The Giver- Keeping Society "in the dark"

There are certain measures or rules that were made during the decision of Sameness that made it so people did not find out the lies they were living by communicating with others in the society. One rule is to not ask rude questions. For instance when Jonas is riding his bike with Fiona to their training she does not ask him about his because it is against the rules to ask rude questions. And Jonas is not allowed to speak of his training because his page of rules, along with being the Receiver, tells him he is not. "She pedeled forward silently, and he knew that she expected him to tell her why. She expected him to describe his first day of training. But to ask would have fallen into the category of rudeness." (pg. 90) Another rule that Jonas was given is "you are prohibited from dream-telling." (pg. 68) This is beacuse after having experienced all the memories that he is given, he will have much more confusing, detailed dreams than the rest of his family, and he is not allowed to release to them the truth about the lies they are living.
Another example of keeping the society "in the dark" is Jonas's father lying about the releasing ceremony that happens when releasing an infant.
"No, I just have to make the selection. I weigh them, hand the larger over to a Nurturer who's standing by, waiting, and then I get the smaller one all cleaned up and comfy. Then I perform a small Ceremony of Release and-' He glanced down, grinning at Gabriel. 'Then I wave bye-bye,' he said, in the special sweet voice he used when he spoke to the newchild. He waved his hand in the familiar gesture... 'And somebody else comes to get him? Somebody from Elsewheres?' 'That's right, Jonas-bonus." (pg. 136)
Jonas's father lies when he says "that's right Jonas-bonus", because the newchild doesn't get sent away to somebody else. He gets thrown down a garbage chute after being killed. Therefore, it seems to be that in Jonas's fathers rules, when he was assigned to be a nurturer, it said 'you may lie,' just like it does in Jonas's. When people's rules say this, it is most likely so that they can keep secrets from the other members of the community so that they do not know what happens in other assignments in the community.

The Giver- Word Choice for Imagery

A lot of the imagery in this book was unknown of to Jonas before he recieved the memories. That is why I chose to write about the word choices used when he reflects on these images. My first emample is that of colour. Jonas has never heard of colour before and when he starts to see it, he doesn't understand how to explain it. "Then, today, just now, outside, it happened with my friend Fiona. She herself didn't change, exactly. But something about her changed for a second. Her hair looked different; but not in its shape, not in its length. I can't quite-' Jonas paused, frusterated by his inability to grasp and describe exactly what had occured." (pg. 91) What Jonas is seeing is the colour red, but because he had never seen or been taught about colours because the community does not see colours he does not understand what he is seeing. His capability for him to see colours symbolizes his ability to see beyond and shows that he is different and more perceptive than others in his community.
Another example of imagery in this book is the feeling of love. In The Giver, Jonas learns of love and family. He learns about this through the Giver's favorite memory. " On the floor there were packages wrapped in brightly coloured paper and tied with gleaming ribbons. As Jonas watched , a small child began to pick up the packages and pass them around the room: to other children, to adults who were obvioulsy parents, and to an older, quiet couple, man and woman, who sat smiling together on the couch." (pg. 123) Lois Lowry used the holiday of Christmas to represent love and family. After Jonas receives this memory he is confused as to why there are old people there, and he then learns of grandparents. "What did you perceive?' The Giver asked. 'Warmth,' Jonas replied, 'and happiness. And- let me think. Family. That it was some celebration of some sort, a holiday. And something else- I can;t quite get the word for it.... I certainly liked the memory, though. I can see why it's your favourite. I couldn't quite get the word for the word for the whole feeling of it, the feeling that was so strong in the room.' 'Love,' The Giver told him." Because Jonas had never felt such a strong feeling as love he had no such reason to use the word, but now that he felt it and knew what it felt like, he knew that he loved people in his life, including his family, his friends, and The Giver.

