Student Question
What does "capacity to see beyond" mean in The Giver?
Quick answer:
In Lois Lowry's "The Giver," the "capacity to see beyond" refers to the rare ability to perceive aspects of reality that are not present in the controlled society of the community, such as colors and deep emotions. This extraordinary power manifests itself differently in individuals; for Jonas, it begins with seeing colors, specifically red, while for The Giver, it started with hearing music. As Jonas receives more memories from The Giver, his capacity to see beyond expands, allowing him to discern differences and gain wisdom beyond the imposed Sameness of his society.
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.
Jonas does not think he is special. He thinks he is just an ordinary eleven year old boy. Even when he notices the apple change in mid-air, he does not understand why but does not think it is anything special about him.
But suddenly Jonas had noticed, following the path of the apple through the air with his eyes, that the piece of fruit had—well, this was the part that he couldn't adequately understand—the apple had changed. (ch 2, p. 24)
Later, Jonas is told by The Giver that he is beginning to see the color red.
Once, back in the time of the memories, everything had a shape and size, the...
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way things still do, but they also had a quality called color. (ch 12, p. 94)
However, the Capacity to See Beyond seems to manifest itself differently in different people. Not all see the color red, or color at all, at first. The Giver tells Jonas that when he first noticed something different, he did not see color—he heard music.
"When I was just a boy, younger than you, it began to come to me. But it wasn't the seeing-beyond for me. It was different. For me, it was hearing-beyond." (ch 20, p. 157)
Jonas later sees all colors, and hears music. Basically, the Capacity to See Beyond means the ability to see into the community’s past, and receive their memories.
Lowry, Lois (1993-04-26). The Giver (Newbery Medal Book). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
In The Giver, what is "seeing beyond"?
When Jonas is selected to be The Receiver, the Chief Elder explains why he is assigned such an important role in the community. She says that Jonas has all of the requirements needed to be The Receiver: intelligence, integrity, courage, wisdom (which will come with his training) and the capacity to See Beyond. To See Beyond means that Jonas can see differences, such as colors, and understand feelings on a deeper level than the average person. It's the capacity to gain wisdom through experiences, such as the memories that the Receiver gives him. Many times while discussing the memories, Jonas identifies difficult issues surrounding them and the community. He still needs the Giver's guidance, but his ability to discern between ideas, and other differences shows that Jonas has special skills to overcome Sameness. The Giver describes Seeing Beyond as follows:
"When you receive the memories, you have the capacity to see beyond. You'll gain wisdom, then, along with colors. And lots more. . . Our people made that choice, the choice to go to Sameness. . . we relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with differences" (95).
Jonas had the beginnings of Seeing Beyond when he first saw the color of the apple while playing catch with Asher. This proved that Jonas had the ability to identify differences and overcome Sameness. Again, that's mostly why he was chosen to be the next Receiver--because he can recognize differences. As he works with the Giver, he starts to gain more wisdom through different memories which also give him the power to conquer Sameness and see beyond it.
In The Giver, what does Jonas mean by "capacity to see beyond"?
As Jonas looks at things, he is able to see colors that other people cannot see. Color has been removed from Jonas' community, so everything in their lives is the same drab tone. Nothing is vibrant or distinctive, such as the color red. Jonas later learns that as a boy, the Giver had the capacity to "Hear Beyond", meaning the Giver could hear musical patterns in everyday sound.