The Giver

The community in The Giver is highly structured. Each individual citizen has a role to play in keeping the community functioning, with the exception of babies and the elderly. Children must...

The answer to your question can be found in chapter nine of The Giver. The rules which Jonas is given adds to his feeling that he is now on his own, separated from his peers by the job that he has...

In this futuristic moral fable, the residents live in an artificial world contrived to control the negative factors of human nature. Here are some rules: 1. No one is allowed to invade the...

The author doesn't tell us what the real ending of the story is. It is possible that when Lowry wrote The Giver, she had a sequel in mind. Leaving the ending of this book ambiguous would...

Jonas is a highly sensitive and intelligent young man. It is these very qualities that give him a unique insight into life in the society in which he lives, as well as providing him with the means...

One of the main differences between Jonas's community and our world concerns the measures taken to create an equal society. Members of Jonas's community are required to wear specific attire and...

Shortly after Jonas is selected to be the community's next Receiver of Memory, he travels to the Annex, where he begins his training sessions with the Giver. During his first training session, the...

Ten main events in The Giver include the following: The Ceremony of Twelve occurs as the beginning of the novel. This ceremony is a major event in The Giver, as it sets the stage for the future of...

The Giver takes place in a technologically advanced, unspecified community. It is a place without colors, without temperature variation, and without pain. Everything in the community is controlled,...

As the other answers have noted, at certain set intervals, children attend a ceremony that ushers in a new stage of life. These include being assigned to a family, starting school, and getting...

In the strange dystopian world inhabited by the characters in Lois Lowry’s The Giver, “release” means death by euthanasia. While most people in the community are under the impression that those who...

"'Jonas has not been assigned . . . Jonas has been selected . . . Such a selection is very, very rare,' the Chief Elder told the audience" (60). Jonas is selected to be the Receiver-in-Training...

The Giver by Lois Lowry is about a dystopian future society that is governed by an extensive and strict set of rules. For instance, “it was against the rules for Pilots to fly over the community.”...

In Lois Lowry's The Giver, the community in which Jonas and Asher live is controlled by authorities and rules down to the smallest details. Young children are especially responsible for learning...

The Ceremony of Twelve is the most important ceremony in Jonas's community because it is when the adolescent children are given their permanent Assignments, which are their individually selected...

The Receiver of Memory is one of the most important and most valuable jobs in the Community. To sustain the peace and stability of the Community and to maintain Sameness, all of the pain, suffering...

In chapter 20, the Giver and Jonas come up with a plan to change society for the better by exposing the citizens to difficult memories in order to eliminate Sameness and do away with horrific...

It is a long process to change a rule in the community. First, a change to the existing law is proposed. Next, a committee analyzes the information about the rule change. It is indicated that...

Over the course of the novel, one of the main storylines is the way that Jonas changes. He goes from being someone who completely accepts the way his society is to someone who is totally willing...

Family units are formed by application, with one man, one woman, one boy, and one girl, and are temporary. The first thing you need to understand about the community is that a family is not the...

In The Giver, the citizens of the community live in "dwellings," while the Giver lives in the Annex, which is located behind the House of the Old. The dwellings are the homes where citizens live,...

The color red is significant in The Giver. The first time Jonas “sees beyond” is when he notices an apple change color. He also sees color in the faces of the crowd during the Ceremony of Twelve,...

In Chapter 13, Jonas laments about the fact that there are no choices because everything is the same in his community. When Jonas asks the Giver why it is necessary that everything is the same, he...

Jump start your response by writing a list of things that sameness, or equality, would affect even in our society: free health care, housing, and all the things mentioned by ladyvols1, and be sure...

The capacity to see beyond is the ability to use any of the senses that were present in the memories, but not in the community. For Jonas, this ability reveals itself in his ability to see color....

In chapter 13, the Giver tells Jonas that ten years ago, the previous Receiver of Memory failed in her assignment by requesting to be released. When Rosemary was released, her difficult memories...

