The Giver

The Speaker announces that there is an unscheduled holiday, effective immediately. This is a rare treat. For most citizens, it means there is no work, training, school, or volunteering. Substitute laborers do the essential tasks for the day. School is less important to Jonas than it used to be, but it’s still needed to encourage memorization of rules and mastery of new technologies. Jonas peers into the river and considers how it comes from Elsewhere while also heading there.

After skipping his daily medication for four weeks, Jonas is experiencing Stirrings and more intense feelings than he has had before. He knows he can’t return to the world of blunted emotions that he used to inhabit. He can now see colors consistently. Jonas realizes that he experiences a new “depth of feelings” (131)in both his life and the memories he receives. He thinks of times his family members have described sadness and anger, and how they were actually experiencing milder feelings such as disappointment and impatience. These feelings also fade quickly. Jonas knows he has now experienced true sadness and grief, and that “there was no quick comfort for emotions like those” (132).

Jonas sees Asher and joins a game he’s playing with some other kids. The game is a familiar one, but it feels different to Jonas today. He realizes it’s a reenactment of war and is overwhelmed by his feelings. He struggles to breathe. This frustrates the other children. One pretends to shoot him. Soon the crowd of kids disperses, nervous that something is wrong with Jonas. Fiona asks Jonas what is bothering him. Jonas asks Asher not to play this game anymore, but he knows Asher can’t understand why the game is cruel. Jonas sees “his childhood, his friendships, [and] his carefree sense of security” (135)slipping away and feels incredibly sad. He knows that no one except the Giver will understand what he is going through without access to memories. He also knows he can’t change the status quo.

Meanwhile, Gabriel has begun to walk. This is cause for celebration at the Nurturing Center but also cause for introducing the discipline wand. The twin babies are about to be born as well. Jonas wonders if his father takes one of the babies Elsewhere. Jonas’s father says he does not, that he just chooses which twin goes there. He says he will make the smaller one clean and comfortable, then perform a Ceremony of Release and say goodbye. Lily remarks how confusing it would be if everyone in the community had a twin who lived elsewhere, and if each pair of twins had the same name. Jonas and Lily’s mother said Lily should receive the assignment of Storyteller.

The Giver admits that he thinks about his own release when he is in great pain. Sometimes he wants to request release, but he knows he cannot unless a new Receiver has been trained. Jonas does not look forward to the end of his training because it’s “clear to him what a terribly difficult and lonely life” (139)is in store, in spite of all the honor that comes with the position. He asks the Giver for details about the failed Receiver-in-training. The Giver says she was a girl named Rosemary who was smart, interested in learning, and “self-possessed and serene” (140). He says that he loved her—and that he loves Jonas, too. It hurt him to transfer painful memories to Rosemary. After transmitting pleasant memories to her for five weeks, he gave her a memory of a child taken from his parents. Once she knew about this kind of pain, she was never the same: “I could see it in her eyes” (142).

Jonas asks if Rosemary wasn’t "brave enough" (142) to manage difficult memories, but the Giver does not respond. The Giver explains that he gave her memories of plenty of painful experiences, including terror and hunger. He had to do this, he says, because it’s part of his job. One day, after giving her a happy memory, she kissed his cheek and left the room. She then went to the Chief Elder and requested release. This was not against the rules at the time. Jonas asks what would happen to the memories if he died in an accident, like when Caleb fell into the river. The Giver explains that the memories would come back to the community. Since the other citizens aren’t accustomed to having strong feelings, they don’t know how to handle them, especially the unpleasant ones. Plus, when Rosemary was released, the Giver became so mired in his own grief that he didn’t try to assist them. Jonas says the Giver’s help is the only thing that has enabled him to deal with the difficult memories. The Giver realizes he could help others the way he has helped Jonas if the memories return to the whole community. Still, he tells Jonas to stay away from the river.