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The Giver...

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The Giver by Lois

Lowry

The Giver Summary Jonas begins The Giver feeling uneasy about the upcoming Ceremony of Twelve, where he will receive the Assignment that determines his vocation for the rest of his working life. That night, at the nightly sharing of feelings, after his sister, father, and mother discuss their emotions, his parents comfort him about his worries. They remind him that his life will change after the Ceremony, but they reassure him that the Committee of Elders has been watching him closely and will give him an appropriate Assignment. Jonas's father brings home a newchild who needs extra care, and they call him Gabriel, although Father is not yet supposed to know the child's name. Lily decides that she will begin volunteering hours at the Nurturing Center after she turns Nine, and Jonas recalls a strange incident where he saw an apple suddenly change before returning to the same nondescript shade as his shirt. The next day, he joins Asher and Fiona at the House of the Old, where Larissa tells him about Roberto's release ceremony, after which Roberto will go Elsewhere. Then, after a sexually charged dream involving Fiona that forms Jonas's first Stirrings, his parents give him the pills that will suppress these Stirrings. At the Ceremony, Jonas sits through the Naming at the Ceremony of One, which Gabriel will miss because the Nurturers have decided to give him an extra year of care before deciding whether to assign him a family unit or to release him. Lily turns Eight, and the new Nines receive bicycles as a sign of new independence. The Ceremony of Twelve begins uneventfully, as the often hasty but always goodhumored Asher receives the Assignment of Assistant Director of Recreation and Fiona receives that of Caretaker of the Old. However, the Chief Elder skips Jonas, which mortifies him until they announce that he has been selected as the new Receiver of Memory for the community, an important position that requires intelligence, courage, and the Capacity to See Beyond, which Jonas has previously experienced with the apple. Jonas feels nervous and isolated at his selection, and his instructions are strange in that they allow him to be rude, ask questions, and lie, while prohibiting him from taking medication for his training and from applying for release. The old Receiver, who calls himself The Giver, informs Jonas that he is now the new Receiver and will have to receive the memories of generations of the whole world, which The Giver transmits by touch and remembrance. Jonas's first new memory is that of riding a sled down a snowy hill, and The Giver explains that after the establishment of Sameness and Climate Control, many of these things have been eliminated. The Giver also gives Jonas the memory of sunshine and sunburn to give Jonas a hint of the pain that is to come in his training. After seeing a change in Fiona's hair, Jonas informs The Giver, who concludes that Jonas has the capacity to see color, unlike other members of the community. Scientists tried to get rid of color at the onset of Sameness, but they did not entirely

succeed. Jonas and The Giver discuss how Sameness has gotten rid of individual choice, although it may perhaps have made the world safer by eliminating the possibility of wrong choices, such as in choosing spouses, although as The Receiver, Jonas will never be able to share his whole life with a future spouse, since he cannot speak of his work. They also discuss the previous Receiver-in-Training's failure, after which unwanted memories escaped into the community and caused havoc, an incident that reminded the community of The Receiver's role as the vessel for these memories. Jonas asks for more painful memories, so The Giver introduces him first to a broken leg and later to more serious pains such as starvation and neglect. These memories give The Receiver wisdom to advise the Elders, who do not want to bear the memories themselves. At home, Jonas discovers that Gabriel is capable of receiving memories, and at his training, he eventually helps ease The Giver's suffering by taking from him the terrible memory of war. As recompense, The Giver transmits some joyful memories, including that of family, grandparents, and love, all of which are missing in the community's family units. Jonas instinctively feels that the absence of love is wrong, although he initially denies his instincts in favor of what his society has taught him. Others in the community do not understand Jonas's thoughts, as his parents deride the term "love" as imprecise and as Asher fails to understand why Jonas does not approve of the imitation war games he plays with the children. When Jonas's father is scheduled to release a newchild because it is a twin, Jonas asks The Giver about release, who mentions that in his previous failure, his daughter Rosemary became the Receiver-in-Training but chose release because she did not want to bear all the memories of pain. The Giver then shows Jonas a tape in which Jonas's father is shown to release the infant by euthanizing him through lethal injection. Jonas is devastated by this revelation, and he and The Giver decide that he should run away so that the memories will be released into the community. They both hope that The Giver can teach the community to regain wisdom and emotion through the memories rather than to force the memories away. Jonas is forced to leave ahead of schedule in order to save Gabriel from release, so he sets off with inadequate supplies. As they leave the community, they experience first the joys of nature and wildlife and then the fear of cold and starvation as they leave the area of Climate Control into a snowy region. Finally, Jonas finds what he perceives as the hill from his first transmitted memory, and he hears music and sees Christmas lights, believing that he has found an Elsewhere that has what the community lacked. However, the ending leaves unclear whether Jonas has truly found Elsewhere or is simply hallucinating as he freezes to death.

