Jonas, a 12 year old boy, is living in a society where everyone is uniform and everything is assigned. Each person is assigned a husband/wife and given 2 children, one boy and one girl. At 12, the children are assigned to different jobs, and they start their training for these jobs immediately. Some of the jobs include; birthmother, fish hatchery attendant, instructor of (thees, fours, basically a certain age group) and many more. The most important job is the receiver. Basically, when the elders decided that everyone needs to be the same to prevent fights and jealousy, they eliminated color, snow and many other experiences from their town. The receiver holds all these memories and can see color. The current receiver becomes the giver and now he trains Jonas (the new receiver) and shares with him memories of snow, books and colors. One of the requirements of his job is to stop getting his injections. He also is now able to lie (lying is prohibited). The injections, he learns, stop you from feeling love, anger or any true emotions. None of the families love each other, they “enjoy” each other's presence. Anyways, without giving away too much of the main conflict, Jonas’ dad cares for newborns, he brings a newborn who won’t sleep home so that it won’t get euthanized and eventually, it is decided that it will get euthanized and Jonas ends up doing something to save it. But the dad doesn’t know it will get euthanized, death isn’t known to people except the giver and receiver, the normal people think they are going to another world, or something better.
I loved the book, this was a reread for me because it was so great the first time. I loved the organized society and I just enjoyed hearing about the interesting things and how it works. Also, it is the first of a few books that are all connected.
My main advice is just to read The Giver before you watch the movie. The movie isn’t as good, it will ruin the book and it's just not worth it. Read the book first.
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