Summary
We are introduced to Jonas, the eleven-year-old protagonist
of the story, as he struggles to find the right word to describe
his feelings as he approaches an important milestone. He rejects
“frightened” as too strong a word, recalling a time when he had
really been frightened: a year ago, an unidentified aircraft flew
over his community—it was a strange and unprecedented event, since
Pilots were not allowed to fly over the community. As Jonas remembers
the community reaction to the event, we learn more about the society
in which he lives. It is extremely structured, with official orders
transmitted through loudspeakers planted all around the community.
As a punishment, the pilot was “released” from the community—the
worst fate that can befall a citizen. Jonas decides he is apprehensive,
not frightened, about the important thing that is going to happen
in December. Jonas and his society value the use of precise and
accurate language.
At dinner that night, Jonas’s family—his father, mother,
and seven-year-old sister Lily—participate in a nightly ritual called
“the telling of feelings.” Each person describes an emotion that
he or she experienced during the day and discusses it with the others.
Lily says she was angry at a child visiting from a nearby community
who did not observe her childcare group’s play area rules. Her parents
help her to understand that the boy probably felt out of place,
and she becomes less angry. Jonas’s father, who is a Nurturer (he
takes care of the community’s babies, or newchildren), describes
his struggles with a slowly developing baby whose weakness makes
it a candidate for release. The family considers taking care of
the baby for a while, though they are not allowed to adopt him—every
household is allowed only one male and one female child. We also
learn that spouses are assigned by the government. Jonas explains
his apprehensiveness about the coming Ceremony of Twelve—the time
when he will be assigned a career and begin life as an adult. We
learn that every December, all of the children in the community
are promoted to the next age group—all four-year-old children become
Fives, regardless of the time of year when they were actually born.
We also learn that fifty children are born every year. The ceremonies
are different for each age group. At the Ceremony of One newchildren, who
have spent their first year at the Nurturing Center, are assigned to
family units and given a name to use in addition to the number they
were given at birth. Jonas’s father confesses to his family that
he has peeked at the struggling newchild’s name—Gabriel—in the hopes
that calling him a name will help the child develop more quickly.
Jonas is surprised that his father would break any kind of rule,
though the members of the community seem to bend rules once in a
while. For instance, older siblings often teach younger siblings to
ride bicycles before the Ceremony of Nine, when they receive their
first official bicycles.
Jonas’s parents reassure him that the Committee of Elders,
the ruling group of the community, will choose a career for him
that will suit him. The Committee members observe the Elevens all
year, at school and play and at the volunteer work they are required
to do after school, and consider each child’s abilities and interests
when they make their selection. Jonas’s father tells him that when
he was eleven, he knew he would be assigned the role of Nurturer,
because it was clear that he loved newchildren and he spent all
his volunteer hours in the Nurturing Center. When Jonas expresses
concern about his friend Asher’s Assignment—he worries that Asher
does not have any serious interests—his parents tell him not to
worry, but remind him that after Twelve, he might lose touch with
many of his childhood friends, since he will be spending his time
with a new group, training for his job. Then Jonas’s sister Lily
appears, asking for her “comfort object”—a community-issued stuffed
elephant. The narrator refers to the comfort objects as “imaginary
creatures. Jonas’s had been called a bear.”
Analysis
At the beginning of The Giver, we have
a difficult time figuring out the setting of the novel. We do not
know what it is that Jonas is afraid of—from the reference to unidentified
aircraft, we might think that he lives in a war zone. When we find
out that it is against the rules for Pilots to fly over the community,
we know that Jonas lives in a community that is different from our
own, but we do not know at first how different it. Lowry allows
the small details about life in Jonas’s community to build up gradually
into a more complete picture.
Initially, the picture we get of Jonas’s society is positive.
From the emphasis on precision of language and the considerate,
careful way in which Jonas’s family shares its feelings, we learn
that his society values the clear communication of ideas. We also
know that members of the community pay attention to each other’s
feelings and try to solve each other’s problems in rational, reassuring
ways: the family helps Lily to control her anger and encourages
her to feel empathy for visitors in unfamiliar surroundings, and
they resolve to help their father take care of a struggling baby.
The community must be very safe and peaceful indeed if the only
time Jonas can remember being frightened is when an unidentified
plane flew over his community.
Some aspects of life in the community are startling, but
they are easily explained. The loudspeakers transmitting orders
to the people in the community are somewhat unsettling—the idea
of a disembodied, faceless authority with the power to control many
people’s actions is reminiscent of police states and dictatorships.
At the same time, it is a convenient public address system that
was able to reassure many frightened people. The fact that the government
chooses people’s spouses, jobs, and children for them is also unsettling,
but the picture we get of Jonas’s family life is full of tranquility
and comfort—the system obviously works pretty well. We know that
the society is extremely orderly and peaceful, and that everyone
has a job that he or she enjoys and can do well. There seems to
be very little competition in Jonas’s community. Jonas is not hoping
for a desirable or prestigious position, just one that he will be
able to do well. In general, the society seems to be an almost perfect
model of a communist society, one in which everyone in the community
works together for the common good and receives an equal share of
the benefits of living in the community.
