My Reflections on Louis Lowry’s The Giver

Lois Lowry’s The Giver is a science fiction which portrays a “perfect” Utopian world. In this world, everything is the same and everyone is equal. People in this community have no emotions and pains. They don’t have any choices about life, either. Everything is controlled or designed by an invisible controller. In this standard world, residents don’t need to make any decisions or choices. Even their spouses and children are arranged by the authorities. What’s worse, people suffering from old age or sickness will be “released.” And to be released is actually to be killed by some standard procedures such as giving poison shots. Only the Giver and the Receiver know the truth about the “release”. In other words, the residents in this Utopian community live in a collective innocent and standard life. Only the Giver and the Receiver have experiences of real feelings and emotions.

Jonas, the Receiver, who was selected to be the Receiver, began to realize more and more things that he didn’t know in the past through his training with the Giver. He began feeling more about love, happiness, grief, and so on. Then Jonas has found out the significance of being a real human, so he attempts to escape the community by all means with Gabe, who was kept in their house for special care. They escaped the Utopian world at midnight, trudging through many dangerous lands and waters. Eventually Jonas was exhausted, and he saw a house with some light within. The author gives the readers an open ending. We don’t know exactly what happened to Jonas. But I believe the house with light may imply that Jonas and Gabe have survived into a brand-new world and their life will turn into a new page, a world of real life.

Jonas got some memories about the feeling of love from the Giver. Jonas thinks love is a warm feeling and he likes it .Once he asked his parents “Do you love me?” But the word “love” isn’t a precise and correct word to say in this community. They emphasize the “precision of language” in their daily conversations. His parents are deprived of the feelings and they know nothing about love. While reading this section, I really have many reflections. In our real life, it’s difficult to define love exactly, but I am sure there must be love in our life. Love is a difficult subject. There is no textbook for us to study love, and no one can teach us how to love others. However, we can always feel love when we stay together with our family. For instance, my parents work hard to raise me up, offer me education, giving me all the necessities without any complaint .I can always feel I am being loved by my parents. I feel warm and happy, and I am sure I love them very much as well.

In the Utopian community, the residents need to apply for having a baby, because only birthmothers who were given assignment can give birth to babies and then the babies are distributed and arranged to some families. The family members don’t have any blood connection, and they don’t know or experience love. I think it really ridiculous since falling in love with someone special, raising a family and giving birth to children are part of society and nature. Without this experience, life is just blank and bland, without any significance. In this sense, the standard “perfect” life that the Utopian community designs and controls isn’t life at all, but a world of robots and machines. So I feel really blessed to have a family who often give me love and warmth.

To conclude, The Giver is a fantastic science fiction that inspires me a lot. After reading it, I seem to know more about life, and a real life with freedom and free will. By reading the novel, I seem to experience a trilling adventure into a secure and peace world yet lacking humanity. Through this adventure, somehow I can treasure my present life more since I can always have freedom to do what I desire and I have a caring family who love me a lot.