The Giver

the giver

I have recently read a short story called “Jest and Earnest” by Annie Dillard. In this story, the author observes three situations in nature involving different animals. Each represents a different aspect of the amazing and scary world we live in. Using her animal examples, she describes the world as cruel, beautiful, and a combination of both.

I think that we often look at the bad more than the good. We often fail to notice or appreciate the beauty of things we see everyday. After reading “Jest and Earnest”, I became more aware of this. I thought about an amazing book I read called The Giver by Lois Lowry, where both the cruel and beautiful aspects of people’s lives have been (for the most part) eliminated.

The Giver is a story about a boy named Jonas who lives in a utopian society. In his society, there are no wars and no suffering. Everyone is nice and polite. However, this society also does not have many of the simple pleasures we enjoy today. Objects are made to be practical, not beautiful. No one can see colors and no one has strong feelings. People take pills to suppress strong feelings like love, hate, and anger. Upon turning twelve, Jonas, along with all of his other peers in his age group, receives a job presented to him at the Ceremony by the community’s Elders. Jonas is chosen for the exceptionally unique job of becoming the next Receiver of Memories. He is expected to gain the memories of the world from the current Receiver, who changes his name to the Giver when he begins passing his memories on to Jonas. Although many are pleasant, several are painful and all of them give Jonas wisdom and knowledge about the world’s history. He learns about pain and pleasure and cruelty and beauty. These are some of the things that give life meaning. Jonas wants to share his experiences with his community, but they fear learning of the past. They prefer to continue living in ignorance, yet they know the memories of the past must not be lost so they choose one person to hold them all. Jonas must devise a plan to share his memories with his community.

Although The Giver is written in simple language, it is really a book for everybody. It is an incredibly-thought provoking story. I would definitely recommend it.

Legend Series

Legend series

There are many different types of motivation. One of these is discontentment. Discontentment may seem like a bad thing, but it can actually be good sometimes. When people are discontented with their weight, they often work harder to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle. When people are discontented with their grades, they often work harder to get better grades. On a larger scale, people throughout history have changed the world due to their discontentment. Many have created life-changing innovations because they were unsatisfied with the way things were done before.

Similarly, in Legend by Marie Lu, motivation is the driving force to make a change. In the near future, America is divided into two warring countries: The Republic in the west and the Colonies in the east. Both main characters, June and Day, live in the Republic.

June and Day’s lives are opposite in almost every way. While June is a wealthy prodigy of the government, Day is a wanted criminal. When June’s brother Metias is killed, everyone believes Day did it. June’s militaristic school sends her on a mission to find Day and bring him to justice. But not everything is how it seems. Soon June and Day come to realize that their government is much more corrupt than they originally thought. With most of the population discontent in their society, rebellion seems inevitable. June and Day must work together to end the old regime and reform the republic for the better.

Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl

I have learned that we all have our three types of “knowns”: our known knowns, our known unknowns, and our unknown unknowns. What we do with them is up to us.

For example, Artemis Fowl puts his “knowns” to evil uses. This 12-year old criminal mastermind has many more known knowns than the average person. In other words, he is a genius. His family is no longer as rich as it used to be, so Artemis seeks ways to regain the money lost. He does not settle for any known method to gain wealth; he goes beyond the known knowns, beyond the known unknowns, and straight to the unknown unknowns. No one knows that fairies exist – until Artemis discovers them. Artemis resolves to use this now known known to restore his family’s wealth. After he captures one of the fairies, Captain Holly Short, Artemis thinks he can hold her ransom and the other fairies will give him all of their gold in order to get her back. Unfortunately for Artemis, he does not know what he is up against. These fairies have a highly advanced military and they are ready to fight.

This eight book series by Eoin Colfer is amazing. Artemis Fowl may just be one of the most interesting characters I have ever read about. In the beginning, he starts out as a villain. As the series progresses, however, Artemis Fowl changes. I realize this book is meant for younger readers, but I believe older readers will enjoy this story just as well.