The Kilted Writer

The Giver , by Lois Lowry, contains a lot of mind, body, and spirit symbolism on a variety of levels. First is Jonas and his two friends, Asher and Fiona. Jonas is the mind, Asher the body, and Fiona the spirit. Second is Jonas's family. His father is the spirit, his mother is the mind, and the children in the household collectively make up a body character. When examined individually, however, Jonas is the mind, Lily (his sister) is the spirit, and Gabriel (the child from the nursery they are nurturing during the night) is the body. I just glossed over this without giving any real reasons as to why this is true because I want to get into a slightly different topic. In my workshops, I often talk about occupations and their relation to the mind, body, and spirit symbolism. The Giver is a great example of the use of occupations to help strengthen your character symbolism. Spirit characters have a lot of compassion and tend to put their "cause" ahead of themselves. In...

The world in the book The Giver , by Lois Lowry, is revealed to the reader slowly, starting with the main character, Jonas, but then building outward from his limited perception into a broader and more encompassing view. In the opening scene, Jonas sees an aircraft fly over, and it puzzles him. He readily obeys the command from the speakers spread throughout the community to go inside. Through this incident, we learn that air travel is rare in this world and that bicycles are the primary mode of transportation for the people. We also begin to see the emphasis on precision of language, especially with the word "release." We learn that "release" is a very serious matter and not something to ever be used lightly or jokingly. Next, Lowry introduces Asher, Jonas's best friend. Through this new character, we learn a little about how schools operate in the community, and we get a clearer idea about the precision of language in the society. Finally, we see one way e...