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Number the Stars
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From: Megan Schliesman <mjschlie>
Date: Sat, 18 Jan 1997 20:42:15 -0600
The question as to what Number the Stars and The Giver might have in common is a wonderful one to start thinking about both stories. One of the things that occurs to me when I think about how the stories might compare is that both have children trying to understand and deal with a threat that is posed by a socio-political structure, rather than a problem that is more intimate and familial in nature. (Even though Jonas is ultimately at odds with his parents as well because of there unquestioning compliance with the social rules all live by in The Giver.) The way in which these structures affect the children's lives is, of course, intimate and personal (to the extent that anything is intimate and personal in the society in which The Giver takes place, but an awareness of the personal is part of Jonas's awakening), and that is one of the ways Lois Lowry takes something huge and almost unfathomable for children (like facism and whatever other terms we might apply to what is happening in both stories) and makes it something to which they can emotionally, and intellectually, respond. Which brings up another commonality - there is so much for children to think about and to feel while experiencing these novels, and the biggest question that both of them raise, for me at least, is "Why would people do this to each other?" Whether or not this is a thought the children consciously articulate, my guess is that it resonates at some level for many of them.
It is challenging to think about these two stories in comparison because the contrasts to them seem striking in many ways. Yet one of the most straightfoward differences, that one is historical fiction and the other is futuristic, makes the common theme of a society in which there is an attempt to control individuals lives, limit their freedoms, and ultimately suppress their differences, all the more powerful as a comparison.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the two books to me is the use of color (or, in the case of The Giver, the lack of it). Imagination and difference are so oppressed in Jonas's world that there is no perception of color, and Lois Lowry conveyed that so effectively (both literally, as The Giver has to explain to Jonas what color is, and through an absence of color when she describes the things in Jonas's world) that my own mind did not fill in the blanks. When I think about the action of The Giver unfolding, when I see it in my mind's eye, it is all in shades of gray and white, until then end, when I see the blue-black sky, the shadowed snow, and the far-off yellow light. But in Number the Stars, color is everywhere: the yellow dress of Annemarie's older sister stands out most prominently to me, but also hair and eye color (so critical in the minutes when Annemarie's best friend must pass as her sister). I don't have the book in front of me, but I feel that if I did I could pull out many examples of the color of things, because I see them in my mind's eye: the uncle's house, the meadow flowers, the white handkerchief. Maybe I'm imagining some of them, but if so, it's because I sense the color. When I think about it in comparison to The Giver, color becomes a celebration of life in Number the Stars, a celebration of the human spirit enduring.
Megan Schliesman Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education University of Wisconsin-Madison schliesman at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu
Received on Sat 18 Jan 1997 08:42:15 PM CST
Date: Sat, 18 Jan 1997 20:42:15 -0600
The question as to what Number the Stars and The Giver might have in common is a wonderful one to start thinking about both stories. One of the things that occurs to me when I think about how the stories might compare is that both have children trying to understand and deal with a threat that is posed by a socio-political structure, rather than a problem that is more intimate and familial in nature. (Even though Jonas is ultimately at odds with his parents as well because of there unquestioning compliance with the social rules all live by in The Giver.) The way in which these structures affect the children's lives is, of course, intimate and personal (to the extent that anything is intimate and personal in the society in which The Giver takes place, but an awareness of the personal is part of Jonas's awakening), and that is one of the ways Lois Lowry takes something huge and almost unfathomable for children (like facism and whatever other terms we might apply to what is happening in both stories) and makes it something to which they can emotionally, and intellectually, respond. Which brings up another commonality - there is so much for children to think about and to feel while experiencing these novels, and the biggest question that both of them raise, for me at least, is "Why would people do this to each other?" Whether or not this is a thought the children consciously articulate, my guess is that it resonates at some level for many of them.
It is challenging to think about these two stories in comparison because the contrasts to them seem striking in many ways. Yet one of the most straightfoward differences, that one is historical fiction and the other is futuristic, makes the common theme of a society in which there is an attempt to control individuals lives, limit their freedoms, and ultimately suppress their differences, all the more powerful as a comparison.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the two books to me is the use of color (or, in the case of The Giver, the lack of it). Imagination and difference are so oppressed in Jonas's world that there is no perception of color, and Lois Lowry conveyed that so effectively (both literally, as The Giver has to explain to Jonas what color is, and through an absence of color when she describes the things in Jonas's world) that my own mind did not fill in the blanks. When I think about the action of The Giver unfolding, when I see it in my mind's eye, it is all in shades of gray and white, until then end, when I see the blue-black sky, the shadowed snow, and the far-off yellow light. But in Number the Stars, color is everywhere: the yellow dress of Annemarie's older sister stands out most prominently to me, but also hair and eye color (so critical in the minutes when Annemarie's best friend must pass as her sister). I don't have the book in front of me, but I feel that if I did I could pull out many examples of the color of things, because I see them in my mind's eye: the uncle's house, the meadow flowers, the white handkerchief. Maybe I'm imagining some of them, but if so, it's because I sense the color. When I think about it in comparison to The Giver, color becomes a celebration of life in Number the Stars, a celebration of the human spirit enduring.
Megan Schliesman Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education University of Wisconsin-Madison schliesman at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu
Received on Sat 18 Jan 1997 08:42:15 PM CST
