The Giver — Lois Lowery

Important passages and explanation why

“Finally, The Receiver must have one more quality, and it is one
which I can only name, but not describe. I do not understand it. You
members of the community will not understand it, either. Perhaps
Jonas will, because the current Receiver has told us that Jonas
already has this quality. He calls it the Capacity to See Beyond.”
The Chief Elder looked at Jonas with a question in her eyes. The
audience watched him, too. They were silent.
For a moment he froze, consumed with despair. He didn’t have it,
the whatever-she-had-said. He didn’t know what it was. Now was
the moment when he would have to confess, to say, “No, I don’t. I
can’t,” and throw himself on their mercy, ask their forgiveness, to
explain that he had been wrongly chosen, that he was not the right
one at all.
But when he looked out across the crowd, the sea of faces, the
thing happened again. The thing that had happened with the apple.
They changed.
He blinked, and it was gone. His shoulders straightened slightly.
Briefly he felt a tiny sliver of sureness for the first time.
She was still watching him. They all were.
“I think it’s true,” he told the Chief Elder and the community. “I don’t
understand it yet. I don’t know what it is. But sometimes I see
something. And maybe it’s beyond.”
She took her arm from his shoulders.
“Jonas,” she said, speaking not to him alone but to the entire
community of which he was a part, “you will be trained to be our
next Receiver of Memory. We thank you for your childhood.”
Then she turned and left the stage, left him there alone, standing
and facing the crowd, which began spontaneously the collective
murmur of his name.
“Jonas.” It was a whisper at first: hushed, barely audible. “Jonas.
Jonas.”
Then louder, faster. “JONAS. JONAS. JONAS.” With the chant,
Jonas knew, the community was accepting him and his new role,
giving him life, the way they had given it to the newchild Caleb. His
heart swelled with gratitude and pride.
But at the same time he was filled with fear. He did not know what
his selection meant. He did not know what he was to become.
Or what would become of him.

Lois Lowery, The Giver (1993), p. 85–87

I think this passage may not be the most important one in the book but for me, it’s the start of the story and a turning point for the main character. It was at this moment when Jonas realized there wasn’t something wrong with him. He was able to be more. The reflection of his emotions he had at the beginning of the passage was more like a reflection of what he was taught to be.
While reading I felt like he was different from the others. He thought about what it meant when he did something. Everyone else seemed like they just reacted how they were taught but not thought about why. Maybe this is a part of seeing beyond. Not only the visual seeing but the feeling and thinking. A world without some people thinking beyond wouldn’t bring us further.

“Father? Mother?” Jonas asked tentatively after the evening meal. “I have a question I want to ask you.” “What is it, Jonas?” his father asked. He made himself say the words, though he felt flushed with embarrassment. He had rehearsed them in his mind all the way home from the Annex. “Do you love me?” There was an awkward silence for a moment. Then Father gave a little chuckle. “Jonas. You, of all people. Precision of language, please!” “What do you mean?” Jonas asked. Amusement was not at all what he had anticipated. “Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it’s become almost obsolete,” his mother explained carefully. Jonas stared at them. Meaningless? He had never before felt anything as meaningful as the memory. “And of course our community can’t function smoothly if people don’t use precise language. You could ask, ‘Do you enjoy me?’ The answer is ‘Yes,’” his mother said. “Or,” his father suggested, “‘Do you take pride in my accomplishments?’ And the answer is wholeheartedly ‘Yes.’” “Do you understand why it’s inappropriate to use a word like ‘love’?” Mother asked. Jonas nodded. “Yes, thank you, I do,” he replied slowly. It was his first lie to his parents.

Lois Lowery, The Giver (1993), p. 162–163

In this paragraph, I think it shows the point in which Jonas believed what he didn’t fully understand before he got selected. The people were brainwashed. They didn’t realize what matters.
Also, it shows the end of his life before and the one waiting for him. With the last sentence, he decouples from all he knew and believed.

Characterization of protagonists

Jonas

• Intelligent
• Perceptive
• Serious about life
• Curious
• Integrate
• Brave
• Sensitive
• Selfless
• Determined
• Wise

I think Jonas is a very strong person. He has the whole weight of the future of the community on his shoulders. As I see it, he is the most thought-out character.

The Giver

• Wise
• Intelligent
• Emotionally battered
• Patient
• Quiet
• Deliberate

I think the Giver is very wise. I felt like he alone couldn’t manage some change, he needed Jonas. But without him, it wouldn’t have worked. He seems like an introverted person, which understands the world and knows all the feelings but knows how to use them and share them. He is a very loving character.

