Louis Lowery’s novel The Giver takes place in a small community, in said small community much is hidden from the ordinary citizens which is almost everyone. In this story we will see Jonas reacts too these secrets and what shall unfold from these reactions. A theme suggested by the author is the idea of pursuing individuality even if others are fighting to keep it hidden and out of your reach.
In the beginning of the Giver we see Jonas’s all most communist like community. In that endeavor we see how everyone is ok almost happy with the idea of sameness that the community strictly abides by, even though they don’t know what true happiness is, I mean who could even love was taken away and actual families are also outlawed. This is shown in the very beginning even as early as page three in the book where as soon as he is ordered to return to his dwelling he does so even leaving his bike in the road. Jonas is even ‘happy’ with this until he meets the Giver and learns about color which leads to his first ideas of choice, but even these small seeds will need time to grow, in Jonas’s mind and heart.
Towards the middle of the story right before the climax we see Jonas receiving memories of snow. These memories fill Jonas with unremarkable joy and happy feelings. “Now he became aware of an entirely new sensation pinpricks?… Snow… But it was so fun…” That was an example of a supportive quote to the claim of Jonas enjoying the snow and the feeling of sledding which he had never experienced before. Jonas now understands true happiness not the lies the community has been spewing at him and everyone else. On top of this we soon see Jonas getting memories of war. Something that existed in the times of old, but not in Jonas’s or his parents lifetimes. Seeing this causes Jonas great distress and disappear. He now knows true sadness which no one else in the community other than he and the Giver understand. The only way for Jonas to keep his courage and resilience to go on his when he receives the memories of love and family. The memories of family and love fill Jonas with many questions, such as do his parents love him, where are his grandparents, and why do they not gather around and have happy moments like that?
In the end we see Jonas learning about release “His father was performing the release process… You can’t make me go home… They don’t know anything!” This is a direct supportive quote of how Jonas was feeling about release and his father and everyone who doesn’t understand anything, even if they’re the ones doing it. After seeing this Jonas is put in a place that gravely hurts him not only because of what release is , but the fact that his father had lied to him for so long, and the fact that the monsters at the top of the community food chain where teaching Fiona how to do it. These mixed emotions cause Jonas to not want to live let alone go home to his lying family, or out of the only place where he could be honest, not only with another person but with himself. During this night with the Giver Jonas hatches his plan, to escape the community filled with lies and utter sameness, even if he has to die trying to escape.
Of course the author could’ve just been creating plot, enough plot to move the reader to the point of tears possibly just to create a great story. Why wouldn’t this be the aim of an author trying to spread her work to others. It makes perfect sense. We all want others to be moved by our work and to see how other respond to what we have conjured into our hearts and minds. Plus why would an author drop little seedlets of theme in which the text has to be analyzed in such a fashion in which it takes multiple times going through text to find the moral of the story?
Though the above idea is plausible why would the author put so much emphasis on the way the people are like sheep just following the leader and an intensified focus on what leads to Jonas’s need for change his passion against sameness and the community and how he got to the place he was lead to, by himself, the memories and the Giver. Also why would an author just tell you the theme of the book. No one wants their writing to be so transparent unless writing a kids picture book.
So in conclusion in The Giver a theme suggested by the author is the idea of pursuing individuality even if others are fighting to keep it hidden and out of your reach.