I think it’s meaningful that I recognize the same major issue with the lives led in The Giver, that is, lives without music and color, both when I read the book as a child, and rereading it now as a young adult. As a child who sang, danced, drew and painted as often as possible, this lifestyle exposed sounds terrifying. Not only does the population of The Giver not have choices, they have no emotion! I consider myself a passionate person and I enjoy pursuing the arts as a way of expressing that passion. Sometimes I feel joy when I sing. Sometimes I feel pain when I paint. It is the emotion I pour into my art that gives it passion, freedom from monotony, and beauty. Learning about a life that has nothing of everything I hold dear is really difficult to comprehend.
“Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Lowry paints a “pretty” enough picture for the reader to know that you cannot miss something you have never had. However, the deaf idea that something is still missing and instinctively wrong with their lives is apparent through Lowry’s rich imagery and empathetic figurative language.
The most important message I can take from this book is one that should be embraced by both young and adult readers. Realizing and enjoying the seemingly small, but truly beautiful aspects of life, such as music and color is the purest path to an authentically passionate life.
Expand Your Mind 