Character
The eleven-year-old protagonist who is selected as the next Receiver of Memory. Response
Who is Jonas?
The community sacrifices this in exchange for safety, sameness, and order; Jonas gradually realizes its true value.
What is freedom (individual freedom / free will)?
Jonas's closest friend, whose Assignment as Caretaker of the Old surprises everyone, including herself.
Who is Fiona?
The annual ceremony at which Jonas receives his life Assignment, along with all other Twelves.
What is the Ceremony of Twelve?
Lowry uses this narrative perspective, keeping readers closely tied to Jonas's growing understanding throughout the novel.
What is third-person limited point of view?
This cheerful baby is assigned to Jonas's family unit and later named by Jonas's father. Response
Who is Gabriel?
Jonas's growing awareness that "release" actually means this forces him to confront his community's moral reality.
What is death (murder / euthanasia)?
This is the nature of the bond between Jonas and Gabriel that drives the novel's climax and ending.
What is love (protective, brotherly love)?
Jonas's first transmitted memory from The Giver — a thrilling and colorful experience on a hill.
What is sledding (riding a sled in the snow)?
The word "release" is an example of this literary technique — a mild term used in place of a harsh or disturbing truth.
What is a euphemism?
The current Receiver of Memory who trains Jonas and carries the burden of the community's past.
Who is The Giver (the old man / the Elder)?
The Giver describes this as the ability to feel deeply — both joy and pain — something the community has eliminated through Sameness.
What is emotion (feeling / love)?
The Giver reveals that his connection to Rosemary was more than professional — she was this to him.
What is his daughter?
This is the plan Jonas and The Giver devise to return the memories to the community.
What is Jonas escaping Elsewhere, triggering the memories to flood back to the people?
Jonas's ability to perceive color before others — beginning with the apple and Fiona's hair — is an example of this literary device, hinting at his special destiny.
What is foreshadowing?
Jonas's father holds this job title in the community, caring for new children and the elderly
What is a Nurturer?
This theme is explored through the concept of Sameness: when everyone is identical, no one can truly exercise this.
What is choice (individual choice)?
Jonas's relationship with his father changes when he witnesses his father doing this to a twin newchild.
What is releasing (killing / injecting) the infant?
This event — scheduled for the next day — forces Jonas to flee sooner than planned.
What is Gabriel's release (scheduled death)?
The community's "Sameness," the controlled climate, and the suppression of memory are features that classify The Giver as belonging to this literary genre.
What is dystopian fiction (a dystopia)?
This previous Receiver-in-training failed her assignment, causing all suppressed memories to flood back to the community
Who is Rosemary?
Lowry uses Jonas's journey to argue that a life without this — despite its pain — is not a fully human life.
What is memory (the past / human experience)?
Although they are assigned as best friends, Jonas's relationship with Asher becomes strained because of this growing difference between them.
What is Jonas's ability to see (and feel) what others cannot — color, emotion, and truth?
At the novel's ambiguous ending, Jonas hears this for the first time as he descends toward the lights below.
What is music?
The sled that opens and closes the novel is an example of this technique, giving the object deeper meaning connected to journey, hope, and memory.
What is a symbol (symbolism)?