The Giver Character List Jonas The novel's protagonist, he is an intelligent and courageous boy with the Capacity to See Beyond. He learns that instead of receiving an assignment, he has been selected to become the next Receiver of Memory for the community, which entails holding society's memories and providing guidance to the Elders. He is thus to become something like a prophet, which suggests that Lowry has named him after the Biblical prophet Jonah. As the acquisition of society's memories gives him

wisdom and a new appreciation for individual differences and human emotions, he gradually becomes disillusioned with his society and is eventually faced with the choice either to continue being The Receiver or to take action to place his community on a new path.

The Giver The previous Receiver of Memory, he serves as a tutor and a mentor for Jonas, introducing Jonas to new concepts as he transmits the memories. Although he suffers terribly as The Receiver, The Giver took more years than Jonas to realize the necessity for action and change in their society, and by the end of the novel, his experiences with Jonas cause him to realize that he can help the community in a similar manner.

Lily Jonas's younger sister, she is a chatty and vivacious girl who shows an interest in taking care of newchildren. Although she can be insensitive, she takes a lively interest in discussing her surroundings.

Mother A worker at the Department of Justice, she often shows a more practical side than Jonas's father in their conversations with the family.

Father A kind and caring man who works as a Nurturer and who often plays with Jonas and Lily, he nevertheless follows his training and releases infants when deemed appropriate.

Gabriel Jonas's father brings this newchild home temporarily in order to give him more care so that he will not be released. Gabriel becomes a lively, inquisitive toddler, and Jonas discovers that he is also able to receive memories. However, he becomes dependent on sleeping in Jonas's room, which leads the Nurturers to agree to release him, a decision that causes a drastic change in Jonas's plans.

Asher A cheerful boy who sometimes rushes his words and his actions carelessly, he is Jonas's best friend. He receives the Assignment of Assistant Director of Recreation. Asher does not understand when Jonas tries obliquely to share his new knowledge with Asher.

Fiona A sweet and patient girl with red hair for whom Jonas has romantic feelings, she trains to become a Caretaker for the Old. However, the divide between her and Jonas grows over the course of the novel.

Chief Elder The leader of the community, she presides over the Ceremony of Twelve.

Larissa One of the Old whom Jonas bathes during volunteer hours, she has a sharp sense of humor and enjoys lively discussion. She tells Jonas about Roberto's Ceremony of Release.

Rosemary

The previous Receiver-in-Training and The Giver's daughter, she was deeply affected by her new knowledge of pain and chose to apply for release, delivering the lethal injection to herself.

The Giver Themes Individuality and freedom of choice By eliminating as much personal variation as possible in favor of Sameness and a predictable society, Jonas's community has rejected the truly utopian possibilities of a society where people are free to move society forward. The result is a dystopia of conformity. A series of conversations between Jonas and The Giver shows that the totalitarian rationale for restricting each person's choice of clothing, job, spouse, and children results from the fear of making wrong choices. Yet, as Jonas realizes after he escapes from the community, he would rather be able to choose his destiny than remain in the safety of a community that normally does not even allow its citizens to choose their time and manner of death. Although the possibility of individual choice sometimes involves risk, it also exposes Jonas to a wide range of joyful experiences from which his community has been shut away. His conversations with The Giver lead him to understand both the advantages and the disadvantages of personal choice, and in the end, he considers the risks worth the benefits.

The dangers of stability and predictability As explained by The Giver, a key aspect of their society's decision to establish Sameness rather than expose people to the risks of climate variation or mistaken choices was their desire to remain safe from the pains that humanity and nature used to suffer. In one of Benjamin Franklin's classic formulations, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety," and Jonas's society has permanently chosen safety over liberty. The disadvantages of this choice become all too clear as, for example, the citizens do not question their way of life or even their orders to kill the young and the Old through release. Furthermore, the absence of pain in their society desensitizes them to emotions, including positive emotions. The Giver portrays what might today be called an extreme kind of "sustainable" society, one in stasis that can neither draw lessons from its mistakes nor remember its mistakes to prevent future ones, especially without the aid of The Receiver. This is a society in which the humans cannot be said to be fulfilling themselves as human beings; their development is stunted in many ways in the name of stability and predictability.

