Hello beautiful people, today I come to talk about a book that I just read today, how crazy is that, right? hahahah but it hooked me so much and left me so absorbed in the story that I had to tell you guys.
This is "The Giver" written by Lois Ann Hammersberg or better known as Lois Lowry, is an American children's literature writer. She began her career as a photographer and freelance journalist in the 1970s. Her work caught the attention of Houghton Mifflin, who encouraged her to write her first children's book.
His first work, "A Summer to Die", was published in 1977 and since then she has written over 30 children's books and published an autobiography. Two of her books have been awarded the Newbery Prize: "Number The Stars" in 1990, and "The Giver" in 1993. She has been a finalist on three occasions for the Hans Christian Andersen Prize.
"The Giver" tells the story of Jonas, a boy who lives in an utopian society in which, seems to have removed the feelings and emotions of society. In fact, people are not allowed to even conceive or choose their own profession. So Jonas has had, by superior designs, to become the next Recipient of memory, that is, the person in charge of storing the memories of society so that they can be used in the future, if necessary .
From paragraph one it can be seen that the author tells us about a very "perfect", very idyllic society, where pain or rivalries do not appear, everything is assigned and discussed by a council and the most important age is 12, where in a ceremony you will be assigned your profession for life. I could say that this age defines your time as a child and your entrance to maturity, the moment when you must begin to grow and trace your path within society.
It is undeniable that Lois Lowry, is very capable of showing us the peculiarities of the socialist world in which it unfolds, in a few paragraphs, without the need to give so many details, since it allows us to immediately focus on the protagonist and the story.
It seems to me that it is very well narrated, that it presents you with a conception of equality that is worth discussing, despite being a children's novel, I think it can be read by people of any age as it keeps you interested in the plot and at the same time, it makes you think about how disastrous a “perfect” society can be, as in fact you can get more mistakes in that utopia than it is today.
If everything is so perfect it is very easy that when you find a fault everything falls apart, and you are disappointed, you also lose the sense of admiration for that same perfection, for me it loses value, it is like being numb, when everything seems to be the same, when don't exist apparent differences between people, you lose your essence, which makes you unique, an individual, insted you become one more number, or one more profession.
We need the failures, the differences, we need to think for ourselves, to know that there are opinions, that not everyone sees life in the same way, and that although it sounds bad, you need a little pain to appreciate the beauty of living, all Utopia it's destined to fail, because there is no a single way of living life and the possibility of having your own choice of how to live it collides with the utopian ideal.
If you have not read this book yet, I recommend it 1000%, it is part of a quartet and I will be telling you about the other three books, but I must read and digest them very well first hahaha.
It also has a film adaptation in case you want to see it, it was released in 2014 and has actors Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges, Katie Holmes and Brenton Thwaites.
XOXO Li.
