Messenger

Written by: Lois Lowry

Although Gathering Blue was the second book in The Giver trilogy, it did not satisfy my yearning for a book that continued where The Giver left off.  I wanted to know what happened to Jonas and Gabe.  I only found out on the last few pages of Gathering Blue that Jonas was alive and living in a new community called the Village.  Messenger, written by Lois Lowry, is the final book in The Giver trilogy and ties the characters and stories from both The Giver and Gathering Blue together.

Messenger focuses on the story of Matty, the same young boy who had supported Kira when nobody else would in Gathering Blue.  Kira’s father, Seer, who has been given his name due to his ability to see in spite of his blindness, has taken in Matty as his own.  In the six years that have passed since leaving his own community and coming to the village with Seer, Matty has become much more refined and educated.  In fact, he holds a very special job in the Village—he delivers important messages through the forest.

What I found interesting about Messenger is that the Village did not seem to be utopic or dystopic.  Although it was obvious the book was set in the future, some aspects of the setting seemed closer to reality and more believable.  For example, those who ended up in the Village were those who had escaped from another society that had been unaccepting.  Many had physical ailments.  For example, the Mentor in the Village had a large birthmark along the side of his face and a hunched back.  All members of the Village were kind to each other and willing to help one another.  Of course, the book did include plenty of fantasy.  The forest came alive and characters had special magical gifts.

As hoped for, we find out what happens to Jonas.  Jonas reappears in this story as Leader.  The story briefly recounts his arrival and his importance to the Village.  “In the Museum’s glass cases there were shoes and canes and bicycles and a wheeled chair.  But somehow the small red-painted sled had become a symbol of courage and hope.  Leader was young but he represented those things.  He had never tried to go back, never wanted to.  This was his home now, these his people.  As he did every afternoon, he stood at the window and watched.  His eyes were a pale, piercing blue.”

After finishing the trilogy, I suppose the question becomes—should Lois Lowry ever have continued The Giver?  I find this a difficult question to answer.  In a way, I am glad I got to read two more science fiction books by Lois Lowry.  On the other hand, however, The Giver is a masterpiece that stands alone.  When I first completed The Giver, I wanted to know how things ended for Jonas.  I had so many questions I wanted answered.  I am sure that anyone who has ever read the book has countless questions as well.  It took Lowry seven years before she decided to write Gathering Blue and to finish the trilogy.  I believe that both books were beautifully written, but none could replace, or come even close to the power of The Giver.  I just did not feel the same emotional connection with the characters in Gathering Blue and Messenger as I did with The Giver.  I suppose I am mostly disappointed because the story did not end the way I imagined it.  I was hoping to not only find out what happened to Jonas and Gabe, but for their life to continue.  Although we did learn more about Jonas in Messenger, I feel like again, I am left with many unanswered questions.

The whole point of science fiction, however, is to leave readers with unanswered questions and to make readers think about what could be if the world continues on certain paths.  Overall, I think Lowry is an incredible author and I enjoyed reading both Gathering Blue and Messenger.  I am glad that I read all three and have closure for at least what happened to Jonas—but there is still much left to figure out. 

All three books show the growth of a young child coming to realize that something is wrong with society and change needs to take place.  In each story, it is a child that has the special gifts needed to make change.  Children are the future and we are counting on them to develop critical thinking skills and to make moralistic decisions that will lead our society in the right direction.  Lowry reminds us all of the dangers of what can happen if we take things too far.

Gathering Blue

Written by Lois Lowry

After reading Lois Lowry’s, The Giver, I was left with many unanswered questions.  I wondered what really happened to Jonas, Gabe, The Giver, and the society from which they all came.  I drew my own conclusions—but I wanted to know if my conclusions were as Lowry intended.  I soon realized that many years after being published, Lowry concluded the story of The Giver by writing a trilogy—which consisted of the books, Gathering Blue and The Messenger.

Gathering Blue is the second book in the trilogy.  I had very high expectations before delving into this book.  My very first expectation was that this book would start with the scene that ended The Giver and would continue from there.  Then, I read the back of the book.  The summary on the back introduced an orphaned-girl named Kira, who like Jonas, realizes that the world she lives in has many mysteries and secrets and it is her hope to find out what exists beyond it. 

