“Why We Need THE GIVER” – Rebecca Cusey

The liberty that defines an American life lies at the very heart of The Giver, argues Rebecca Cusey in her recent article. Read below for more highlights as to why she feels this way:

“more recent teen heroes owe their success to the 1993 novel that started the dystopian teen craze. Before Katniss strung her bow in ‘The Hunger Games’ or Tris jumped on a moving train in Divergent’s pages, there was Lois Lowry’s ‘The Giver.'”

“‘The Giver’ is concerned less with the how—the specifics of Jonas’s rebellion—than the why. And the why is where it soars. In beautiful flashes of image and emotion, we feel, rather than are told, the why. The thrill of danger on a sled ride. The smile on a bride’s face. The pride on a father’s. The agony of losing a friend. The heroism of a man standing alone in front of a line of tanks.”

“Without freedom to do wrong, there can be no right. Without the ability to choose evil, the option of choosing good is negated. Coerced goodness is not goodness at all, but something else entirely.”

“These are not mere platitudes. They lay at the very heart of the American experiment of liberty. Without the freedom to vile and offensive speech, beautiful and uplifting speech is impossible. Without the freedom to choose a wrong religion or no religion at all, faith means nothing.”

Click here to read the full article.

Photo courtesy of the federalist.com