Son

[calzephyr]

Son is the fourth and perhaps final book in The Giver series by Lois Lowry, and I'm not sure what to make of it as an adult reader. The previous two books, Gathering Blue and Messenger, had similar plot holey problems, spoiled the ambiguity of The Giver's ending and completely changed the story universe.

I would be completely OK with the sequels if they occurred in another story universe. The Giver was so fantastic and carefully written. Unfortunately I am no longer a young adult, but I'm pretty sure that I would have LOVED all four books. But this is what ten years of art college does - it makes you pick those nits.


The first part of Son retells part of The Giver from the point of view of a birthmother, Claire, which reveals how the mysterious community keeps its population up - one can be assigned "birthmother" as a job upon reaching twelve years old. The birthmothers are called Vessels, artificially inseminated, and become decertified after three births. The babies are actually called Products and go off to the Nurturing Centre after birth. Reproduction in the community is limited to 50 births per year, and all the inhabitants except the birthmothers take pills to squash sexual desire.

Claire's first birth goes awry and she ends up being having a Caesarean section and is reassigned to work in the fish hatchery. She accidentally finds out which number her child is and manages to volunteer at the Nurturing Centre to visit with him. In the community's universe, babies are assigned to parental units at the age of one.

The second part of the story concerns Claire's rescue and integration into a rustic seaside community after she dares to escape her own. The third part feels rushed and one of the most overused clichés is used in a clichéd way. It seemed like three separate stories were mashed together here. The disappointment for me is the return of the metaphysical Trademaster and superhero powers of the characters. Part of the reason Jonas leaves the community in The Giver is that something needs to be done to force the community to change. We never learn if the people rebel against sameness or not or how they cope with the releasing of memories (which is never explained) when Jonas leaves. Trademaster, a metaphor for the Devil, is just so out of place in the series. Naturally Claire makes a trade for what she wants most.

Part of me is also tired of the "person flees technological society for the woods" trope. The original community has electricity, biotechnology and computers, but it is heavily implied in the three sequels that technology is bad and only things from nature and traditional ways are good. It was interesting that Claire discovers gendered roles when she joins the seaside village: in the nameless community, both parents work while children went to school or daycare. Here they fill traditional male and female gender roles - men do the fishing, women do the birthing. These roles were again emphasized in Gathering Blue and Messenger.

This throwback message seems awfully conservative in contemporary times, but it makes Claire unique since she isn't a typical YA heroine - she doesn't pick up a weapon and lacks the stereotypical pluck. She's simply a woman who wants to be reunited with her son. It's hard to know if young adult readers would be able to relate to Claire on this level, but the story could be seen as an adoption one instead. It's not known if Claire is Gabe's biological mother; indeed, where does the sperm come from?

The original community would have been so much more fascinating to explore. It's interesting to note that Lowry's adult son was killed in a fighter plane crash. If Messenger can be read as the sacrifice he made to preserve peace, then Son can be read as a heavenly reunion story.

Comments

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

The birthmothers are called Vessels, artificially inseminated, and become decertified after three births.

FWIW I don't think that the math works out to have this community have a stable population. To sustain a population, you need each (hetero) couple to have approximately 2 children. If we assume only women can give birth, and that there are equal numbers of women and men, than means that if every woman was a birthmother that every woman would need to have exactly 2 children. If you instead have only some women be birthmothers, and they have exactly 3 children, then 2/3 of women would have to be birthmothers - so 2/3 of teen girls would be assigned as birthmothers (though they could take other careers after that), and according to what I recall that's not the case.

If you factor in that imperfect children and weaker twins are killed, than you'd need even more than 2/3 of teen girls to spend a stint as a birth mother.

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you commented. I can't remember what the population is set at in The Giver, but it is odd as the rules seem symbolic on the surface. To be a parental unit, you need to apply for a spouse and eventually apply for children - you get one boy and girl. Once you fulfill the parental duties, it's off to a home for you! Old people are euthanized as well as multiple births. It seems doubtful that all fifty pregnancies will go perfectly either - unless they err on the side of caution and have extras. Man, I'm over thinking it.

The mechanics of this community are so unsustainable, even if people are drugged into being robots :D It is implied that goods are delivered to the community by riverboat, yet seemingly no exchange of ideas takes place.

The implications that teenage girls are forced into reproduction is so creepy in itself (Vessels wear a leather mask during birth so they don't see the baby) that I'm surprised Lowry went there at all.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I only read The Giver. It was pretty good, but not particularly good enough for me to want to keep reading the rest. I've put them on my mental "eventually read" list, but won't actually bother to put them on any wishlists, so I may forget about them before I get around to them. I think one of the things I disliked about the book was the mixture of technology and magic. Usually I like sci/fan crossovers, but somehow the magic of what's-his-name's memory ability is just so hand-wavy that it bugged me.

The implications that teenage girls are forced into reproduction is so creepy in itself (Vessels wear a leather mask during birth so they don't see the baby) that I'm surprised Lowry went there at all.

Reminds me of The Handmaid's Tale. Now that's a book I can read again. :-P

But is it really forcing if the girls think that this is the right thing to do and do it willingly? I mean, we don't hear any stories about girls rebelling (at least not in The Giver). Of course, they might just be too drugged to rebel before they get to that point and then be trapped into it afterwards... Hm, I wonder where they get the sperm from. Maybe from the same people making the decisions about who gets to reproduce? I forget who assigns the jobs.

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

Ooof, if you thought The Giver was too magical, the sequels are crazy magical. I always thought of Jonas as having a psychic ability; in the sequels he's practically one of the X-Men :-D

Luv The Handmaid's Tale. I should read it again too, because I can probably take more away from it as an adult.

Hmm, well, birthmother is assigned as a job, so there isn't much choice in matter, but also a lot of ignorance. It's implied that they aren't taught sex ed. It doesn't seem like a very consensual process. It's also implied that girls lacking in intelligence are assigned to be a birthmother.

Yeah, see this is something that would have been such a good story angle - that the community founders wanted to make sure only their perfect sperm was passed along...either that or some poor guy is chained in a closet with a lot of porn! "Timmy, you just turned 12! Your life assignment is progenitor!"

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, it says a lot about the community that teenage pregnancy is perfectly OK and sanctioned by the "state" as it were. Usually that's enough to cause a moral panic any day!