Literacy is the Most Direct Route to Freedom (part 2)

It's banned book week! I thought I'd celebrate by reviewing some banned or challenged books this week by writing reviews of them here in my dusty old blog. I'll try to get you five by the end of the week. Today I’ll talk about The Giver, a book I read for the first time and in one sitting this weekend. It’s been on the list of high-frequency challenged books for over a decade now, and was number 11 on ALA’s list of “Most Banned Books of the 1990’s.”

I firmly believe that everyone should read a dystopian novel at least once a year. I never feel more appreciative of the beauty of human life, nor more aware of the danger of losing it than when I have recently polished off a really good dystopia.

Like many Dystopias, the Community in The Giver is presented first as a peaceful utopia: main character Jonas is brimming with anticipation waiting to take his place in the Community, a place where there is no pain or suffering, where families are by definition nuclear. The best word I can think of to describe the community in the first half of the novel is sterile. Everything is perfectly planned, everything is accounted for, prepared for, and perfected by years of such attention to detail.

And then Jonas receives his placement: he has been chosen to be the “Receiver of Memory,” a mysterious position filled by one member of the community at a time. He becomes the apprentice to the old, fragile former Receiver, and he literally receives- telepathically- all the memories of generations of humans, including memories that precede the creation of the Community. Only then do certain facts about his world become apparent- 94 pages into the book I felt hit with a brick, realizing that I hadn’t noticed something painfully obvious about the rhetoric in the novel. As a writer I am inspired beyond telling at what Lowry achieved in this revelation.

Jonas, now aware of the possibility of raw human emotion, sees his world for what it is, and alone of his generation realizes what his people have given up to live the way they do. The book is a testament to the dangerous implications of trading potential happiness for guaranteed comfort.

So why is it so-often banned? It seems to have been challenged or banned primarily in middle schools, and the causes of these bans tends to be “unsuitable to age group” due to suicide and euthanasia. Personally, I disagree with the notion that these ideas are inappropriate for 13-14 year old students. I’ll point you to some statistics at http://www.familyfirstaid.org/suicide.html which I feel show that suicide is already an issue for pre-teens. If we want to reduce teen suicide, we need to make efforts to talk about what suicide is, what it means, how to survive the impulse. Reading and talking about books like “The Giver” could be a way to start those conversations without the worry of singling out at-risk students.

I personally feel that The Giver is appropriate for most students 12+, and is an excellent introduction to the idea of dystopia. I feel it is also an excellent resource for educators: the book can be used to discuss point of view, narrator bias, the difference between a society’s view of right and wrong and a more philosophical view of right and wrong, and the value of free choice. If I were to use it in the classroom I’d also view it as an excellent resource for teaching students how to mine a text for clues about what kind of world a character lives in: the revelation and de-layering of the society in the book is masterful. In fact, that’s the word I think I’d use for the book as a whole: masterful.

A side note for writers: The Giver won Lois Lowry her second Newbery award, and her acceptance speech available online here is one of the most profound resources I’ve ever read on inspiration and the life one leads as a creator of art. Check it out!