Giving Ideas

The Giver by Lois Lowry has been one of my favorite novels since I first read it when I was about 11 years old. I was intrigued by the idea of a distopian society, probably because politics were such a hot topic at that point among my friends, and I disagreed with many of them about the socializing of different aspects of society (...but that's a subject for a very different blog post and a very different blog). Anyway! The members of this blog are in the midst of crafting an ebook about the movement of literature into the digital age, specifically on the ereader Kindle and the power of the platforms Goodreads and Amazon. While reexamining The Giver with this in mind, I had a couple of thoughts that I will share with you in bulleted and outlined "stream of consciousness" format below. This is very rough, so let me know what you think! 

I should preface my bullet points by saying that I've already found that most of my ideas focus on relationships between people and how different social norms affect those relationships. So here we go!
I could focus on:

1. The fact that Jonas is more intelligent than the rest of the community because he has more access to information. This could be tied to the availability of books, etc. to the public (long tail idea). In the end, society is able to piece itself back together because everyone has access to the same information. Jonas is very young but has more information... interesting!

2. The Giver has experienced a lot from the "comfort" of his own home- without having to ever leave. There is something intriguing about the fact that we can consume so many books literally without having to move out of the same spot. It's incredible, but there's a sacrifice there. Sure, the Giver is a whole lot smarter than everybody else, but his life may have less satisfaction... for a number of reasons, but he doesn't get a whole lot of actual human contact and that takes a toll.

3. The lack of true feeling between characters. Jonas and the Giver are the only ones who have memories of the past and past traditions, and they are the only ones who are allowed to feel in order to preserve those traditions. There are two angles that I readily see here: (1) moving into the digital age is a movement away from the same kind of feeling (2) preserving memories (more easily preserved and accessed through technology) goes against the novel and enhances our ability to feel.



4. This ties in well to the overall theme of affection and its effect on society. The Chief Judge (who cannot experience a full spectrum of emotions because of pills she takes to counteract the natural instincts of her body) shows "affection" (as you would probably define it on paper) by remembering little tid bits about each child when they are about to be assigned careers. However, this isn't true love. You could write about it on paper as such, but it isn't. Platforms like Goodreads expand social networking but they are not face to face. There's a disconnect, something artificial about it. (Too obvious?) Another related topic:

5. Human contact. Jonas craves human contact, a lot more than is socially acceptable because he is tied to tradition. The thing is, giving up books is not the same as giving up memories, because ebooks can just as easily preserve them.

6. Along with human contact, there is the theme of nakedness and its relation to intimacy. This isn't a sexual theme in the book so much as it is a sign of closeness. Jonas feels close to Larissa (a woman in the old folks' home) when he is allowed to bathe her. His forward thinking (or traditional thinking, depending on the way you look at it) questions the societal rule that you can't see anyone else naked. Jonas values this intimacy a lot more than the rest of society. Could be tied to the closed off nature of online communication between people on platforms like Goodreads.

"It was against the rules for children or adults to look at another’s nakedness; but the rule did not apply to newchildren or the Old. Jonas was glad. . . . He couldn’t see why it was necessary. He liked the feeling of safety here in this warm and quiet room; he liked the expression of trust on the woman’s face as she lay in the water unprotected, exposed, and free" (Lowry).

7. The sled- a symbol of a new journey, the downhill exciting and exhilarating at first, but painful if not taken with caution.

Anyway, those are a few of my ideas! Let me know what you think!