Summary
He liked the feeling of safety here in
this warm and quiet room; he liked the expression of trust on the
woman’s face as she lay in the water unprotected, exposed,
and free.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Jonas’s father brings the struggling newchild Gabriel
home to spend nights with Jonas’s family. Lily remarks that Gabriel
has “funny eyes” like Jonas—both boys have light eyes, while most
people in the community have darker eyes. Lily is being slightly
rude: in their society it is inappropriate to call attention to
the ways in which people are different. Lily also says she hopes
she will be assigned to be a Birthmother when she grows up, since
she likes newchildren so much, but her mother tells her that the
position of Birthmother carries very little honor—Birthmothers are
pampered for three years while they produce children, but then do
hard labor and never get to see their biological children.
Jonas thinks about the Speakers who make announcements
to the community over the loudspeakers all day, including reprimands to
rule-breakers. He remembers a time when an announcement was specifically
directed at him, though his name was not mentioned—no one is singled
out in his society. The announcement reminded male Elevens that
“snacks are to be eaten, not hoarded,” referring to an apple that
he had taken home with him from school. Jonas had taken
the apple because, while playing catch with his friend Asher, he
had noticed the apple change in a way he could not describe. On
closer investigation, the apple remained the same shape, size, and
nondescript shade as always, but then it would briefly change again,
though Asher did not seem to notice. Jonas took the apple home to
investigate it further, but discovered nothing. The event bewildered
him.
In Chapter 4, Jonas meets Asher
so that they can do their mandatory volunteer hours together. Children
from eight to eleven volunteer at different locations daily to develop
skills and get a sense of their occupational interests. Jonas enjoys
volunteer hours because they are less regulated than other hours
of his day—he gets to choose where he spends them. He volunteers
at a variety of places, enjoying the different experiences, and
has no idea what his Assignment will be. Today, he goes to the House
of the Old, where he notices Asher’s bike is parked. In the bathing
room, he gives a bath to an elderly woman. He appreciates the sense
of safety and trust he gets from the woman—it is against the rules
to look at other people naked in any situation, but the rule does
not apply to the Old or newchildren. They discuss the release of
one of the Old, a man named Roberto. The old woman, Larissa, describes
the release as a wonderful celebration—the man’s life story was
narrated, he was toasted by the other residents of the House of
the Old, he made a farewell speech, and then walked blissfully through
a special door to be released. Larissa does not know what actually
happens when someone is released, but she assumes it is wonderful;
she does not understand why children are forbidden to attend.
Analysis
In these chapters, we begin to get a sense of how different
Jonas is from other members of his society and also of the degree
to which his society discourages differences. Jonas is both physically
different, in that his eyes are a very unusual color, and mentally
different—he sees the world in a different way, as illustrated by
his ability to see the apple change. He is also slightly troubled
by some of the strict rules that govern his society. He enjoys the
closeness he gets from physical contact with the old woman and does
not understand why that kind of closeness is forbidden with other
people. He also enjoys having freedom of choice in a way that other
people in his community do not seem to appreciate as much. He likes
his volunteer hours because he can choose where to spend them, and
he takes advantage of that freedom more than most people do. However, although
Jonas enjoys freedom, he is still a loyal member of the community.
He follows the rules scrupulously, apologizing for stealing the
apple as soon as he realizes he has taken it, and he does notdoes
not think seriously about changing the society’s rules.
Lowry uses Jonas’s unusual eyes as a metaphor for the
unusual way in which he sees the world. His eyes, different from
other people’s, are a physical representation of his different “vision”:
he is different on the inside as well as on the outside. The fact
that his eyes seem deeper than other people’s is also significant.
The moment when Jonas sees the apple change will be used later in
the novel as an example of Jonas’s ability to “see beyond”—to physically
see past what other people in his community see, to see qualities
of objects that are deeper than the qualities other people see.
This ability to see colors when everyone else sees the world in
nondescript shades of dark and light is closely related to Jonas’s
spiritual and emotional ability later in the novel to feel emotions
more deeply than other people do.
At this point, the description of how the apple changes
is slightly confusing—we have no idea what happens to it when it
changes. However, it is the only way that Jonas, with no experience
of color, can describe what happens to the apple: it changes, taking
on a quality it did not have before. Lowry gives us some hints about
what happens to the apple, though. When Jonas describes the apple,
he notes that it is the same size and shape as before. He does not
use the word “color,” to describe its shade. Instead, he uses “nondescript,” a
word most people would not use to describe the color red. In the novel,
the color red comes to be closely aligned to the intense emotions
Jonas begins to feel during his training with the Giver. It is a vibrant
color, and the community’s inability to see it as anything but nondescript
is a metaphor for the community’s inability to perceive the intensity
and beauty of love and other emotions or the excitement of freedom
and choice.
