic, or other)?	The author’s tone is casual. It is aimed at making the reading comfortable.
Are sentences and vocabulary easy, average or difficult?	Sentences and vocabulary support the purpose of the text. Lowry (2014) writes: “Jonas opened his eyes and was still on the bed” (p. 74). Sentences are easy to read, and vocabulary is neutral.
What words, phrases, or imagesrecur throughout the text?	The image of light eyes recurs throughout the text. It presupposes that particular people (the Giver, Jonas) are unique. A red color is one more image that renders the feeling of passion and love.

Reference

Lowry, L. (2014). The Giver. Boston, USA: HMH Books for Young Readers.