PRECISION OF LANGUAGE
This gentle-sounding term is used by the community instead of the word "execution" or "euthanasia.
What is Release?
This is the maximum number of children allowed in a single family unit.
What is two?
The community eliminated this natural phenomenon to ensure perfect, predictable crop yields and easy transportation.
What is weather / climate control?
This was the very first memory of physical pain Jonas received from the Giver.
What is a sunburn?
"I call him Gabe, actually. He’s a sweet little guy, but he’s not sleeping as soundly as he should."
Who is Jonas's Father?
Instead of saying a citizen died in an accident, the community uses this specific word to describe the event.
What is Loss?
At this age, citizens are relieved of their volunteer hours and given their official, permanent career Assignments.
What is Twelve?
The landscape of the community was engineered to be completely like this, eliminating hills, mountains, and valleys.
What is flat?
Jonas transfers memories to this character to keep him quiet and alive during their escape.
What is Gabriel?
"I feel sorry for anyone who is in a place where he feels strange and stupid."
Who is Lily?
To prevent citizens from experiencing passion or sexual attraction, they must take a daily pill to suppress these.
What are the Stirrings?
In Chapter 19, a newborn twin is released simply because of this physical measurement.
What is birth weight?
This is the first color Jonas begins to "see beyond" when looking at an apple and Fiona's hair.
What is red?
Jonas's absolute trust in his father and his society completely shatters after watching a video recording of this specific event.
What is the release of the twin?
"I left the room because it was my hobby to drop things, and then to see how long it would take for someone to find them."
Who is Asher?
When Asher mistakenly used the word "distraught" instead of "distracted," he was showing a lack of this community requirement.
What is Precision of Language?
When a young child named Caleb tragically drowned in the river, the community did not mourn his unique life; instead, they performed this specific ritual to officially cycle a new, identical child into the system.
What is the Ceremony of Loss (followed by the Murmur of Replacement)?
To eliminate the genetic unpredictability of biological parents and maintain a perfectly controlled population, Sameness completely removed childbirth from citizens and assigned it to this specific, low-status career track.
What are Birthmothers?
This was the most agonizing memory of human conflict Jonas received, leaving him lying on a battlefield surrounded by smoke and crying soldiers.
What is war?
"There's administrative work to do, and I have to learn the evening scheduling, plus there's a group coming over from the House of the Childless to be introduced."
Who is Fiona?
This is the specific title given to a newborn baby before they are assigned to a family unit at the Ceremony of One.
What is a Newchild?
Jonas and the Giver act as this type of philosophical figure, bearing all the society's pain so the masses don't have to.
What is a scapegoat?
Because of Sameness, the community lacks this technological method of taking a vote, leaving all decisions entirely to the Elders.
What is democracy / elections?
Jonas experiences a profound sense of isolation and anger when he accidentally interrupts his friends playing this specific game, realizing they are casually mimicking a horrific memory he holds.
What is Good Guys and Bad Guys (or the game of war)?
"It's the choosing that's important, isn't it?"
Who is The Giver?