Book Comparison: The Giver and Gathering Blue

The Giver and Gathering Blue are both written by Lois Lowry, some would say the two books are considered apart of the series The Giver Quartet which also contains the books Messenger, and Son. Each book has a different protagonist, but is set in the same futuristic era. I found quite a few similarities and differences between the books The Giver and Gathering Blue.

There are a few character similarities between the two books, for example Kira and Lily both have comfort objects. Asher and Matt are both loud, outspoken, and foolish. Besides the little comparisons I believe Jonas and Kira had the biggest similarities, starting with being the same age. Jonas and Kira were both assigned a job that they had to accomplish. Each had their own special skill Jonas’s was seeing beyond, while Kira’s was threading, they both went to an older person for help with their skills. Each book had a similar conflict, in which the main characters stayed strong in their struggles to uncover the truth. Jonas tries to discover the truth about release, while Kira tries to figure out the truth about beasts.

Each society is different but much alike, in Gathering Blue Kira’s community is a dystopian, they are controlled by human misery. In The Giver Jonas’s community is a utopian “a perfect community” they are controlled by not being able to feel emotion, or see color. This is different from Kira’s community because she was able to cry and show emotion, she also described the many colors of thread. Within the communities there are a few differences, within Jonas’s kids don’t live with their birth parents, there are guards, and people are killed by walking out a door being released. While in Kira’s there are no guards unlike Jonas having to sneak out Kira’s father just walked out, Kira lived with her mother until she died, and people were killed by being taken to the field of leaving. Although different there is a similarity between the two societies that