Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

Summary

     The novel Gathering Blue follows the story of Kira, a recently orphaned girl who suffers from a crippled leg. The story is set in a dystopian future society where many of the technologies that we have today are only remnants of the distant past. The village where Kira lives is run by a group of educated men known as the "Council of Guardians". After her mother's death, Kira is rendered worthless in her community because of her disabled leg. Individuals in the village wanted her dead, however, she was born with the the ability to create, design and repair fabrics. Talent like hers are rare within her community, making her of value in the eyes of the Council of Guardians. Her life is spared and she is permitted to reside in the Council Edifice (an old abandoned church building), to work on an item known as "The Singer's Robe". The Robe is an intricately designed piece of clothing where the history of her people is vividly depicted in sections of fabric. It is worn by "The Singer" in an annual event known as "The Gathering", where the Singer sings aloud the history of their people. Living in the Council Edifice, she uncovers some of the dark secrets that the Council have been hiding from the people of the village. If it were revealed that she knew of such secrets, her life would be put to danger. Gathering Blue is the second book in a four part of a novel series penned by Lois Lowry. The story of Kira and her struggles with her new life in the Council Edifice continue in the next book, Messenger.

Writing Style

     The novel is written in a Third-Person point of view. Events within the story and the protagonist's thoughts and emotions are described to the reader by the narrator. This gives the reader a broad overview of the story and a good idea of how series of events are going to unfold because of the insight into the protagonist's thoughts.

     An interesting writing feature within the novel is that in the village, people's age are not measured by the number of years they've been alive, but rather by the number of syllables one has in their name. A young child would have a single single syllable name, such a Jo, while an older individual would have a four syllable name, such as Annabella.

     In the village, there is a class separation between the population. The elite lived in a certain area of the village, the middle class lived in humble wooden structures such as Kira had before her mother's death, and the most impoverished people lived in an area known as the "Fen". Within the Fen, life is so difficult that proper use of language is not of the utmost importance. Matt, one of Kira's friend's, comes from the Fen and speaks in ways such as "I got you a giftie, you said that be how you like me best". This is another feature the Lowry uses that I find gives more life to the story, making it seem more realistic.

Evaluating Effectiveness

     Though Gathering Blue is a fictional piece of writing, if an event such as "The Ruin" were to occur in actual human history, the events and the lives of the characters described within the novel could be seen as true occurrences. "The Ruin" is described as a very destructive event with widespread deaths and the seemingly imminent fall of civilization. If it were actually to occur, an event such as that could lead to humanity losing the knowledge of buildings, indoor plumbing and even religion, as seen in Gathering Blue. Once the rubble of conflict has settled, a group of survivors could possibly form a community much like Kira's village. The storyline of the novel is quite believable, however, such events would be so far ahead in the future that it would be impossible to know with certainty how humanity would survive such destruction.     

     I found the novel to be quite engaging because there was always a sense of suspense and build up as to what was going to happen next. From the outcome of Kira's Trial in front of the Council of Guardians, all the way to the moment when the strange blind man revealed his identity as Kira's long lost father. The novel always had me "on the edge of my seat" anticipating what was to come next. Every time I would read the novel, I would have a hard time putting it down because the story had me hooked and wanting to find out more.

Rating

     I give this novel a rating of 4/5. I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys reading dystopian literature. I find that since novel series' such as The Hunger Games and Divergent are so popular among young adult readers today, Gathering Blue and the other novels in The Giver Series would also be popular among readers in my age group.

Bias

     Of all of the genres of fictional writing, I enjoy reading dystopian literature the most. This affects the way that I read this book because I have read other stories similar to Gathering Blue that I can use to compare and contrast the characters, events and issues within the novel. I have already read this book in the past, however, I was not able to fully analyze the themes within the story since I read it while still in elementary school. I have also read the prequel to the novel, Lois Lowry's award winning book The Giver. I was able to notice some similarities between the two dystopian communities, including their similar systems of government and the time period that the stories are set. However, there were more differences than similarities between the two. The people people in The Giver were more constricted by rules and the government always had a watchful eye on its citizens. In Gathering Blue, though there is a greater sense of freedom and self expression, they did not have the same luxuries and infrastructure that the people in The Giver had.
     Having read the prequel to this novel, I had more background knowledge than a reader who has not read The Giver. This gives me a personal bias because I am able to compare certain things within the two stories while the other reader has nothing to compare the novel to. 

Author Influences

Lois Lowry
Author of Gathering Blue

     Lois Lowry is renowned as one of America's most versatile children's book authors. She not only writes children's books, however, she has penned many pieces of award winning fictional writing including the prequel to Gathering Blue, The Giver. Being born into a military family and eventually marring a military personnel, Lois Lowry was well travelled. She was born in Hawaii, spent her childhood in Japan, graduated high school in New York City and eventually settled in Maine. Her experiences of travelling the world may have been her inspiration for the setting of Gathering Blue and the other books within The Giver series. Each community has its own distinct set of rules, beliefs and cultural aspects. This can be related to how Lowry was able to experience many different cultures and beliefs in the many years that she travelled the world. 

Connections

     The novel touches upon the issues of greed and corruption within those appointed to be leaders of a population. In Kira's village, the Council of Guardians are regarded as educated men and are respected as they decide how decide how the village is to be run. They are part of the elite within the village, viewed by the people wise, fair and just. However, they have been keeping secrets from the people and making them believe false ideas to be able to control the population. This can be seen in the example of The Singer being held captive all year, forced to practice "The Song" to be performed once a year while shackled to the stage by metal chains. This is also seen when Kira discovers that there are no "beasts" outside of the village and that it is just a scare tactics used the the council to dismay people form leaving the village. The Council members deliberately wanted to keep such things secret because they wanted to control what the people of the village knew. The method of keeping secrets and deceiving the populous is a tactic commonly used in communist and dictatorial governments. Much like the Council of Guardians, they believe that the less knowledgable their people were, the easier it is to control them. The less they knew, the less likely they would find a reason to seek change.