Science Fiction: The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry is a book about a Utopian society where they take daily injections to ensure that all emotions and feelings are numb.  The only person who has access to memories that happened before they became a utopia is the Giver and he houses all of these memories so that the other members of the society do not have to be burdened with the pain that comes with some of the memories. That is until a boy is chosen to be the next Giver and experiences all of these memories little by little. And then he finds out what happens to people in the society if they do not conform, they are let go, which in reality is that they are put to death.
  Throughout this book the language and content is  very advanced and is recommended for middle and high school students. This being said the exposure to such advanced language allows the students to absorb all of those language skills so that they can learn how to use them.
  This novel is a Science fiction and it is relatively easy to tell as much. The main factor that points to sci-fi is the utopian society, though we do not have them now, utopia societies are something that have a possibility to happen in the future. This community is also very technologically advanced, and though we are advanced in our technology, we have not yet gotten to the point that the utopia is in we will get there eventually.
 I personally loved this book while the rest of my classmates absolutely hated it and I can not exactly nail down a reason that I enjoyed it so much. For me, this book was just one of those that you pick up and do not want to put down until you finished it.

Discussion Questions:
1. What is your prediction about the ending of The Giver? Support your prediction with evidence from the book.
2. Do you agree with having a utopian society? Why or why not?
Motivational Activities:
  • Create your own utopian society, list the rules and what makes it a utopia.
  • Imagine you were in the story, which job would you want to have and why? 
References:
 Hall, L. (1987). The giver. New York: Collier Books.

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