Discussions in one of my english classes tends to go off into unpredictable tangents. A day or so ago, we got to talking about the book “the giver.” My english teacher said that it was based on some truth. The bell rang or the discussion changed so there wasn’t really any time to talk about it. Has anyone heard this?
This’ll do better in our literary forum, Cafe Society. I’ll shoot it over there for you.
You might help jumpstart the discussion by identifying the the author of the book, its basic themes, the context in which you’re reading it, etc. Good luck.
well, the giver takes place in a utopian community of the future. everything is regulated to give the people a sense of security, and things get so out of hand that when anything is out of order, everyone panics. they take away freedom, pain, emotion, and even color and music for the sake of equality and security. if twins are born, the smaller one is killed. when you get too old, you’re killed. if you act against the order of the community, you’re killed. people’s names, careers, spouses, and children are all chosen by the community’s elders.
there is a lot more to the book but it lies in the plot, which is complete fiction. and the community is fictional but really can be imagined as a dramatic extension of communism. that’s probably the truth your teacher was talking about, because as far as i know no one has ever managed to take away color or store the world’s memories in one person. hope this helps!
Hmm? I don’t see how ‘The Giver’ could be based on truth–after all, no one’s been able to take away color, or put all their memories in one person, and so on.
I suppose what she might mean is the super-regulating of society that’s been attempted sometimes. You know, regulating the number of and gender of each child in a family, having elders decide a child’s future job,
killing the weaker twin,
and so on. Utopian communities that are regulated like that have occured before.
According to this website ( http://www.carolhurst.com/authors/llowry.html ) :
"The Giver is her most ambitious work to date and her acceptance speech for the Newbery Award it received tells of the many rivers of experience and inspiration that led her to write it. One of those rivers of inspiration came from her father who was, at that time, in a nursing home having lost most of his long-term memory. She realized one day while visiting her father that, without memory, there is no pain and began to imagine a society in which the past was deliberately forgotten. The flaws in that supposedly ideal society show the need for personal and societal memory and for making connections with the past and with each other. "
I don’t know how you’d go about getting a copy of that speech, although I’d like to read it myself.
-Myron