Lois Lowry’s Messenger continues the quartet beginning with the quintessential dystopian novel, The Giver, and Gathering Blue, followed by Son.
For the past six years, Matty has lived in Village and flourished under the guidance of Seer, a blind man, known for his special sight. Village was a place that welcomed newcomers, but something sinister has seeped into Village and the people have voted to close it to outsiders. Matty has been invaluable as a messenger. Now he must make one last journey through the treacherous forest with his only weapon, a power he unexpectedly discovers within himself.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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Sexual Content - 0/5
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Violence - 1/5
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Language - 0/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 0/5
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Summary
Overall Messenger is the third book in The Giver novel series by Lois Lowry. The character, Matt, from the second book has now grown up into his older teen years and is now living in Village. This is a place where disfigurements, disabilities, and oddities are accepted. This is a place where the residents care for each other and lend a
helping hand. But something odd has infiltrated Village: those disabilities and disfigurements are slowly disappearing the kind and compassionate gestures are disappearing, too, only to be replaced with greed and selfishness and harshness. The reader can see that Leader and Seer have an idea as to why the disintegration of their culture is happening yet there doesn't seem to be anything to be done to stop it. Lois Lowry's unique writing style allows the reader to feel just as unsure of what is going on; however, this is not a negative, rather a means to let her readers experience what her main characters (Matty, Seer, Leader) are feeling as they puzzle through the strange developments in Village. Ms. Lowry's novel also kept me asking myself what her purpose was in writing the book. One thing I believe she was writing to is man's nature of becoming discontent with his appearance, with his belongings, with his relationships. I believe that she believes wallowing in discontent leads to a descent into greed, selfishness, tight fistedness, and harshness. I also wonder if she isn't making a commentary on the human desire to live in a perfect society. I think she is expressing the belief that anything that may seemingly start out perfect will eventually descend into something much less than perfect due to our human nature led astray by discontent and the desire for more. One thing is for sure, she has written a thoughtful novel once again! If you liked this book you should read the concluding novel,
Son.