Summary
The Giver transmits the memory of another ride on a sled,
only this time the sled loses control and Jonas experiences pain
and nausea from a badly broken leg. The pain lingers after the experience
is over, but the Giver is not allowed to give him relief-of-pain,
and Jonas limps home and goes to bed early. Forbidden to share his
feelings with his family, he feels isolated, realizing that they
have never known intense pain. Over the next days, the Giver transmits
more and more painful memories, always ending the day with a memory of
pleasure. After experiencing starvation, Jonas asks why these horrible
memories need to be preserved, and the Giver explains that they
bring wisdom: once, for example, the community wanted to increase
the number of children allowed to each family, but the Giver remembered
the hunger that overpopulation brings and advised against it. Jonas
wonders why the whole community cannot share the pain of these important
memories, and the Giver tells him that this is the reason the position
of Receiver is so honored—the community does not want to be burdened
and pained by memories. Jonas wants to change things, but the Giver
reminds him that the situation has been the same for generations,
and that there is very little hope for change.
Meanwhile, the newchild Gabriel is developing well, but
still cannot sleep through the night. Jonas’s father worries that
he will have to be released after all. He mentions that the Nurturing
Center will probably have to make another release first, though:
a Birthmother is expecting twin males, and if they are identical,
one will have to be released. Jonas wonders what happens to children
who are released. Is someone waiting for them Elsewhere to bring
them up and take care of them? He asks his parents to let Gabriel
sleep in his room that night so that he can share the responsibility
of caring for him. When Gabriel wakes up crying, Jonas
pats his back while remembering a wonderful sail on a lake transmitted
to him by the Giver. He realizes that he is unwittingly transmitting
the memory to Gabriel and stops himself. Later, he transmits the
whole memory and Gabriel stops crying and sleeps. Jonas wonders
if he has done the right thing.
The next day, Jonas finds the Giver in incredible pain,
and the Giver asks him to take some of the pain away. The Giver
transmits the terrible memory of a battlefield covered with groaning,
dying men and horses. Jonas, himself horribly wounded, gives water
to a young soldier and then watches him die. After this memory,
Jonas never wants to go back to the Annex for more wisdom and pain,
but he does, and the Giver transmits beautiful memories—birthday
parties, art museums, horseback riding, camping—that celebrate individuality,
brilliant colors, the bond between people and animals, and solitude,
all things absent from Jonas’s society. He asks the Giver what his
favorite memory is, and the Giver transmits a memory of a family—grandparents,
parents, young children—opening presents at Christmas. Jonas has
never heard of grandparents. In his community, parents cease to
be a part of children’s lives once the children have grown up—children
do not even know when their parents are released. He understands
that his organized society works well, but he felt a feeling in
the room that he liked. The Giver tells him that the feeling is
love, and Jonas says that he wishes his own family could be like
the family in the memory and that the Giver could be his grandparent.
At home that evening, he asks his parents if they love him. They
laugh and tell him to use more precise language: the word “love”
is so general that it is almost meaningless. They enjoy him, and
they are proud of him, but they cannot say they love him. Jonas
pretends to agree with them, but secretly he does not understand.
That night, he tells little Gabriel—who can only sleep through the
night when Jonas gives him memories—that if things were different
in the community, there could be colors and grandparents and love.
The next morning, Jonas decides to stop taking his morning pill.
Analysis
The Giver’s role in making decisions for the community
explains the importance of his position. He is not just a mystic
who holds onto out-of-date emotions and sensations despite that
they are no longer useful to the community. He is the only person
in the community who can prevent mistakes from being repeated, which
is the practical function of history. In this sense, the Giver’s
job is as practical and necessary as any other in the community:
through his wisdom, he keeps the community well fed and well ordered
just as much as the Fish Hatchery Attendant or the Nurturer do.
But the Giver’s presence somehow still undermines the
impression of logic and order that we get from the community. The
Committee of Elders does not base its decisions on real logic or
reason because it lacks the resources to make any kind of considered
decision about anything (the characters in the novel constantly
make jokes about the Committee’s painfully slow decision-making
process.) The resource they need is experience, and as a culture,
Jonas’s community lacks experience: it destroys experience. On the
issue of adding a third child to every family, the Committee did
not take the Giver’s advice because they thought about his argument
and realized that too many people would lead to
a lack of resources. They took his advice on blind faith, because
they lacked any other way of making a choice. Choice is impossible
without memory, just as freedom is impossible without choice.
The pain Jonas experiences isolates him further from his
family and friends when he realizes that they have never experienced
any real pain, but at the same time it drives him to try to forge
deeper connections with other people—his parents and the newchild
Gabriel. Jonas learns about love when he receives the memory of
the family at Christmas, but he learns about true compassion in
his experience on the battlefield. The contrast between his painful memories
and his pleasurable memories is strong, but not as strong as the
contrast between the memories and the colorless realities of life
in Jonas’s community. Jonas’s pain gives new depth and value to his
pleasure. We realize that the citizens of the community
lack the capacity for pleasure not only because it would destabilize the
society, but also because it is impossible to experience deep pleasure
without having experienced pain, and they have consciously eliminated
pain.
