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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
“People need emotions and feelings in their lives. Even the bad ones give meaning to existence.”
Thank you, Lois. I wouldn’t have known this without your book.
Sarcasm aside, I won’t be analyzing the book’s themes or the message the author tried to convey—it’s been discussed plenty. Instead, I want to focus on the story itself, or more precisely, how incoherent and inconsistent it is.
There are moments that feel unexplained or shoehorned in just to push the plot forward, leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Take Jonas’ father, for example. At the beginning of the book, he is portrayed as caring and even willing to bend the rules for Gabriel, criticizing the night workers for their lack of care. Yet, by the end, despite all his efforts, he suddenly decides Gabriel should be released—just because he struggles to sleep under the night shift’s care. It feels out of character and contradicts the father we were introduced to.
Then there’s the issue of the Giver’s powers. Jonas was specially selected because not everyone could receive these memories, which is a central point in the book. But by the end, he is effortlessly passing memories to Gabriel, a two-year-old, with no apparent struggle. If anyone could receive these emotions, then why was Jonas chosen? What made him special? The logic of the story starts to unravel.
But all of this pales in comparison to the inconsistencies in the world-building. The book leaves so many questions unanswered:
- Why does this society need planes?
- If emotions and war are ancient history, why do they shoot down aircraft as if they’re engaging in military activity?
- What happens to those who leave the community? Do they suddenly regain the ability to see color?
- How have birds and insects not wandered into this community? Is there some kind of dome keeping them out?
- If an outsider entered, would they be stripped of their emotions and colors like the citizens?
- Where are the other communities, and how do they function in relation to the rest of the world?
- How does “Sameness” actually work? Who created it, and why did they impose it on select communities while leaving the rest of the world untouched?
These are just a fraction of the contradictions and gaps in logic that the book never bothers to address. I understand the message the author was trying to convey, but it could have been done so much better with a more carefully constructed world—one that actually accounts for these inconsistencies instead of ignoring them.