In the community, the changes presented at the ceremonies are symbolic. These are the most significant ceremonies. At the ceremony of one, the Newchild gets a name and is recognized for the first...

In chapter 15, the Giver shares a difficult memory of war with Jonas. Jonas recalls being injured on a battlefield in a confusing, foul-smelling location. After witnessing a horse get shot, Jonas...

Jonas's highly structured, oppressive society is founded on the principles of Sameness, which dramatically alter the environment, restrict citizens' personal freedoms, and completely eliminate...

In chapter 14 of Lowry's The Giver, Jonas gets up in the middle of the night to check on a whimpering baby Gabe, who has been staying in his room. Jonas touches Gabe to soothe him and daydreams...

When Jonas is confused as to why he was skipped when jobs were being assigned at the Ceremony of Twelve, the Chief Elder informs him that he has been selected to be the new Receiver of Memory, a...

The main message of the novel is that choice is not destructive. In this society, the absence of choice is actually more destructive. All choices are made for people, and as a result they act in...

The theme of sharing memories is important in literature, as the goal of writing is to preserve memory so that it can be shared collectively. The issue of memory is integral to two major works of...

In chapter 4, Fiona tells Jonas about the release ceremony that they celebrated earlier in the morning. Fiona goes on to explain the release of an old man named Roberto. She says that Roberto's...

Jonas' plan had been to escape from the community within two weeks, during the yearly Ceremony. He and the Giver had been planning everything carefully. The Giver would give him memories of courage...

Jonas had eight rules. Most of the rules told him where to go, but some rules surprised him. Jonas realized that he was not going to have much free time after he was chosen as the new Receiver of...

Sameness is the concept that everyone gives up choices and feelings. The main disadvantage of Sameness is that the community commits terrible atrocities in the name of sameness. Anyone who does...

Jonas sees the apple change color in mid-air and perceives its red appearance for the first time. In chapter 3, Jonas recalls a time when he casually took an apple out a basket in the recreation...

Asher is assigned to be Assistant Director of Recreation. In the community, each child is given a job for life at the Ceremony of Twelve when they turn twelve years old. Jonas is concerned about...

Release is death by lethal injection. There is a ceremony before the release, but the release itself is just an injection. When a person becomes old enough, the community has him or her...

There are many symbols in The Giver, because the story itself is largely symbolic. Three examples are the apple, memories, and the sled. The Apple [Following] the path of the apple through the...

Throughout the majority of the novel, Jonas did not fully understand the meaning of the term "release." In Chapter 19, the Giver makes Jonas watch footage of an infant twin being released by Jonas'...

Spouses are assigned to most adults, but in Chapter 13 we learn that the Giver’s now lives with the childless adults. In Jonas’s community, families are created very differently. The community has...

As Chapter 12 of The Giver is ending, Jonas has just received the memory of the color red. He loves the beauty of the color and asks the Giver about color, why it has disappeared in the Community....

Jonas and the other community members are unable to see color because the community has eliminated colors in an effort to maintain sameness. Sameness is the community’s name for complete control...

When Jonas is discussing his future ceremony of Twelve with his mother and father, the narrator tells us that his father reached over and "stroked [his] neatly-trimmed hair." This is really all...

"Sameness" is the name given to the ideology practiced by the leaders of Jonas's community in its desire to create a utopian society. The principle essentially involves a system of covert...

Jonas's first lie comes in Chapter 16 when he asks his parents if they love him. This simple question earns him a gentle rebuke from his parents. There was an awkward silence for a moment. Then...

The Receiver's house is unlike all of the others in The Giver. (Jonas actually becomes referred to as The Receiver, while the older man tells Jonas to address him as The Giver.) It is the only...

The Giver advised the committee on expanding the population and dealing with the jet plane that flew over the community. Jonas asks The Giver what the purpose of the memories is, because he has...