A Story That's Important to Me

A story that is important to me is "The Giver" by Lois Lowry. It presents a shocking, seemingly Utopian future in which everyone and everything is equal. The characters can't see color, they don't have memories, they don't feel any true emotions, and they live in a climate controlled, featureless "community". There is just one person in the community who does have memories, sees colors, and feels emotions; he is called the receiver. The main character, Jonas, is selected to replace the aging receiver and when he begins taking on the memories he realizes the faults in his world, including the realization that when a person is "released", they are actually killed. A child Jonas' family is taking care of is scheduled to be released and Jonas goes on a secret, midnight mission to save the child and release the memories so the rest of the community can experience them. Despite the risks and being pursued by security forces Jonas manages to escape, release the memories, and keep himself and the child alive long enough to make it to another place to live. This story is important to me because it showed me how bleak and faulty our world would be with the amount of equality in the book. It inspires me to stay creative and to strive to be different from others because too few differences and too much control lead to lies and misunderstandings.