The Giver- Conflict

The entire book up until the last couple chapters is Jonas learning about how the society he lives in is a lie. In the last chapters this turns into a conflict that must be resolved by him and The Giver. The problem is that the people in the community do not know how to think for themselves or make their own choices becuase they don't have choice. "Well...' Jonas had to stop to think it through. ' If everything's the same, then there aren't any chaices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?" (pg. 97) The Giver and Jonas plan to resolve this problem by giving the memories back to the community and The Giver helps them cope with them. "When we lost Rosemary ten years ago, and her memories returned to the people, they panicked. And those were such few memories, compared to yours. When your memories return, they'll need help. Remember how I helped you in the beginning, when the receiving of memories was new to you?... You needed me then. And now they will." (pg. 156) So their plan is to send Jonas off to Elsewheres, where ever that is, and then once he gets to Elsewheres his memories that he received from The Giver will return to the society. When the people start to receive these memories, they too will know how to feel strong emotional feelings, and be able to see colour, feel love and pain, and understand that they are living a lie. Then The Giver will help them cope with these feelings just like he had done with Jonas. That way the people in the community could be less 'robot'-like and make their own desicions and choose whether or not they want to wear a blue tunic, or a red one, and many other choices that will be given to them.

In the last chapters of the book, they set out and they carry out their plan. Jonas leaves, with Gabe, and he finds Elsewheres. In my blog about Literary Ddevices--> Endings, I talked about how I believed that he had actually returned to the community. He had returned to a changed community though because their plan had succeded and they had brought all the memories back becuase there was now snow and Christmas lights, and music. I believe that they had resolved the conflict in the community by showing that they love the people in the community and pretty much setting them free of all the 'chains' that they had been bound to by rules, directions, and a life with no choices given to them by little speaker and a book of rules that told them how to live their lives.

The Giver- Jonas character development

In this book, one character develops. This character is Jonas. He starts out as an unknowing 'robot'-like community member, just like the rest of the society. He doesn't know that there is more out there than what is in front of his eyes. "Jonas smiled back at his sister. Lily's feelings were always so straightforward, fairly simple, usually easy to resolve. He guessed that his own had been, too, when he was a Seven." (pg. 7) Jonas doesn't really 'feel' before he is selected. Lily doesn't 'feel' either. Nobody in the community really knows how to 'feel'. "'I felt sad today,' he had heard his mother say, and they had comforted her. But now Jonas had experienced real sadness. He had felt greif. He knew that there was no quick comfort for emotions like those." (pg. 132) Jonas now understands real emotions and I believe that when he hears someone in the community say that they feel a certain way, he knows that they don't really understand what that feeling really is. With sadness, Jonas has felt it many times through memories and through his own experiences, but his mother really has no need to be sad. She doesn't know the truth. Jonas begins to develop from an unknowing child, to the second most wise person in the community.

"Jonas trudged to the bench beside the Storehouse and sat down, overwhelmed with feelings of loss. his childhood, his friendships, his carefree sense of security- all of these things seemed to be slipping away. With his new, heightened feelings, he was overwhelmed by sadness at the way others had laughed and shouted, playing at war. But he knew that they could not understand why, without the memories. He felt such love for Asher and for Fiona. But they could not feel it back, without the memories. And he could not give them those. Jonas knew with certainty that he could change nothing." (pg. 135)

Jonas feels sad and depressed that the people around him are so unaware and oblivious to what he can see and to what he knows could be. He knows love. He feels love, but his parents tell him that love is a meaningless feeling. He feels completely the opposite. Love is one of the strongest feelings he feels. He is upset that everyone that he loves cannot understand how to love him back. With Jonas's development he gains sadness that everything that he knows cannot be the way that he sees it in the memories.

