The Giver Quartet, #1
The Giver
by Lois Lowry
Contents
13
Overview
Jonas’s color perception grows, fueling his desire for personal choice and his frustration with Sameness. He fails to transmit awareness to Asher and his family, then witnesses an elephant’s killing and grief, deepening his understanding of pain. The Giver explains marital limits, secrecy, and a prior Receiver’s failed release of memories. At Jonas’s request, The Giver begins transmitting truly painful memories, starting again with a sled.
Summary
Weeks pass as Jonas learns color names and intermittently sees hues in daily life, sparking anger over the community’s Sameness and the loss of choice. Debating with The Giver, Jonas concedes that free choice is deemed unsafe, yet he remains frustrated by the community’s contentment and his inability to change it.
Without permission, Jonas tries to share his new perception with Asher at a red geranium bed and later with Father and Lily through Lily’s elephant comfort object. Each attempt fails, reinforcing his isolation and the community’s barriers to shared experience.
The Giver then transmits a disturbing memory: men with different skin colors kill an elephant for tusks, and a surviving elephant mourns, revealing raw grief and the vividness of red blood. The memory leaves Jonas anguished and newly aware of deep emotions and loss.
Jonas asks about spouses, and The Giver explains the Receiver’s isolated life: forbidden books for citizens, secrecy about work, and rare consultations by the Elders who prefer order and no change. He reveals a failure ten years earlier when a new Receiver’s memories were released to the people, causing chaos until assimilation, proving the community’s reliance on a Receiver to contain pain.
On days when The Giver is in pain and sends him away, Jonas practices holding colors and wonders about Elsewhere beyond identical communities. Seeking to help, Jonas asks to share The Giver’s pain. The Giver agrees it is time and prepares Jonas to receive truly painful memories, beginning once more with a hill and sled.
Who Appears
- JonasReceiver-in-training; increasingly sees color, questions Sameness and choice, fails to share memories, witnesses elephant grief, asks for painful memories.
- The GiverMentor; explains limits of choice, secrecy, rare counsel, prior Receiver’s failure; suffers pain and begins passing harsher memories.
- AsherJonas’s friend; uneasy during Jonas’s failed attempt to transmit the color red from geraniums.
- LilyJonas’s sister; doubts real elephants; rebuffs Jonas’s attempted memory sharing with her comfort object.
- FatherContinues caring for Lily and Gabriel; unknowingly resists Jonas’s attempt to share the elephant memory.
- GabrielNewchild in Jonas’s dwelling; prompts Jonas’s thoughts about letting people choose, starting with toys.
- Chief ElderPreviously warned of painful training; referenced as part of a system that rarely seeks the Receiver’s counsel.
- Failed ReceiverPrevious trainee whose failure released memories to the community, causing temporary chaos.