An Analysis of Number the Stars and The Giver by Lois Lowry

Analysis, Pages 7 (1644 words)

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There have been many great authors throughout the years who have impacted many reader's lives. Lois Lowry has been one of those authors. She has contributed many great works, over 20 novels and has been recognized as winner of the Newbery Medal twice. Lowry's greatest strengths as an author are writing great books that connect with all age readers, although she mainly writes children and young adult books. Between the two novels I chose, Lowry reveals that ignorance can be bliss depending on the society and circumstances.

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The holocaust, cancer, personal experiences and people she met along her life inspired Lowry to write these beautiful works.

Throughout her books she uses imagery, metaphors, symbols, euphemisms, and many more rhetorical strategies to portray her themes. Lois Lowry, born Lois Ann Hammersberg is an American writer born on March 20, 1937 in Honolulu, Hawaii. She has won two Newbery Medals for Number the Stars and the Giver, which was made into a film this past year.

She's credited for more than thirty children's books and an autobiography. She was the middle child. She has an older sister named Helen and her younger brother named Jon. Her mother was Katherine Gordon of German, English and Scots- Irish ancestry. Her father was Robert Hammersberg an army dentist of Norwegian descent. Her older sister, Helen died at the age of twenty-eight of cancer. Her death influenced Lowry's first book "A Summer to Die", which is about a young girl who tragically loses her sister. This is also a subplot in her award winning book "Number the Stars".

She married at the age of nineteen to Donald Grey Lowry a U.S. Navy Officer. They had four children, two boys and two girls named Alix, Kristine, Grey and Benjamin. They moved around a lot due to Donald's job. Until they finally settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts after Donald left military service to attend Harvard Law School. After he finished law school the family moved to Portland, Main. She found time to complete her degree in English Literature from the University of Southern Maine in 1972 meanwhile taking care of her children. She earned her B.A.

Her freelance work for Redbook Magazine generated her first book opportunity a Houghton Mifflin editor recognized her talent and suggested her to write a children's book. And so she did at age forty she wrote "A Summer to Die" which Houghton Mifflin published in 1977, the same year she and Donald divorced. She has kept his last name till this day. Writing has sustained Lowry through her own hard times such as her son Alex's death. To this day she continues writing and speaking at appearances. Although her novels are very different; they share similar themes such as struggle of finding oneself, understanding freedom, and the importance of memory and limitations of knowledge. Lowry's work The Giver is told in the protagonist, Jonas point of view not the narrator's. It shows the importance of memory, search for individuality, and the limitation of knowledge. Jonas lives in a utopian society that has no prejudice. They have strict rules in order to live in a well-organized, stable community.

Everything and everyone are alike, from hair to clothes to homes to hobbies to everything. No one was better than anyone they're completely alike. How would someone know oneself as an individual if nothing sets him/her apart? At the age of twelve the civilians are given a task they will hold throughout their entire lives. Jonas is given a rare important task to be the Receiver of Memory. He is revealed to pain; something his community has never experienced because of their limited knowledge. He is given the memory from the giver, which was once the Receiver of Memory. Jonas too is supposed to pass on the memories. However, Jonas is hurt when he has seen not only happy but scaring painful memories. What is the point, if you can't remember anything? Such as war, love, color, hunger, suffering, affection, feelings, or pain. Without any memory of painful past experiences we wouldn't be able to identify pleasure. We would have nothing to help us differentiate it. Memory is important as well as finding oneself, knowing whom we are, what make us individuals, the capacity of searching for an answer without something or someone not allowing us to.

Jonas rose against all those obstacles that made him not be an individual. Against those who said he couldn't have an answer to his questions, not with violence, but with the bit of knowledge he was able to acquire. Unlike, all the society, including his loved ones who just stood by and watched because they thought they would be more comfortable not knowing the truth that was being hidden from them. Ignorance is bliss. Society lived completely fine they were healthy and safe. However, they knew deep inside something was missing something was taken away from them. The never spoke up never asked. They lived up to society's standards and expectations. That's what made Jonas different the . Her father inspired this novel. "Lois Lowry Says "The Giver' Was Inspired By Her Father's Memory Loss. One day, she showed her father a photo of her sister, who died at the age of 28."And he said, 'I can't remember her name,' and I told him her name," she says. "And he said, 'Whatever happened to her?" And I had to tell him about her death." Like so many who've suffered the pain of losing someone, Lowry considered - just passingly - how much better our existences might be if we didn't have memories at all."(Ulaby).

Throughout The Giver, Lois Lowry uses imagery, euphemism and symbols. She shows her descriptive style by using imagery. She is very detailed when the Giver is giving Jonas memories. Such as the time when he describes the road down the hill, war, and Christmas parties. She also uses euphemism by saying release instead of death. Lowry also uses symbols such as when she intentionally makes Jonas see the color red first in the apple, sled and Fiona's hair. When you think of red immediately love, pain, blood and fire come to mind. Love is what he feels for Fiona, along the story he describes being emotional and physical being attracted to her, however, he doesn't know how to put it into words. These rhetorical strategies shape Lowry's style. She has a simple, straightforward, summarized, well- chosen and descriptive style. "Number the Stars" takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark during the holocaust. Annemarie Johansen is the protagonist; she is only a girl during the time of war. As any other child during this time she struggles to understand what is going on. She has a best friend who lives in the same building as her, named Ellen Rosen.

Ellen's family is Jewish and is in danger when the Nazi soldiers start relocating the Jews of Denmark. The Johansens are good friends of the Rosens so they set up a plan to help them escape to Sweden where they will be safe. Ellen must pretend to be Annemarie's sister Lise who had passed away due to a car accident. Growing up in this story has been very difficult and makes Annemarie struggle to find her identity. She doesn't know if she belongs to an adult or child life and the war doesn't help in this case. She has both kinds of responsibilities. Information is hidden from her due to her young age. As a child, we question everything. We want to go out and discover; find out who, what, where, when, and why. Annemarie is curious, she struggles to differentiate the information hid for protecting her and the information hid her because of her age. Another important character Uncle Henrik told Anne why she is brave and why something are better untold, "It's much easier to be brave if you do not know everything. And so your mama does not know everything.

Neither do I. We know only what we need to know." (Lowry) Ignorance is a sort of protection shield in this story just like in The Giver. Lois was inspired to write this tale by her friend Annelise Platt's stories; which is even dedicated to her. She was a child in Denmark during the years of the war and grew up watching injustice and the community helping her community Jews escape. Lois connected with the audience using ethos and logos. She used various rhetorical strategies, including metaphors and symbols. For example, the Star of David plays a huge symbolic in this story. The Star of David represents the Jewish community, her best friend Ellen was Jewish. When Ellen is forced to stay with the Johansens she must pretend to be Anne's dead sister Lise. She hands over her Star of David Annemarie to hide it to prevent anyone from knowing her identity. Throughout the book, Annemarie always happens to make connections to the stars as some sort of symbol. She compares a star to a human.

The sky is so big and one star is so small. And the world is so big, cold, cruel and she is only one out of many. She later ends the book and mentions her back home opening her sister Lise trunk and finding the hidden Star of David necklace. Ellen quickly comes to mind and she felt as she has had another sister. Between the two novels I culled, Lowry reveals that incognizance can be bliss depending on the society and circumstances. Lois stories proved this using her characters. Annemarie and Jonas faces the lack of answers in different ways. However, they both are well written works by Lois. Stories like these help you learn that one brain can outsmart a million guns. This doesn't necessarily mean you need to be unaware of everything however, sometimes not knowing something is more comfortable than knowing it.