Jonas’s father

• Funny
• Nice
• Happy
• Loving

Jonas’s father is a complex character. On the one hand, he seems like a great father. He is good with children and very loving. On the other hand, he has to release people. I’m not sure if he knows or doesn’t that, he is killing these people. In the end, he is a product of society.

Jonas’s mother

• Strict
• Precise
• Intolerant
• Intelligent
• Judge

The mother is very strict. As a worker in the department of justice, she has to be stern. She is kind of the opposite of the father. You could argue they balance each other out but in my point of view, she is more of a business-oriented person and less of a carrying mother. But as well as the father she is just a product of society.

Lily

• Chatterbox
• Naive
• Nice
• Funny
• Rebellious

Lily is still very young and doesn’t understand much. She seems like a carrying person. Even though she is young she understands already a lot more than some older people.

Gabriel

• Adorable
• Emotional intelligent

Even though he is just a baby he seems to understand emotion. He knows what they mean.

Asher

• Foolish
• Friend
• Nice

Asher is the best friend of Jonas. He is and will always be a kid inside I believe.

Fiona

• Nice
• Redhead
• Friendly

Fiona is a very nice person. Jonas is in love with her but neither of them knows what it means and that they are.

The Chief Elder

• Polite
• Politicly correct

The Chief Elder knows how her words affect society. But she doesn’t know how to ‘manipulate’ the Giver and Jonas. In the end, she wasn’t part of building the society and making the rules. She is just a product of it and is executing the rules like she was taught.

Basic conflict of the book

The book is about a boy named Jonas. He lives in a community that appears first and foremost as a utopia. Everything is regulated. But that also means that there are no emotions. He was given the task of being the keeper of memories. He keeps all the memories and emotions of the past inside him to protect the rest. This is how he comes to know that it is a dystopia in which he lives. In the course of the book, the question is whether this is fair to the human being. Should all bad and therefore all good be taken from them to protect themselves?

Main topics/symbols/themes and how they are presented

The importance of memory

The most important theme of the book was the importance of memory. Without the knowledge of the past, we are not able to make decisions for the future.

The relationship between pain and pleasure

With the memories not only the good ones about love come to the surface but also the ones about war and starvation. There is an important question in the book about if it is worth not knowing the good things just to protect from the bad ones. Or if the good ones are worth the bad ones.

The Importance of individual

Before the age of twelve everyone gets treated the same. At the ceremony, it’s the first time in their life where they get celebrated for their differences. For some it is scary.

Rules and control

Instead of laws the community has rules and gets strictly controlled and watched (big brother is watching). The breaking of a rule is a symbol of rebellion that gets immediately reported. It is at a point where the people don’t realize it anymore that they don’t have any freedom.

Rituals

The rituals are used to control the community. There are many in the books like the ceremony, the ceremony of loss, the stirring, the evening telling of feelings, the ceremony of release, etc.

The new child Gabriel

The new child symbolizes hope for Jonas. With him, he thinks of the possibility that there is a chance for a better world.

The sled

The sled symbolizes the journey Jonas has. It was the beginning and the first memory and, in the end, the sled symbolizes how the journey finally finds its end.

The River

The river symbolizes the possibility of escape. That there is more. The River runs into and out of the community but still is there.

Vision

Vision is an important motif of the book. It stands for how everything is seen. “The capacity to see beyond”. Jonas can see colors others can’t. Also, with wisdom comes the ability to see more than just visual but also mentally.

Nakedness

In the community, they are not allowed to see each other naked except they are very young or very old. The nakedness is a motif for the nakedness of emotions which means that people could get hurt.

Release

The ritual of release shows that the community doesn’t know what they are doing. They kill people without knowing they do. They got brainwashed that it is something good.

Language and communication

In the book, there is a recurring motif of precise language. For the reader sometimes is amusing because there sometimes can’t be better words.

Old age

The old age symbolizes together with the release that an old person is nothing worth to a society that can’t do any work but still gets honored. Also, the very young when a newborn gets released is a motif for not being worth anything to society just cause of physical/psychological abilities.

Author’s main point

I think it’s a book that applies universally. In my opinion, the author did not try to warn people, but to make them aware that technological progress is not always the best for people. What differentiates us from machines are feelings. To take them out does not make us human anymore and through that, we lose any reason to be.
In an interview, the author said that she began writing the story from the point of view when a society gives up all memories to be safer and happier. But it soon became clear that it had more meaning.

Qualification and recommendation of the book

Years ago, I saw the movie and was taken with the story. After reading the book, I can firmly recommend it to others. This is a story that I think is relevant to the past, present, and future. It is basically about human nature and about what we are and what it means to take out of it. Compared to the movie, the book is more detailed and more focused on the story. In my opinion, the book is not difficult to read, but its content is more demanding.