Lowry has stated that her books all explore "the importance of human connection… the vital need for humans to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment."[12] Like Lowry's other books, The Giver shows changes in the characters' lives, reflecting this fascination in the multifaceted dimensions of growing up.[13]
The Giver was initially inspired by Lowry's interaction with her father, who, in his senility, kept forgetting about the long-ago death of her sister;[14] she imagined "a novel in which people are deprived of the memories of suffering, grief, and pain."[15] She based the novel's setting in part on the closely guarded army bases in which she had grown up, her father having been an army dentist.[14] She has stated, of the characters in The Giver, they have lived in a sterile world for so long that they are in danger of losing the real emotions that make them human.[16]
