Gathering Blue

Lois Lowry (author)

Houghton Mifflin, USA: 2000; 215pp

ISBN: 0747555923

Genres: science fiction

Issues: community, creativity, corruption, differences, gifted, power, prejudice

Kira lives in a harsh, unforgiving, almost barbaric society where everything is about survival. The weak and maimed are not welcome here, where strength is valued above all else. When Kira's beloved mother dies, she is left to face her community on her own - a young girl with a paralysed leg who is of no obvious value.

Summoned to face judgement in front of the Council of the Guardians, Kira must find some way to demonstrate her worth to her village or she will be left in the Field of Leaving for the beasts to dispose of as they will.

She finds an unexpected champion in Jamison, one of the Guardians, who remembers Kira's embroidery skill. But what value can such a hobby be in a community where people struggle to find enough to eat, where children are treated harshly and valued only for their potential strength as hunters or gatherers?

Kira finds that the Council has a use for her creativity and at first she is both relieved and delighted - in exchange for her skill she will be fed, housed, and kept safe. She soon realises, however, that the Council intend to control her skill, her creativity, and use it for their own purposes.

This novel is a fascinating study of the nature and power of imagination, the aspect of human intelligence that, more than any other, sets us apart from other animals. Lowry uses the context in which Kira is required to employ her skill to examine the way creativity can be distorted by those who fear its unpredictable nature but recognise how it can be used to influence a community. In many ways this novel could be interpreted as an investigation of the affects of censorship - how setting rules or attempting to control artistic expression affects both the artist and the wider community.

Teachers could find it interesting to study this novel in parallel with Lowry's other futuristic work, The Giver, as each novel explores post-apocalyptic social structures, albeit very different ones. The two novels come together in Messenger, where Lowry explores an idealistic community that rejects the over-controlled environment of The Giver and the barbaric survival of the fittest of Gathering Blue.