The Giver Appreciation

Everything starts somewhere. Our thoughts come from a root and grow so large they don’t seem the same anymore; that root became so much. The Giver must have gone through the same process and that’s how it came to be so extensive; it makes my head spin.  The Giver expresses so much deeper meaning and the characters are so complicated and strange it’s impossible to think about how this happened; how this book came to be. I couldn’t write it, but I’m grateful Lois Lowry did, it was an important book for me to read as a young girl. It bettered my understanding of everything and suddenly I knew how different things can be, it scared me, yes, the thought of change scared me, but it was so necessary for me to become aware of change, if not I'd be brutally awoken. I was so naïve then, but this is now and I’m changed. This book was the trigger and I am thankful for it.

Of course, when I was young I couldn’t fully understand it. I didn’t know why keeping specific things and memories from The Community was so vital. I couldn’t understand how fragile people are, how delicate they can be. And if their world were broken; what they know demolished; everything comes crashing down. People crave comfort and security. The Giver and Jonas are willing to give them what they want, but in return they'll forfeit their innocence; it's all for the people.

But Jonas is afraid: “They have never known pain, he thought. The realization made him feel desperately lonely…” What he’s sacrificing doesn’t seem worth much any longer. For once, he must think of himself over others although he hasn’t been taught to. Our own well-being over shadows all else. Jonas begins to recognize this. From an early age, I have too.

I’m a perfectionist. I like things done right and I won’t stop until they are. I suppose you can call that a good thing; how precise I need to be. I am obsessed with myself and it’s conceited, I know, but it’s true. But I’m obsessed not in the way that I can’t get enough of myself; obsessed in the way of insisting on being flawless. I care too much. Still, I do what I’m told, I don’t have the mental strength to say no and that’s where I’m not perfect though I still long to be. It’s confusing and I can’t completely comprehend it.

Now Jonas; he has most of it figured out and you’re better off to live life as he does. You need to find out who you are and once you do, it will all pan out and you will treat yourself and others the way you ought to. There will be no confusion; life will be that much clearer.

So if I could realize all of this from one 5^th grade book, it must be more than that. It’s stunning and beautiful and it makes you think about things you haven’t before. Like how people are weak though we come off as statues made of stone; we still break. And we should care about each other, but about ourselves more. By the end of this book you will have changed, hopefully, for the better.

No, it’s not a 5^th grade book; it’s much, much more. It’s helped me grow as a person. I think differently now, I think things through, I've grown; now that’s it’s significance.