G eorge Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair, a British political novelist and essayist whose pointed criticisms of political oppression propelled him into prominence toward the middle of the twentieth century. Born in 1903 to British colonists in Bengal, India, Orwell received his education at a series of private schools, including Eton, an elite school in England. His painful experiences with snobbishness and social elitism at Eton, as well as his intimate familiarity with the reality of British imperialism in India, made him deeply suspicious of the entrenched class system in English society. As a young man, Orwell became a socialist, speaking openly against the excesses of governments east and west and fighting briefly for the socialist cause during the Spanish Civil War, which lasted from 1936 to 1939.
Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of English schoolboys marooned on a tropical island after their plane is shot down during a war. Though the novel is fictional, its exploration of the idea of human evil is at least partly based on Golding’s experience with the real-life violence and brutality of World War II. Free from the rules and structures of civilization and society, the boys on the island in Lord of the Flies descend into savagery. As the boys splinter into factions, some behave peacefully and work together to maintain order and achieve common goals, while others rebel and seek only anarchy and violence. In his portrayal of the small world of the island, Golding paints a broader portrait of the fundamental human struggle between the civilizing instinct—the impulse to obey rules, behave morally, and act lawfully—and the savage instinct—the impulse to seek brute power over others, act selfishly, scorn moral rules, and indulge in violence.
Golding employs a relatively straightforward writing style in Lord of the Flies, one that avoids highly poetic language, lengthy description, and philosophical interludes. Much of the novel is allegorical, meaning that the characters and objects in the novel are infused with symbolic significance that conveys the novel’s central themes and ideas. In portraying the various ways in which the boys on the island adapt to their new surroundings and react to their new freedom, Golding explores the broad spectrum of ways in which humans respond to stress, change, and tension.
Readers and critics have interpreted Lord of the Flies in widely varying ways over the years since its publication. During the 1950s and 1960s, many readings of the novel claimed that Lord of the Flies dramatizes the history of civilization. Some believed that the novel explores fundamental religious issues, such as original sin and the nature of good and evil. Others approached Lord of the Flies through the theories of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who taught that the human mind was the site of a constant battle among different impulses—the id (instinctual needs and desires), the ego (the conscious, rational mind), and the superego (the sense of conscience and morality). Still others maintained that Golding wrote the novel as a criticism of the political and social institutions of the West. Ultimately, there is some validity to each of these different readings and interpretations of Lord of the Flies. Although Golding’s story is confined to the microcosm of a group of boys, it resounds with implications far beyond the bounds of the small island and explores problems and questions universal to the human experience.
WILLIAM GOLDING:
W illiam golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Cornwall, England. Although he tried to write a novel as early as age twelve, his parents urged him to study the natural sciences. Golding followed his parents’ wishes until his second year at Oxford, when he changed his focus to English literature. After graduating from Oxford, he worked briefly as a theater actor and director, wrote poetry, and then became a schoolteacher. In 1940, a year after England entered World War II, Golding joined the Royal Navy, where he served in command of a rocket-launcher and participated in the invasion of Normandy.
Back cover:
Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community.
When Jonas turns twelve, he is signed out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now it's time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.
Inside flap:
"The simplicity and directness of Lowry's writing force readers to grapple with their own thoughts."- Booklists, Starred
"A richly provocative novel."- Kirkus Reviews,Starred
"Lowry is once again in top form...a tale fit for the most adventurous readers." - Publishers Weekly, Starred
"The theme of balancing the values of freedom and security is beautifully presented."- The Horn Book Magazine, Starred
"A powerful and provocative novel." -The New York Times
Lois Lowry is an award-winning author who has written many popular books for young adults. She has twice been the recipient of the Newbery Medal, for Number the Stars and The Giver. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Dedication:
For all the children
To whom we entrust the future
Additional summary of the book:
The Giver is set in a future society which is at first presented as a utopian society and gradually appears more and more dystopian; therefore, it could be considered anti-utopian. The novel follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth year of his life. The society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to "Sameness", a plan which has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of "Receiver of Memory," the person who stores all the memories of the time before Sameness, in case they are ever needed to aid in decisions that others lack the experience to make. When Jonas meets the Giver, he is confused in many ways. The giver is also able to break some rules, such as turning off the speaker and locking his door. As Jonas receives the memories from the previous receiver—the "Giver"—he discovers how shallow his community's life has become.
LOIS LOWRY:
L ois lowry was born in 1937 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Because her father was in the army, Lowry moved around as a child. She lived in several different countries, including Japan. She attended Brown University, where she was a writing major, but left college before graduation to get married. Lowry’s marriage did not last, but she had four children who became a major inspiration for her work. She finished her college degree at the University of Maine and worked as a housekeeper to earn a living. She continued to write, however, filled with ideas by the adventures of her children. In addition to working on young adult novels, Lowry also wrote textbooks and worked as a photographer specializing in children’s portraits.
