When a group of children visits Lily's play area, Lily is upset when they don't follow the established rules. She tries to compare their rude behavior to something tangible and falls short; after all, their community is so carefully structured that disorder is incomprehensible.

Jonas helps his sister, laughing as he compares this behavior to being like "animals." Neither child knows what an "animal" is because there are no such things in their society. In fact, when children are infants, they are each given a comfort object, which they think are "imaginary creatures." Lily's "imaginary" creature is called an elephant, and Jonas's was called a bear when he was younger.

Jonas's society therefore believes that animals have never existed, much like unicorns. Their collective memory of the existence of animals has been wiped clean, and they have no context in which to place "animal-like" behavior. Of course, they are also devoid of the bonds between humans and animals, which Jonas discovers in later memories which he receives from the Giver:

In one ecstatic memory he had ridden a gleaming brown horse across a field that smelled of damp grass, and had dismounted beside a small stream from which both he and the horse drank cold, clear water. Now he understood about animals; and in the moment that the horse turned from the stream and nudged Jonas's shoulder affectionately with its head, he perceived the bonds between animal and human.

Of course, Jonas's society has been structured to eliminate true connections between people, so it is no surprise that they would also eliminate the potential for bonds between animals and people. Jonas will come to understand that their society is a superficial one based more on compliance than on genuine affection, and the absence of animals contributes to this cold and sterile setting.