The Giver - Essraa A

     On the topic of "coming of age novels", one that pops into a lot of people's minds is The Giver, a widely known novel to many students. The plot features 12 year old Jonas confronting the antagonizing force of his dystopian society, and ultimately coming of age through breaking through the controls and limits set by others on his life and everyone else's in society. 

    The novel takes place with Jonas, the protagonist of the story, living in this futuristic society with his parents, who have been assigned roles in society, and his 7 year old sister, Lily. An important part of the novel’s progression comes from the upcoming “Ceremony of Twelve”, where once any member of society hits the age of twelve, they are given a new role and expected to follow through with it as a member of society. The most important and highest role of honor, “Receiver of Memories” has been given to Jonas, as he’s noticeably unique from the rest of the people around him in his society. The Memory Receiver ultimately holds all the collective memories of society, and Jonas is revealed these memories through a man named the Giver, who shows him a wide spectrum of emotions: memories of pain, happiness, bright colors, warmth, excitement, hunger, and love. Once Jonas receives these memories he truly realizes how bland his dystopian society is and how empty the nature of society is in comparison to the burst of emotions received through memories. Jonas is one to realize that he feels the need to rebel against his society’s standards, a society that deprives his people from experiencing these wonderful emotions, and with mutual feelings as the Giver, they both work together searching for the answer on why their dystopian society is constructed this way.


    
A critical life experience Jonas goes through is caring for a newchild, Gabriel, with his family. Gabriel is one of those new childs who is not fit for society and will be sent to be released, or otherwise, killed. Knowing that Jonas and the Giver have made a plan to escape to Elsewhere, Jonas plans to save Gabriel, who he’s formed a strong bond with, and help him escape as well. This experience proves Jonas’ will and maturity in recognizing that his life could be put on the line for others, and ultimately leads him to grow from this experience. Jonas discovers that true coming of age and maturing as a conscious person involves taking tremendous risks, such as saving Gabriel from death, even when his own life was on the line. Jonas has learned a lot about perception and realizing what's right and best for everyone, and has understood the most impactful lesson and experience of his life. Thus, this makes Jonas’ story strongly resonate with coming of age, and with coming of age comes with a loss of his naivety to his world and a new perception due to his maturity as a young adult. 



Comments

  1. Ilana C.February 7, 2021 at 3:57 PM

    Hi Essraa! Through your descriptions, I can very clearly see the coming-of-age themes in The Giver. I find it so interesting that you analyze the beginning of Jonas’ coming-of-age story with him receiving the different emotions, something that all humans in our world experience, and that those simple things are what set him most apart from his dystopian society. I also find it interesting that instead of trying to fit into society and merge into the “adult world,” Jonas kind of goes through the opposite process, having received these memories and then deciding that he needs to break away from his society and go to Elsewhere, also risking his life for Gabriel. Instead of wanting to be integrated into the mature, adult word, he in a way rises above everyone else in his society and realizes that their world is truly wrong at a fundamental level. In these ways, I think that it’s very interesting to see how both the coming-of-age themes and dystopian novel interact and connect/clash with each other.
    Thanks!

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  2. erin's blogFebruary 9, 2021 at 10:30 AM

    I love that book. It's a really literal "loss of innocence", when he learns about all the bad things in teh world. It's also interesting that society has kind of taken away the "coming of age" experience from the majority of the population, or at least forced them to experience a very structured, fabricated version, so Jonas's situation is unique and isolating.
    "

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  3. ArianaFebruary 11, 2021 at 7:54 AM

    This book is so good! It's interesting how you mentioned Jonas's rejection of society as "rebellion". Rebellion is usually a trope in coming of age novels, and it often passes as "teenage angst". However this book is particularly interesting because Jonas is the only one who gets to "come of age" in his society, because he's the only one who is introduced to a different potential life path than his peers.

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  4. Lorenzo PantanoFebruary 18, 2021 at 9:53 PM

    I absolutely love the giver. One of my favorite books. The fact that Jonas is aware of things that nobody else knows is an extreme coming of age story. He has come of age more than anyone else. He knows more than anyone else.

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  5. Lauren L.February 21, 2021 at 10:01 PM

    The Giver is such a great analogy, yet extreme, analogy for coming of age. The way Jonas is able to be so rational and thoughtful after his entire worldview is practically turned upside down is pretty amazing too. If that were me I'd definitely freak out a bit.

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  6. ZhaohanFebruary 21, 2021 at 10:35 PM

    I really enjoyed that book! However, a part that always left me confused was the ending, where they (if I recall correctly) just hopped on a sled and went into a cabin. I think that the story became a metaphor or something at that point, but do you know if this has any significance to the coming of age aspect of the story? Also, I heard that there's a sequel to this book, and I'm wondering if you've ever read that before.

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