The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry moved me and gave me second thoughts about utopias and dystopias. In particular, I took joy in Jonas' emotions and his dissimilarity to the rest of the community. I also enjoyed the theme of this story.
In The Giver, Jonas is the main character and the new Receiver of Memories. Jonas is picked out from the other forty-nine children in his generation for a special duty, to receive memories from the Giver. During times when the Giver gives Jonas memories, Jonas experiences emotions which no one in the community has ever experienced. Jonas begins to see color and the blanket of Sameness is lifted form Jonas. How Jonas deals with these emotions is very intriguing because in our world, we would not have thought that anyone could not have experienced these feelings (warmth, cold, the pain of a sunburn). This newly developed recognition of everything around Jonas sets him apart from the rest of the community. An example would be when Jonas recognizes that an apple is red colored and he tries to tell his friend that the apple is red. His friend does not recognize that the apple is red because of Sameness and thinks Jonas is acting strange. One physical difference of Jonas and the Giver from the rest of the community is that both are said to have "light colored eyes".
The theme of The Giver is a very deep one. What exactly is a utopia and can you have one without a dystopia? The community of The Giver is obviously supposed to be one of a utopia. One can argue that this so called perfect community is, in fact a severely flawed community. For example, if there are twins born, one must be Released while the other goes to the nurturing center. If there is no wrong, is there a right? What's to base off of that tells what is right when there is nothing wrong? This may lead many to think that a utopia cannot exist without there being some sort of dystopia.
I enjoyed The Giver and would recommend this book to anyone who likes almost-modern day sci-fi or to anyone studying utopias and dystopias.