The importance of human emotion Whereas the nightly sharing of feelings is intended to explain away and resolve the emotions of the day, Jonas learns that the most important emotions are those that cannot be explained or discussed but only felt, such as the Stirrings or the love of a family. In many cases over the course of the novel, Jonas instinctively feels that something is right but allows his intellect to convince him that it is wrong, such as when he takes the pills to counteract the Stirrings or when he tries to argue to The Giver that love and family can be very dangerous. Yet, by the end of the novel, Jonas has learned to embrace the full range of human emotion, including to an extent the negative ones, and he allows his emotions and instinct to inform his actions. In

contrast, the other citizens of the community, such as Fiona and Jonas's father, have not learned to allow their emotions to reveal their character and help them develop a sense of right and wrong, so they feel no guilt at delivering lethal injections as part of their jobs.

The relationship between memory and wisdom As The Receiver of Memory, The Giver has to draw upon his memories of mankind's most terrible experiences in order to advise the Committee of Elders whenever they have an unusual experience, such as that of the rogue plane, or when they want to change the rules, such as adding a third child to each family unit. It is also reiterated a number of times that although Jonas has little true wisdom at the beginning of the novel, he learns it through his new memories and through his discussion of these memories with The Giver. In the end, his respect for human life as gained through the memories allows him to understand what he must do in order to benefit the larger community. Meanwhile, the lack of memories held by the rest of the community prevents them from adjusting their own destinies wisely, so they remain terrified of change and are forced to remain in a static, stagnant existence.

Utopia and dystopia As with many societies that ultimately end up as dystopias in literature, Jonas's community initially appears designed to be a utopia. The society is safe, there are few premature deaths, Jonas's family seems to be loving and supportive, and Jonas has learned to value sharing, equality, and honesty, among other virtues. However, the safety of the society is shown to be equivalent to stagnation, and members of the society become so obedient and unquestioning that they do not even question the value of release if their jobs require that they sometimes euthanize individuals. Ultimately, The Giver shows that the line between utopia and dystopia may be thin, since a lack of moderation in values such as security often results in the curbing of liberty and the rejection of wisdom. We gradually see the apparent utopia turn into a dystopia through the eyes of Jonas, who finally breaks with the tenets of his society after witnessing his father's release of the twin baby.

Loneliness and isolation Jonas has learned from early childhood to conform and be part of the collective, so when he is selected as The Receiver of Memory, he immediately feels the loneliness that comes from being a special individual in a society where almost everyone is merely a cog in the larger wheel. His memories of tragedies such as war further alienate him from his friends, even as he grows closer to The Giver and to Gabriel, both of whom can share his memories and who thus eventually form two branches of his new de facto family. The loneliness forces Jonas to view his community from a more critical standpoint as he begins to see the weaknesses in the system. Yet, from his isolation he also learns the value of love and belonging as he experiences it through The Giver's memory. In addition, Jonas eventually learns the joys of solitude, which is a positive way of experiencing aloneness.

Death The concept of release is introduced early in the novel, during Jonas's anecdote about the Pilot-in-Training who mistakenly flies over the community. The concept is continually and mysteriously mentioned without sufficient explanation until nearly the end of the novel. The mysteriousness of death and Elsewhere echoes the uncertainty about death that humans face during their lifetime. Multiple kinds of release are

explored in the novel. The Old are released at the end of a long, fulfilled life, and citizens such as Roberto are often joyful at their Releasing Ceremony. Meanwhile, those who make significant mistakes or break the rules, such as the Pilot-in-Training, are summarily executed. The punishment appears overly harsh and adds to the community's dystopian aura. Furthermore, in the cases of Gabriel and the twin, some are executed for no reason at all except that it is inconvenient not to do so. Jonas finds the latter category of killings to be the most offensive of all because they truncate entire lives. Jonas finds such outrages particularly heinous because he has developed an increased appreciation for individual human life due to his received memories....