Reading this
dystopian book, reminded me of the lyric of a popular song, Imagine:
Imagine there's no
countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die
for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in
peace...
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or
hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the
world...
In the song
which was released in 1988, John Lennon was imagining a world entirely
different from ours. He was presupposing that if we eliminate all painful and
restrained elements from life, the world would be a better place to live in. In
The Giver, Lois Lowry challenged its modern
young readers to question themselves whether a dystopian world as John Lennon
has—and perhaps many people have too—imagined would make us happier. So, she
created the “Community” where our heroes live.
Community is
set by eliminating worldly struggles and uncomfortable things in daily life.
Women are exempt from painful laboring by giving the task to some appointed
women; and a family can receive a new child from Community (they can ask for
exchange if they are not satisfied with the current child!). Elderly are
separated from the family—obviously to eliminate the inconveniences of treating
them—and when they are too old, the Community will ‘release’ them. They are
given medicines to eliminate pains; and a committee will monitor their daily
activities to decide what profession are the best for them. And there are so
many regulations for all their routines; every aspect of their lives are
guarded and controlled, so that all they have to do is just living it
comfortably, and finally leaving it quietly. To achieve this, the Community erases
their memory of the past, and lets only one person to bear all the
memories—including the pains—so that he can act as advisor. This person is
called The Giver.
When Jonas
becomes 12 he realizes that HE is chosen for the next Giver. For about a year
he takes ‘training’ from the present Giver. It means that the Giver little by
little transfers his memory to his successor. From the flashes of the memory,
we came to understand that our world has once been torn by a terrible war.
Jonas must get through pains and sufferings; something he never gets in the
Community. However, he also gets beautiful things he has never felt before:
warm love of family, beauty of colors, etc. In the end Jonas believes that,
notwithstanding the pain and suffering, the former world is worth to live in,
compared to the Community. This realization, plus the fact he has revealed
about the ‘release’ he often heard of, sets his mind to set up a dangerous plan
with the Giver.
People have
been praising this book; I have heard a lot of positive reviews of it, and
that’s why I decided to read a book from two genres—which usually does not meet
my taste—dystopian and young adult. In the end, I liked this book, because it
teaches us to accept life as a whole. Life has never been a series of happiness
and comforts; it contains struggles and pains too. Without sorrows, we would never
know the meaning of happiness; before feeling hungry, you would never realize
the value of food. It is after the pain of laboring and raising child, after
the struggle in living with your spouse, can you feel the warmth of love and
family. Life—however wretched it is—is always worth living.
It is good
of Lowry to promote philosophy of life to young adults; a reminder to respect
life, and to appreciate the beauty of it. It’s pity that the last part ended
too abruptly. I wished Lowry would have dug deeper than that. But considering this
book as a YA, it is acceptable.
I can only
grant four stars; it’s really good, but it’s not quite shaking my emotion (I
think I have read too much Zola’s lately!).
~~~~~~~~~
I read Indonesian translation from Gramedia Pustaka Utama
(I did not put the original cover of the copy I read, as I
was annoyed by its childish image—sorry, I just can’t bear it…)
