A Story of a Boy in a Dystopian Society in The Giver By Lois Lowry

746 Words2 Pages

Lois Lowry, the author of the book The Giver, often portrays her young protagonists from her experience as a child. Lowry was born on March 20, 1937 (Dellinger). During her early life, she was very interested in reading and was very solitary (Dellinger). This is where she got her idea to become an author. Lowry went on to pursue her dream of writing at Brown University (Dellinger). After graduating, she went back to college at the University of Southern Maine to further study writing (Dellinger). Lowry married a Naval officer and together they had four children (Dellinger). Lowry often used her children's escapades as inspiration for her books (Dellinger). Continuing on, The Giver is a story about a young boy named Jonas who lives in a dystopian society (Hanson). Jonas is different, though, because unlike the others in the community, he has the ability to see color and retain memories such as war, snow, and even a sunburn (Hanson). To sum up, Lois Lowry uses foreshadowing, setting, and symbolism in The Giver to portray the theme man vs. society.
Moving on, Lowry uses foreshadowing in the story to show the reader that Jonas is breaking free of his community's "brainwash". This helps apply to the theme man vs. society because it really is Jonas against his community. One example of foreshadowing is when Jonas sees the apple "change" (Lord). He is confused on what is wrong with it so he takes it home, during that time he breaks rules. No matter how much Jonas studied the apple, he could not find the "change" that he saw. This foreshadows Jonas's ability to "see beyond". Also, this shows that Jonas stands out amongst the people of his community because only a select few are able to detect this "change". Also, Lowry ...

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Hanson, Carter F. "The Utopian function of memory in Lois Lowry's The Giver." Extrapolation 50.1 (2009): 45+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.
Lord, Elyse. "Overview of The Giver." Novels for Students. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.
Lord, Elyse. "The Giver." Novels for Students. Vol. 3. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Gale. Web. 22 Jan. 2014. .
Lowry, Lois. "The Giver." Amazon. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.

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