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Title: The Giver Authors: Lois Lowry Category:supplementals Number of Highlights: 20 Date: 2025-07-01 Last Highlighted: **
Highlights
It was the sort of thing one didnât ask a friend about because it might have fallen into that uncomfortable category of âbeing different.â Asher took a pill each morning; Jonas did not. Always better, less rude, to talk about things that were the same.
âBut sir,â Jonas suggested, âsince you have so much power ââ The man corrected him. âHonor,â he said firmly. âI have great honor. So will you. But you will find that that is not the same as power.
He had walked through woods, and sat at night beside a campfire. Although he had through the memories learned about the pain of loss and loneliness, now he gained, too, an understanding of solitude and its joy.
There was never any comfortable way to mention or discuss oneâs successes without breaking the rule against bragging, even if one didnât mean to. It was a minor rule, rather like rudeness, punishable only by gentle chastisement. Better to steer clear of an occasion governed by a rule which would be so easy to break.
âThe worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. Itâs the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.â
At dawn, the orderly, disciplined life he had always known would continue again, without him. The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without color, pain, or past.
Tags:perception
âIf everythingâs the same, then there arenât any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?â
Tags:choice
No one mentioned such things; it was not a rule, but was considered rude to call attention to things that were unsettling or different about individuals.
Tags:perception,social_construct
Jonas trudged to the bench beside the Storehouse and sat down, overwhelmed with feelings of loss. His childhood, his friendships, his carefree sense of securityâall of these things seemed to be slipping away. With his new, heightened feelings, he was overwhelmed by sadness at the way the others had laughed and shouted, playing at war. But he knew that they could not understand why, without the memories. He felt such love for Asher and for Fiona. But they could not feel it back, without the memories. And he could not give them those. Jonas knew with certainty that he could change nothing.
âI felt sad today,â he had heard his mother say, and they had comforted her. But now Jonas had experienced real sadness. He had felt grief. He knew that there was no quick comfort for emotions like those. These were deeper and they did not need to be told. They were felt.
Jonas hesitated. âI certainly liked the memory, though. I can see why itâs your favorite. I couldnât quite get the word for the whole feeling of it, the feeling that was so strong in the room.â âLove,â The Giver told him. Jonas repeated it. âLove.â It was a word and concept new to him.
The Giver shrugged. âOur people made that choice, the choice to go to Sameness. Before my time, before the previous time, back and back and back. We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with differences.â He thought for a moment. âWe gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others.â
Tags:perception
Only when they are faced with something that they have not experienced before. Then they call upon me to use the memories and advise them. But it very seldom happens. Sometimes I wish theyâd ask for my wisdom more oftenâthere are so many things I could tell them; things I wish they would change. But they donât want change. Life here is so orderly, so predictableâso painless. Itâs what theyâve chosen.â
Tags:wisdom
âBut why canât everyone have the memories? I think it would seem a little easier if the memories were shared. You and I wouldnât have to bear so much by ourselves, if everybody took a part.â The Giver sighed. âYouâre right,â he said. âBut then everyone would be burdened and pained. They donât want that. And thatâs the real reason The Receiver is so vital to them, and so honored. They selected meâand youâto lift that burden from themselves.â
Once he had yearned for choice. Then, when he had had a choice, he had made the wrong one: the choice to leave. And now he was starving. But if he had stayed . His thoughts continued. If he had stayed, he would have starved in other ways. He would have lived a life hungry for feelings, for color, for love. And Gabriel? For Gabriel there would have been no life at all. So there had not really been a choice.
âI think I mentioned to you once,â The Giver reminded him, âthat when she was gone, the memories came back to the people. If you were to be lost in the river, Jonas, your memories would not be lost with you. Memories are forever. âRosemary had only those five weeks worth, and most of them were good ones. But there were those few terrible memories, the ones that had overwhelmed her. For a while they overwhelmed the community. All those feelings! Theyâd never experienced that before. âI was so devastated by my own grief at her loss, and my own feeling of failure, that I didnât even try to help them through it. I was angry, too.â The Giver was quiet for a moment, obviously thinking. âYou know,â he said, finally, âif they lost you, with all the training youâve had now, theyâd have all those memories again themselves.â
The children all received their bicycles at Nine; they were not allowed to ride bicycles before then.
He had seen a birthday party, with one child singled out and celebrated on his day, so that now he understood the joy of being an individual, special and unique and proud.
âI think newchildren are so cute,â Lily sighed. âI hope I get assigned to be a Birthmother.â âLily!â Mother spoke very sharply. âDonât say that. Thereâs very little honor in that Assignment.â
The next morning, for the first time, Jonas did not take his pill. Something within him, something that had grown there through the memories, told him to throw the pill away.