The Giver - Censorship Presentation

"I think The Giver is a great book that teaches how im­por­tant individuality and free­dom of choice is in our so­ci­ety. I think ban­ning this book only fur­ther takes away from the al­ready lim­ited choices in literature that students have. If any­thing, it brings our world closer to the world of The Giver."

-Derrick Baker, College Student

Where is the Giver banned/challenged?

• The Giver is challenged in Colorado, Ohio, Montana, Missouri, California, and Florida.
• The book is no longer in libraries in Kansas.

The Giver is a quadrilogy, a series of 4 books:

The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son.

Unfortunately, Messenger is currently banned in Texas. Eventually this whole series could be challenged everywhere in similar states in America...

"Our people made that choice, the choice to go to

Sameness... We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with differences."

-The Giver, Lois Lowry

The Giver Movie

Lois Lowry

Bibliography

Chiesa. "Banned: The Bluest Eye and the Giver." Pawprint [Maryville]. MaryvillePawprint, www.maryvillepawprint.com/banned-the-bluest-eye-and-the-giver/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.

Perdue, Natalie. "Why Was the Giver Banned?" Study, 22 Sept. 2022, study.com/learn/lesson/the-giver-lois-lowry-prohibition-controversies-issues.html. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.

Reece, Arabella. "Lois Lowry, 'The Giver.'" BannedBooks, Carnegie Mellon University, 11 Sept. 2019, bannedbooks.library.cmu.edu/lois-lowry-the-giver/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.

The Effects

The Giver's bannings or challenges in several states has led to controversy throughout the country. Books overall should not be banned, especially those foreshadowing what society could really become.

The Giver, if banned, would not be able to show children and students alike the importance of:

• A granted, non-censored world.
• How big the world could be / Big events around everyone that people don't know about.
• Understanding euthanasia / infanticide.
• The way of collectivism.

The Giver:

Why is it banned?

The Giver Book

The Giver: Summary & Backstory

Jonas

Fiona

• The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is a novel that was published in 1993 displaying the central theme of collectivism.

• The main character, Jonas, is a member of the Community who is destined to be the Receiver and learn what society used to be from the Giver.

• Society as it stands is a black and white, painless atmosphere where everybody is essentially the same, but only one person has the knowledge of the hidden history: the Giver...

The Giver:

Banned & Challenged

The Giver is banned for reasons such as:

• Sexual Content
• Violence
• Infanticide
• Suicide
• Euthanasia

Examples:

Sexual Content:

-Jonas' view of Fiona

Violence:

-Memories given of war

Infanticide/Euthanasia:

-"Putting to sleep" of infants/elders specifically almost Gabriel

Suicide:

-Rosemary killing herself, unable to withstand the memories

Gabriel

The Giver

Rosemary

"I think banning books is a very, very dangerous thing. It takes away an important freedom. Any time there is an attempt to ban a book, you should fight it as hard as you can. It’s okay for a parent to say, ‘I don’t want my child to read this book.’ But it is not okay for anyone to try to make that decision for other people. The world portrayed in The Giver is a world where choice has been taken away. It is a frightening world. Let’s work hard to keep it from truly happening."

-Lois