Unlike the book, The Giver, which is about life in a Utopic society—a world without pain, suffering, racism, poverty, or hunger—Gathering Blue is about the opposite—a Dystopic society—a world with hunger, hatred, ignorance, discrimination, abuse, and neglect.  Although both are written within the same genre of science fiction, Lowry shows versatility by writing from these two different perspectives.  She developed the setting well and made us aware of what could happen if evil continues to fill the world.  Kira describes the sounds of the village: “…Everywhere she heard arguing.  The cadence of bickering was a constant sound in the village: the harsh remarks of men vying for power; the shrill bragging and taunting of women envious of one another and irritable with the tykes who whined and whimpered at their feet and were frequently kicked out of the way.” 

Lowry also introduces another “town” called the Fen.  Kira describes, “People from the Fen were oddly different.  Always identifiable by their strange speech and crude manners, they were looked down upon by most people.”  Kira is friends with a young tyke named Matt who is from the Fen.  In discussing the Fen with Kira, Matt explains, “In the Fen,” he added, “things is different.  Many gots no pa.  And them that gots them, they be scairt of them, ‘cause they hit something horrid…me mum hits too,” he added, with a sigh.”

Unlike Jonas in The Giver who is a highly valued member of the community, Kira is more of an outcast in the village.  Her leg was born twisted and she walks with a limp.  Normally, a deformity such as this would be reason to be put to death, but for some reason, Kira is spared—a reason that will continue to save her life.

In Jonas’s society, people were completely unaware of the past.  They had no memories and no negative feelings.  In Kira’s village, people did not seem to have their own memories of the world, but are reminded of what the world was like every year at a special gathering where they listen to the Singer of the village perform the Ruin Song.  This song lasts for hours and recaps all of the world’s events.  The Singer wears a special robe that is embroidered with memories.  The Singer’s role seems much like the Giver’s role in The Giver because the singer seems to have the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Kira had a special gift of weaving the future—the ultimate reason why she was saved in spite of her deformity.  Kira is given the job of mending the special robe and filling in the blanks.  As Kira reflects on her mending, she thinks,

“He pointed to a place that she recalled had been difficult for her; though tiny in size, as each embroidered scene was, it was a complicated portrayal of tall buildings in shades of gray, each of them toppling, against a background of fiery explosions.  Kira had matched oranges and reds of different shades and had found the various grays for the smoke and the buildings.  But the threading had been hard for her because she had no sense of what the buildings were.  She had never seen anything like them.”

What event in history do you think of when you read this description?

This description reminded me of a significant event in history—9/11.  I had thought that was what Lowry’s intention was until I read the copyright—2000.  In a speech given entitled, “Beginning of Sadness,” Lowry states, "It seemed, when I wrote it, a fantasy.  On September 11th, watching the towers crumble and collapse, fantasy receded and became real.  My own words seemed eerily prophetic and I winced at the thought of young people realizing that the streets and buildings and schools and playgrounds of their childhood can disappear in an instant of horror." 

By the time I reached the halfway point of the book, I wondered if there would ever be a connection to the characters in The Giver.  Did I miss something?  Lois Lowry, in her book of 215 pages, did not make any connection to The Giver until page 213.  Finally Matt mentions in a conversation with Kira, “I know you can’t be getting a hubby because of your horrid gimp,” he said in a low, apologetic voice.  “It’s all right,” she reassured him.  He tugged at her sleeve eagerly. “I been wanting to tell you that them other people—them broken ones?  They gets married.  And I seen a boy there, a two-syllable boy, not even broken, just about the same age as you.  I bet you could marry him,” Matt announced in a solemn whisper, “iffen you want to.”…”His eyes be a very amazing blue,” Matt said importantly, as if it might matter.”

In a world with no color, I remember concluding that Jonas must have had blue eyes because they were different than most and were described as being gray.  It was satisfying to know that I had correctly concluded this and although Matt does not mention the name of the young man, it is easy to conclude that it must be Jonas.

Just as with The Giver, I had questions at the end of Gathering Blue.  I was not at first planning to read The Messenger, but I realized on page 213, that there was no way that I could not find out how Lowry concluded everything.  Perhaps in The Messenger, the utopic society presented in, The Giver and the dystopic society presented in Gathering Blue, meet somewhere in the middle and become the society closer to the one that we live in today.

