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It is my
favorite book of all time. The Giver by Lois Lowry is an amazing novel
about a boy named Jonah who lives in a type of controlled environment.
There are no emotions or color in Jonah's world. Everyone is given a
home and all the necessities. No one starves, no one is homeless, no
one feels pain or joy. In the book, when a child reaches the age of
eleven, his place in the community is chosen. Some children know exactly
what to expect, but Jonah has no idea. Jonah is given a very secretive
position. He is to be taught the gift of being a receiver by the community's Giver. Jonah is meant to experience all the hurt,
happiness, disaster and love of the past world, where all these things
were available to normal people. But how will he be able to handle it?
This book
is a banned book in some schools because of its straight-forwardness.
It deals with subjects of government, sexuality, and emotions that
people take for granted. Lois Lowry depicts a vivid picture of a life
that nobody would choose to live. The book also deals with the subject
of what is called in the story "releasing". It can be either a good
thing or a bad thing. It would be a pity for me to tell you what
releasing actually means and ruin the story, so I will not say. Actually, that term is another reason why the book is banished from certain
school libraries. And yet another possible reason the book is banned is
because there are no minorities in the "perfect" community.
Mostly the
story is disliked by school officials because it is extremely serious. I mean to say, can you imagine life where everything is plainly black
or white? I do not mean just in color but everything is either one way
or another. There are no choices or feelings.
So far, it
sounds like I'm trashing this book, right? But really, I'm not. The
reason this book is so good is because it makes you use your brain. Not
many books are able to do that. It actually forces you to imagine a
life like the people in that community live. Think of all the things we
take for granted. What would it be like to live like that? Would life
really be worth living?
Searching for a
happy place,
cloudy83
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