'People do not change, they are merely revealed.'
The Gathering is written in the perspective of Veronica, and she explains her family's stories and secrets. Her brother, Liam, died, and his funeral brings her large family together (Veronica is one of nine living children! I'm not sure how many there were originally). She talks about three different generations, starting with her grandma.
It was written in an interesting way and I enjoyed reading it. It has a pessimistic tone, which left me feeling downhearted as I was reading it. To be frank, I was disappointed in the story. Since there were a few deaths, I was expecting a murder/detective novel. But alas, I was completely wrong. After finishing the book, I thought 'oh, is that all?'. It left me feeling that something was missing from the story. The idea of the story was interesting, but there could be more twists and surprises. It won the Man Booker Prize in 2007, so I might be the only one feeling this way. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad book. But I think it wasn't my style. It was wonderfully written, but I was looking for a bit more action.
" The worst part of
holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need
to be shared.” – The Giver
Jonas was born into
a perfect society. Every little detail was organised and planned, everything
was methodical and conventional. No one ever experienced thirst, hunger or pain – no
one even knew these things could exist. By the time children reach 12 they are
told what they will work as; even though they didn’t have the freedom to
choose what area they would work, their job was a perfect reflection of their personalities. Jonas was given the most honourable job as the “Receiver”.
He will be in charge of all the memories, therefore no one else has to
experience pain but there is one person to remember and not repeat mistakes in
history. However, when Jonas starts receiving memories he opens his eyes to a
whole other world. No one feels pain but nor do they feel love, everything is
the same for everyone but there is no colour – the world is grey - there is no
sunshine or soft snow. Jonas realises holding memories may be painful but they hold so much warmth and happiness that everyone should have the opportunity to
experience them and most importantly have a choice in life.
The
Giver by Lois Lowry is a
science fiction book reflecting on the perfect world and the importance of
memories, experiences and free choice. Lowry wrote the book after her father
lost most of his long term memory. Memories can traumatise someone but they are
so important to learn from and to grow from. Memories also contain just as
much, if not even more, goodness in them.
Lois Lowry tries to
create the perfect world, but the whole concept of perfectness can never
be truly established within the limitations of human’s imaginations. It is only
subjective to one’s perceptions. Therefore when the characters in the book went
through their lives they didn’t question it.
