Fantasy Literary Analysis

Fantasy Literary Analysis

The Giver By: Lois Lowry

The Giver was written by Lois Lowry. This book is a classic to read for older elementary students. The Giver won the John Newbery Medal in 1994. The story takes place in a futuristic utopia where when students become a certain age they get placed into their careers for the rest of their lives. One student gets placed as the receiver of memories. There is only one receiver at a time, so the main character (Jonas), must learn from the previous receiver and take over his job. His main job is to retain all memories of everyone from the past and keep it secret from the rest of the town to maintain the perfect utopia. If the memories were to ever get out, it would be too much for the townspeople to handle. A lot of pressure is resting on Jonas’ shoulders.

This children’s literature novel is well written. The language is simplified for the reading level, but it takes on really abstract ideas to get student’s cognitive levels higher. The abstract idea that is portrayed in the children’s novel is the idea that memories can be painful, and if they were to be taken away, the world would be a perfect utopia. This challenges the ideals of how memories are valuable for all. “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.” (Lowry, 1994). This quote promotes the main idea from the book that memories are important to our society and humankind.

The story is written in third person but exclusively shows Jonas’ point of view. In goes into details on his thoughts and feelings. The description of the setting in the novel is vague but we can assume it’s in a town. The author’s tone is appealing and tries to attract reader’s attention. Children and adults read the novel for its plot twists and surprises. I would recommend this novel to any teacher who wants to push older elementary to read and try to pinpoint the hidden messages and abstract ideas intertwined in the novel. This is a perfect book to study symbolism and portrayals.

Lowry, L. (1993). The giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.