The Giver

By Lois Lowry

News of devastation and anguish is almost inevitable when reading the morning paper or watching the evening news.  We hear stories of crimes so unimaginable we cannot even fathom how one could be capable of committing such an act.  We watch as our symbols of freedom fall and wonder how we have gotten to this point.  We see images of starving children and families and are saddened by the suffering and unfortunate circumstances that remind us we are not always equal in spite of what we may think or hope.  We often wish for the war to be over, poverty to cease, and acts of hatred to subside.  We hope for and dream of a place where hardships and pain do not exist.  Some call this place of perfection Utopia.

In Lois Lowry’s, The Giver, we are brought to a place of such perfection—a Utopic community where even the slightest sufferings and annoyances such as sunburns and household chores are non-existent.  We may think, “How wonderful!  Is this not what we have always yearned for?”  But, as we will learn, a world without cruel hardships is also a world without true happiness.  It is a society without love, without choice, without diversity, and without color.  Simply put—it is a society of Sameness.

Just as parents try to protect their children from ugliness in the world, the leaders in this community of sameness also try to protect their members from—quite frankly, everything.  They hand-select birth mothers and designate rules and age groups for milestones.  For example, bike riding is a privilege given when you are a nine and taking away stuffed animals occurs when you are an eight and are given more responsibilities within the community.  In addition, they choose compatible people to be parents and to raise the children who were also specifically chosen for them.  Elders live in, The House of the Old, and wait until it is there time to be released—which no one knows for sure what that means or where the people go—just that they are never to be seen again.

The protagonist in the story, Jonas, possesses intelligence, integrity, courage and the ability to acquire wisdom.  It is for these reasons that Jonas was selected as the new Receiver of Memory—the highest honored job within the community of which he lives.  At the Ceremony of Twelve, Chief Elder explains to the community that Jonas, “…will be faced, now, with pain of a magnitude that none of us here can comprehend because it is beyond our experience.”  At the time, Jonas does not fully understand what this means.  As readers, we do not fully understand either.

He begins to understand as the Giver transmits memories he has been holding on to for the community.  Jonas learns about colors, sledding, the feeling of snow, and sunshine.  He witnesses love, warmth, and family.  He also learns about pain—a broken leg, warfare, and death.  He starts to realize through the transmission of memories that the community that he lives in is not as perfect as it seems.  He realizes all that he is missing and he wants to bring about change.

Jonas and the Giver both decide that something must be done and a plan must be made when Jonas witnesses his own father euthanizing a young infant because he is, “a shrimp.”  It is at this moment that the Giver and Jonas devise a plan for Jonas to escape to Elsewhere.  He will leave the memories he has been given behind and the Giver will help everyone cope with the memories that they now have.

The ending of the story can be interpreted in a number of ways.  According to Lois Lowry in her Newbery Acceptance Speech, there is not a “right” ending to the story. 

“Those of you who hoped that I would stand here tonight and reveal the “true” ending, the “right” interpretation of the ending, will be disappointed. There isn’t one. There’s a right one for each of us, and it depends on our own beliefs, our own hopes.”

I felt hope at the end of the story that Jonas and Gabe had made it to Elsewhere.  I felt happiness that Jonas was able to experience the power of love for another human being, as he risked his life and saved another.  I think the music that he heard off in the distance represented both his future and his past.  Perhaps the Giver was giving the memory of music to the people in his community in order to help them through their pain—signaling to Jonas that things would be okay.  Some interpret the ending to be that Jonas and Gabe died.  I hadn’t thought of this at first, but can certainly understand and see both interpretations.  How do you think it ended?

I also wonder about the eyes—Gabriel, Jonas, Rosemary, Catherine, and the Giver all had the same pale eyes when everyone else had dark eyes.  What is it about the pale eyes that mark the ability and strength to be the Receiver of Memory? 

It’s no wonder that Lois Lowry won the Newbery Medal for writing a piece of literature that causes all of us to think about humanity and the values and beliefs that we possess.  Although parents deem some of the content inappropriate for children and often challenge the book, I believe the powerful message the book delivers overpowers the mention of the ugliness that is already within our world.  Lowry writes in her dedication, “For all the children—To whom we entrust the future.”  Lowry believes we need to trust the reader to interpret the meaning of the story as it was intended—to have the strength to rise above and make changes to do what is right—to determine which sacrifices are worth making in order to experience true happiness.