The Giver

Hi everybody! 
  Yesterday I read The Giver by Lois Lowry. To be honest I had NO idea what this book was going to be about. I knew that most people had already read it so when I saw it on the book list I decided to give it a try. This book was really good. It wasn't anything like I expected it to be. I was surprised to discover that it was science fiction. As I said in my last post, I am not a big fan of science fiction. These last to books I have read though really changed my mind.

  While reading the giver, I compared it to The City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau. In both books the government is very secretive and very selfish.  Also in both books the children have their jobs chosen out for them. Despite their similarities, both books are extremely different. In The Giver, the government chooses everything for everybody. They have no choices. The girls must wear hair ribbons until age 9, they have to have their hair a certain length, and they aren't allowed to ride a bike until they are 9. In The City of Ember, the government does not specifically line out exactly everything for everybody, but they are extremely selfish. 

  In The Giver, I realized how hard life would be with "sameness". The government changed everything to be the same color. They mutated peoples genes, made sure each family had the same number of children, made all of the children wear certain clothes, and cut their hair to the same length just because they didn't want people to be different. If our world was all the same no color; no different people; everything plain and boring, our world would be very different. The people in The Giver had never experienced fear, loneliness, joy, or love just because the government wanted it all to be the same. It would be very hard to live in a place without all of those emotions. 

  Over all this book was VERY GOOD. I would definitely recommend it. This book really opened my eyes to see what life would be like with an extremely controlling government and a plain boring life. We are all so blessed with our lives and I think we all need to remember that. We are all so undeserving and don't appreciate everything we are given. So if you are thinking about reading this book, DEFINITELY DO!! And hopefully it will open up your eyes just like it did mine. 

Adios!

~Rachel