An Analysis Of The Giver From The Perspective Of Deconstruction

Lois Lowry was an American woman writer. She wrote more than twenty five books for young adults and children since the year of 1976. She made great contribution to the contemporary young adult literature. Her novel The Giver was published in 1993 and won the Newbery Medal the next year. It caused a huge social effect after publishing, and it became the primary and middle school students’ must reading book, and still popular today.The society in this novel The Giver is a utopian community and it is a perfect world created by its creators. It is a place where the citizens work together and share all the society sources.This perfect place eliminates war, hunger, poverty, crime, pain, illness, conflict, hatred and fear.And in order to keep the peace and order of the society, the citizens here must obey the strict rules with their behaviors. The inhabitants are happy and peaceful, but at the same time they lack the basic freedom and pleasures that a normal society values.In order to help readers understand this novel better, this thesis try to use the deconstructive approach to analyze the figure and text of the novel. This thesis analyzes the novel in three different aspects. It includes the community, the maturing process of the protagonist Jonas, and the text. In Chapter Two, the analysis of the community is based on the deconstruction theory of logocentrism and binary opposition. The utopia of the community and the hegemony of the community are based on the theory of logocentrism. The analysis between political centrism and private freedom is based on the theory of binary opposition. The analysis between male egocentrism and female utopia private is also based on the theory of binary opposition. In Chapter Three, the thesis discusses the maturing process of the protagonist Jonas. Based on the upbringing situation of Jonas, this chapter analyzes given memory, escape trigger and freedom pursuit of Jonas. It aims to help the readers to understand the maturing process of Jonas and this novel deeply. Chapter Four of the thesis is base on the analysis of text. It analyzes the multiple meaning of partial contents of the novel and the open ending of the novel.In conclusion, the innovativeness of the thesis is discussed mainly from the perspective of deconstruction to explore the value of the novel. The Giver is the speaker of Lois Lowry’s point of view and attitude toward the protagonists’ inner world. This novel will bring enlightenment to the growing young adults.