The Giver Quartet
| The Giver (1993) Gathering Blue (2000) Messenger (2004) Son (2012) | |
| Author | Lois Lowry |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult fiction |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
| Published | 1993–2012 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| No. of books | 4 |
The Giver Quartet is a series of four books about a dystopian world by American author Lois Lowry. The quartet consists of The Giver (1993), Gathering Blue (2000), Messenger (2004), and Son (2012).[1][2] The first book won the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold more than 50 million copies.[3][4] The story takes place in the world of The Giver. Each book has a different protagonist, but is set in the same futuristic era.
Plot
[edit]The Giver
[edit]The Giver is a 1993 American children's novel, generally aimed at young adults or older readers. It is set in a society that initially appears to be a utopia but gradually reveals itself as a dystopia. The story follows a boy named Jonas during his twelfth and thirteenth years.
In this society, pain and strife have been eliminated through a system called "Sameness," which has also removed emotional depth, individuality, and sensory experiences from people's lives. As part of a special ceremony, Jonas is selected to become the next Receiver of Memory—a person entrusted with all the memories from before Sameness, preserved in case they are ever needed to guide the decisions of the community's leaders, known as the Elders.
Through his training with the current Receiver (whom Jonas comes to call "The Giver"), Jonas begins to uncover the dark truths behind his seemingly perfect world. He struggles under the burden of memory, knowledge, and emotion, which the rest of the Community is shielded from.
In the Community, there is no perception of color, no weather or climate variation, and the terrain is entirely flat—features intentionally designed to support uniformity. Sameness, while aiming to create harmony, ultimately strips away the richness and complexity of human experience, highlighting the dystopian nature of the society.
The Giver won the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold more than 50 million copies.[5] In Australia, Yugoslavia, and the United States, it is a part of many middle schools' reading lists, but it also appeared in many challenging book lists, such as the American Library Association's list of most challenged books of the 2000s.
Gathering Blue
[edit]Gathering Blue is a 2000 children's dystopian novella that is set in the same future time period and displays some of the same themes as The Giver. It is the sequel to the former book, "The Giver"
The central character, Kira, who has a deformed leg, is orphaned and must learn to survive in a society that normally leaves the weak or disabled exposed to die in the fields. Kira's father was thought to have been taken by the Beasts while he was on a hunt before she was born. Kira's mother had died recently from a mysterious illness.
Since she is an orphan, Kira needs a reason for the Council of Edifice to keep her in the village, rather than to send her to the Field, which is certain death at the hands of the Beasts. Kira's mother did embroidery for the Council and taught Kira some of her craft. Kira's embroidery skill convinces the Council to keep her around to mend and update a beautiful robe, which shows the society's history. She begins to learn the art of dyeing threads different colors except for blue, which nobody in her community knows how to make except Annabella, Kira's mentor.
Kira also learns more about the truth of her village and the terrible secrets that it holds. She then finds her father, who tells the truth of what happened to him and about the Village he now lives on.
Messenger
[edit]Messenger takes place about nine years after The Giver and about seven years after Gathering Blue.
Set in an isolated community, known simply as Village, it focuses on a boy, Matty, who serves as a message bearer through the ominous and lethal Forest that surrounds the community. This book also tells the fate of Jonas and baby Gabe from The Giver.
Again, there is another variant of this book in which we see a woman talk to Jonas about her missing son. He realizes he remembers who the baby is.
Son
[edit]Son follows Claire, Gabriel's birth mother, who embarks on a harrowing and dangerous journey to eventually locate Gabriel. Claire is fourteen when she has Gabriel. At the end of the book, Claire reunites with Gabriel, and Kira and Jonas are married with two children named “Annabella and Matty”, to honor her two friends who died.
This book has an extended version teasing a book that never came out, in which a massive creature comes out of the woods, but the school children refuse to believe the boy. in the last page, the word Taker is in bold, which teases the name of this cancelled book.
Film adaptation
[edit]A film adaptation of the first book was produced by The Weinstein Company and Walden Media. It was released on August 15, 2014,[6] and starred Jeff Bridges as the Giver, Brenton Thwaites as the Jonas and Meryl Streep as Chief Elder. Meryl played a new and untapped role for a woman playing a male character for the first and only time in her career.
References
[edit]- ^ Wasserman, Robin (October 11, 2012). "The Searcher". The New York Times. Retrieved July 10, 2014.
- ^ "The Quartet". Lois Lowry. Retrieved July 10, 2014.
- ^ Dunham Glassman, Molly (April 15, 1997). "Gripping 'The Giver' deserves medal as scary portrayal of 'perfect' society". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved July 10, 2014.
- ^ Rosen, Christopher (May 22, 2014). "See Alexander Skarsgard's Poster For 'The Giver'". The Huffington Post. Retrieved July 10, 2014.
- ^ admin (1999-11-30). "1994 Newbery Medal and Honor Books". Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). Retrieved 2021-10-24.
- ^ McClintock, Pamela (September 23, 2013). "'The Giver' Film Adaptation to Hit Theaters August 2014". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 10, 2014.