The Giver- and why it was banned

The Giver is refered to as the suicide book. It apparantly "portrays a Utopian society that relies on euthaniasia (painless killing) and suicide to create the perfect society." It has been challenged and banned in middle schools across America. Many disagree with these bannings. The Giver does not support suicide and euthaniasia, but is actually about how it is so terrible. "She asked for release, and they had to give it to her. I never saw her again." (pg. 143) This is a quote which backs up the people who ban the book. They believe that this is an example of suicide, when Rosemary, the previous reciever, asks for release after recieving terrible memories from the Giver. It is probably believed that she could not think of any way to release the pain that she had recieved but to have herself killed. I thought that maybe because it was not said in the book that she had learned about release then she had not known that she was going to be killed.

"Five weeks. That was all. I gave her happy memories: a ride on a merry-go-round; a kitten to play with; a picnic. Sometimes I chose one just because I knew it would make her laugh, and I so treasured the sound of that laughter in this room that had always been so silent. But she was like you, Jonas. She wanted to experience everything. She knew that it was her responsibility. And so she asked me for more difficult memories... And I didn't give her physical pain. But I gave her loneliness. And I gave her loss. I transphered a memory of a child being taken from it's parents. That was the first one. She appeared stunned at it's end... I couldn't bring myself to inflict pain on her. But I gave her anguish of many kinds. Poverty, and hunger, and terror." (pg. 142)

Yet somehow, she did know what release was, because when the Giver watched the video of her release, she asked to inject herself, which she did do. So this example really does support the banning side of the book. Rosemary DID commit suicide, but in a way of which it would not hurt her."When the Speaker notified me that Rosemary had applied for release, they turned on the tape to show me the process. There she was- my last glimpse of that beautiful child- waiting. They brought in the syringe and asked her to roll up her sleeve... And I listened as Rosemary told them that she would prefer to inject herself. Then she did so. I didn't watch. I looked away." (pg. 151)

"The Giver turned to him. " Well, there you are, Jonas. You were wondering about release," he said in a bitter voice. Jonas felt a ripping sensation inside himself, the feeling of terrible pain clawing its way forward to emerge a cry." (pg. 151) This quote shows that Jonas does not like what release has turned out to be. In the next chapter after he witnesses the young twin baby being released he becomes angry and refuses to go home or be apart of the lies anymore. This shows that the book is against the theme of suicide and euthanasia. The society may not be, but the two people in it that know better are against it. Therefore the major theme of this book is not suicide and euthanasia, but is how terrible they are.

The Giver- Literary Devices-->Endings

The ending in The Giver is ambiguous. This means that the author Louis Lowry allows the reader to interpret what they believe happens to the characters in the end of the novel. In the end of this novel, Jonas is running away from the community with the newborn, Gabe, who was to be released that morning. He does this with the idea of returning all the lost memories to the community where "The Giver on his return, would find the community in a state of confusion and panic. Confronted by a situation which they had never faced before, and having no memories from which to find either solace or wisdom, they would not know what to do and would seek his advice." (161)
Jonas finds himself facing his memories given to him by the Giver in real life. "...the bike fell to it's side. But Jonas's ankle was twisted, and his knees were scraped and raw, blood seeping through his trousers."(170). "Jonas remembered, suddenly and grimly, the time in his childhood when he had been chastised for misusing a word. The word had been "starving." You have never been starving, he had been told. You will never be starving. Now he was." (172). Jonas, in chapter 22 is experiencing real pain. Not pain in other peoples' memories given to him by the Giver, but real pain that he himself is actually enduring. He is going through things that he had been convinced would never, ever happen to him, such as starving. He comes to the conclusion that "if he had stayed, he would have starved in other ways. He would have lived a life hungry for feelings, for colour, for love."(173).
Jonas also experiences things that he enjoyed from the memories. "Terrified, he looked up, but it was not a plane at all. Though he had never seen one before, he identified it from his fading memories, for The Giver had given them to him often. It was a bird." (171). " After a life of Sameness and predictability, he was awed by the surprises that lay beyond each curve of the road. He slowed the bike again and again to look with wonder at the wildflowers, to enjoy the throaty warble of a new bird nearby, or merely to watch the way the wind shifted the leaves in the tree. During his twelve years in the community, he had never felt such simple moments of exquisite happiness." (171). Even though he is burdened with the weight of his own and Gabe's lives, he takes the time to stop and look around, take in all that he has been missing his entire life. Even though he is starving and bleeding, he is in no hurry to make it to Elsewheres.

