The Giver is set in a futuristic utopia in which citizens trade autonomy for peace.The setting unfolds as  the good guy, a coming-of-age boy named Jonas, faces the assignment of his lifelong career at the ripe old age of twelve!  Written in a narrative style from his point of view, he explores the limitations and advantages of his societal structure, anticipating along with his peers, the coming life changes.  He worries about his future.  His friendships. His family.

It’s not far into the book that you can figure out that when misfits of society are “released” that they are in fact put down like a rabid or sick dog, basically, as opposed to “lost” which comes from some accidental death or illness.  That’s no surprise.

Nor is it a surprise that Jonas is chosen for a pivotal influential role in this cute little world, nor the fact that his struggling with this role is going to lead to some pretty dramatic changes for everyone!

But the ending loses it.  It’s weak, poorly developed, and lacks any sort of dynamic twist.  (Spoiler…)

Maybe that’s the point the author is trying to make though.  That even with the potential and the power to change things for the better, or if not for the better at least for the more varied and fulfilling, we are ill fated to succeed at that.  And in the end we will all just wander off into the woods to freeze to death and leave our own human nature unchanged.

Even if that is the point, a bit better execution of the ending would have helped.  Jonas becomes confronted with circumstances beyond his capacity to address as a twelve year old, and panics.  I don’t suppose you can fault a 12 year old for trying to save the one at the expense of the many.  But seriously – what even remotely bright 12-year-old thinks they can abscond with a young toddler and go riding off into nowhere and have even the remotest chance of being able to care for the tot?

And the ending is inconsistent, too…. if Jonas and the Giver his mentor seek to change the world, they know how to do it without some conjured up a  risky plan, and it’s obvious that they know this fact as well, but they don’t go down that path.  Why?  So the ending becomes sort-of a monkey-caught-by-its-own-hand-in-a-jar problem.

Just let go!  Let go of everything.  Slowly. All of those memories –  all the richness of life, that you cling to — by passing it on to the others with whom they must be shared to be meaningful.

We are not alone.  We are all woven into our mutual existence, and only by sharing our love and pain and joy and frustration do the colors of our world brighten and take a beautiful form.  It’s the mutual existence that makes us together, however, and without its depth and color, we might as well be sitting in the vast and hollow inner space of our mortal shells.

Everyone is a liar – one way or another – to one degree or another.  No one can tell the truth about themselves.  It is quite impossible.

Something must always be justified.  Always, something must be justified.  we do each other dreadful harm because we refuse to justify the foibles of others – only our own.

One place to see this fact is while driving.  Have you ever “D&*& you you M*(&^(& F^(*&^ you idiot don’t you know to LOOK before you do a lane change?”   I’m sure you haven’t ever. No never! Ever ever.  Performed a lane change not knowing there was a car in your own blind spot!

But here’s the rub:  Traffic is one thing.  But extend this principle into our broader lives, and you can see how our own limited scope, failure to see beyond ourselves, can hurt ourselves, in a mutual sense.