Since then, Lowry has written more than twenty books for young adults, including the popular Anastasia series and Number the Stars, which won the Newbery Medal and the National Jewish Book Award in 1990. She was inspired to write The Giver—which won the 1994 Newbery medal—after visiting her elderly father in a nursing home. He had lost most of his long-term memory, and it occurred to Lowry that without memory there is no longer any pain. She imagined a society where the past was deliberately forgotten, which would allow the inhabitants to live in a kind of peaceful ignorance. The flaws inherent in such a society, she realized, would show the value of individual and community memory: although a loss of memory might mean a loss of pain, it also means a loss of lasting human relationships and connections with the past.
| 1. threatening or portending evil, harm, or trouble; ominous: a sinister remark. 2. bad, evil, base, or wicked; fell: his sinister purposes. 3.unfortunate; disastrous; unfavorable: a sinister accident. 4. of or on the left side; left. STOIC: 1. of or pertaining to the school of philosophy founded by Zeno, who taught that people should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submit without complaint to unavoidable necessity. 2. a member or adherent of the Stoic school of philosophy. 3. a person who maintains or affects the mental attitude advocated by the Stoics. 4. One who is seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by joy,grief,pleasure,or pain DYSTOPIA: 1. : an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives. 2. An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror. 3. an imaginary place where the conditions and quality of life are unpleasant. 4. The opposite of Utopia:(ideally a perfect state, especially in the political,moral and social aspects). IRONY: 1. the use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning. 2. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning. 3. Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs 4. the humorous or mildly sarcastic use of words to imply the opposite of what they normally mean, a form of deliberate mockery in which one says the opposite of what is obviously true. 5.seeming mockery in a situation, words etc The irony of the situation was that he stole the money which she had already planned to give him. OMINOUS: 1. Menacing; threatening: ominous black clouds; ominous rumblings of discontent. 2. Of or being an omen, especially an evil one. 3. threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments; "a baleful look"; "forbidding thunderclouds"; "his tone became menacing"; "ominous rumblings of discontent"; "sinister storm clouds"; "a sinister smile"; "his threatening behavior"; "ugly black clouds"; "the situation became ugly" OUTCAST: 1.One that has been excluded from a society or system. 2. a vagabond or wanderer 3. anything thrown out or rejected, a person who is rejected (from society or home), excluded from a society CULT: 1. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader. 2. A system or community of religious worship and ritual. 3. The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual, usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease. 4. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing PAIN: 1. An unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder. 2. Suffering or distress, informal A source of annoyance; a nuisance. 3. emotional suffering or mental distress, To cause pain to; hurt or injure. STERILE: 1. Lacking imagination, creativity, or vitality. 2.Lacking the power to function; not productive or effective; fruitless, Not able to produce offspring, seeds, or fruit; unable to reproduce. DETACHED: 1. Separated; disconnected: a detached part; a detached plug. 2. Standing apart from others; separate, Marked by an absence of emotional involvement and an aloof, impersonal objectivity. 3.being or feeling set or kept apart from others;Lacking affection or warm feeling; "an uncaring person" NAIVE: 1. Lacking worldly experience and understanding,especially: 2. simple and guileless;artless,a child with a naive charm 3.unsuspecting,credulous, showing characterized or lack of sophistication and critical judgement. 4.lacking developed powers of analysis,reasoning and criticism 5. another word for primitive "The naive assumption that things can only get better"; "this naive simple creature with wide friendly eyes so eager to believe appearances" PRIMITIVE:1.Not derived from something else; primary or basic.2.of or relating to the earliest form or state,Characterized by simplicity or crudity;unsophisticated. 2. Of or relating to a nonindustrial, often tribal culture, especially one that is characterized by a low level of economic complexity,Relating or belonging to forces of nature; elemental 3. Of or created by an artist without formal training; simple or naive in style, Of or relating to the work of an artist from a nonindustrial, often tribal culture, especially a culture that is characterized by a low level of economic complexity. 4. An artist having or affecting a simple, direct, unschooled style, as of painting,An unsophisticated person,One that is at a low or early stage of development. |
organic _+_ _ _ high–tech
minimal _+_ _ _ ornamental
retro _ _+ _ _ contemporary
unrefined/rough _+ _ _ _ clean/sophisticated
machine made _ _ _+_handmade
traditional _ _ _+_non-traditional
complex _ +_ _ _easy
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