So many people have the interpretation that Jonas and Gabe die at the end. They think that he is finding happiness because he's recalling all the wonderful memories of love and celebration and family. They believe he's becoming delusional as he slowly drifts into death. I believe differently. "But he began, suddenly, to feel happy. he began to recall happy times. he remembered his parents and his sister. He remembered his friends, Asher and Fiona. he remembered The Giver. Memories of joy flooded through him suddenly. He reached the place where the hill crested and he could feel the ground under his snow-covered feet become level. It would not be uphill anymore... But it was not a grasping of a thin and burdensome recollection; this one he could keep. It was a memory of his own." (177)

I believe that he went back to the community. I believe that he realized that even though his "family" and "friends" didn't ever actually "love" him, because they didn't know what love is, he felt that he loved them. He was attracted back to his community, where memories now existed because he had left. That is why there is snow on the ground. Before there wasn't any such thing as snow, but because he had released all his memories back into the community, there was now snow, lights, singing, and the celebration of love. Also, with research I found that in the sequels of The Giver, Gathering Blue, and The Messenger, Jonas and Gabriel make appearances. Appearances that you would have to actually read between the lines, think about the character, and decide that yes, this person is an adult version of Jonas/Gabe. Jonas shows up in the third book, The Messenger, as the leader, then also in Gathering Blue, the main character, Kira, sees a pale eyed boy. It could be either Jonas or Gabe. I really don't believe they die. I believe they come back to the same community, but it is no longer filled with Sameness, instead with feelings of love and memories.

The Giver- The Importance of Memory

With research i found that the author of The Giver, Lois Lowry, was inspired to write this novel after visiting her aging father, who had lost most of his long-term memory. She saw through him that without memory there is no pain. If someone does not remember physical pain, they might as well have not experienced it. If they had made a choice in their past to make their lives different in a negative way, and they no longer remember doing it, there is no pain inflicted from it any longer. You cannot be plagued by regret or grief without memory.


In the novel The Giver sometime in the past, the community decided to rid all pain from their lives by choosing sameness and discarding all memories to only one holder. All the experiences of a community had been transphered to one person, just so they could be relieved of all the pain that occured through human history. For example, the community had never experienced climate. There is no snow and no sun. Jonas experiences them through memories. This is only a small example though. "And the strongest memory that came was hunger. It came from many generations back. Centuries back. The population had become so big that hunger was everywhere. Excruciating hunger and starvation. It was followed by warfare." (pg. 111) This quote explains that without memory we do not know how to make choices that affect our future. Here, the Giver used this memory of starvation and hunger to decide whether or not families should be given a third child. He decided that they shouldn't because of over-population. "From the distance, Jonas could hear the thud of cannons. Overwhelmed by pain, he lay there in the fearsomne stench for hours, listened to the men and animals die, and learned what warfare meant." (pg. 120) This is what the Giver knew would happen if the community became over-populated.

This is why people learn about history in school. We must understand what the outcomes and consequences of certain decisions are. For example, in history we learn about the world wars. We learn about how countries allowed Hitler to do certain bad things because they didn't want to get involved, but while they did this, as "innocent" bystanders, they allowed something much worse to occur, WWII. Now this could relate to something on a much smaller scale, such as a school fight. Lets say a bunch of kids, "innocent" bystanders, just stand around and watch the fight. Well, that doesn't stop one of the kids in the fight from getting very badly injured. So because there are many factors that happened a long time ago, or as refered to as " back and back and back." in The Giver, memories can be very very important for decision making and not repeating the ugly truths of our past.