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The Giver
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Chapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
Jonas begins seeing all of the colors in his everyday life, but they’re still flashes of color that return to a “flat and hueless shade” (97). Jonas finds this unfair, remarking that Sameness comes with a disappointing lack of choices. He thinks he wants more choices to be available, and that the act of choosing is what matters most. Jonas discusses his frustration with the Giver, noting that Gabriel should be able to choose a red toy or a yellow one. The Giver points out that the baby might make a poor choice, and Jonas realizes that making decisions is a risky activity. He wonders what might happen if someone chose the wrong spouse or job. Protecting people from poor choices increases safety, Jonas concludes, but he still feels frustrated.
Jonas is experiencing anger more often than before. Sometimes it’s irrational anger at classmates for being “satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on” (99). Other times he feels angry that he can’t give him this vibrance. Jonas starts trying to share his new awareness with his loved ones, even though he’s not supposed to. He doesn't tell the Giver. Jonas touches Asher in an attempt to transmit awareness of how red some flowers are, but Asher is bothered because it’s “extremely rude for one citizen to touch another outside of family units” (99). He also tries to transmit knowledge of elephants to Lily, who has no understanding of animals. She dislikes this as well. Jonas’s knowledge of elephants comes from a troubling memory he has just received. He hears guns and shouting and a terrible thud when a group of men slaughter an elephant. Another elephant observes the scene, traumatized. It emits “a sound of rage and grief” (100)that seems endless.
The Giver tells Jonas how he used to have a spouse. She now lives with the Childless Adults, as Jonas’s own parents will when he and Lily are grown up. The Giver says Jonas may apply for a spouse, but that maintaining this relationship will be challenging because he will have to keep secrets from her. For instance, he won’t be able to show her his books, which the other citizens aren’t allowed to see. He also won’t be able to talk about his Receiver work with her. This is challenging because the role is such a large part of a Receiver’s life. The Giver also explains how Jonas will customarily receive a new set of rules when his training is complete: “Those are the rules that I obey” (103).
Once Jonas is the official Receiver, he will be tasked with advising the Committee of Elders when they must decide about something they haven’t experienced. Using his memories as a guide, Jonas will make recommendations about how to proceed. The Giver says this happens infrequently: “Sometimes I wish they’d ask for my wisdom more often—there are so many things I could tell them; things I wish they would change. But they don’t want change. Life here is so orderly, so predictable—so painless” (103). Jonas wonders if a Receiver is actually needed, and the Giver says this need was made clear 10 years earlier. When the new Receiver failed, the entire community began experiencing the memories she’d been holding. Chaos and suffering ensued but finally died down as the memories were “assimilated” (104).
Jonas wonders why the Giver must suffer in this way all the time. The Giver says that without these memories, there is no meaning, but that holding all of the memories of history is an impossible burden. Jonas begins to realize the irony of the honor that comes with being the Receiver. Some days the Giver is in too much pain to transmit memories. Jonas worries about the Giver and wonders what exists beyond their community. One day he asks the Giver what causes him this terrible pain. The Giver decides to give Jonas one of the memories that hurts him so.
Chapter 14 Summary
The painful memory begins with a sled going downhill. As Jonas loses control of the sled, he realizes he is “no longer enjoying the feeling of freedom but instead, terrified, was at the mercy of the wild acceleration downward over the ice” (108). He is thrown from the sled, and his leg breaks as he hits the ground. The pain is intense. He screams, but no one answers. He bleeds and vomits. When he returns to the Giver’s home, Jonas asks for pain relief, even though he knows this is not allowed. He longs for the “instantaneous deliverance” (109)of medication, but instead he must suffer. The pain lingers, but he tries to be brave. As he listens to his family laughing while bathing Gabriel, he realizes that they’ve never felt pain and feels very alone.
Each day of training now includes a horrible memory followed by a pleasant one. The agony of the broken leg seems benign as Jonas experiences the “deep and terrible suffering of the past” (110). He experiences the torture of being neglected and unfed and again asks the Giver why they must hold such memories. The Giver reminds Jonas that they’re a source of wisdom: “Without wisdom I could not fulfill my function of advising the Committee of Elders when they call upon me” (111). The Giver relates a story from several years ago, when many citizens asked the elders to have each Birthmother deliver four babies instead of three. The Giver considered his memories of starvation when the population grew too large and the warfare that resulted. He then advised them not to increase the population. The elders also sought the Giver’s advice when the airplane flew over the community. They were prepared to shoot it down, but the Giver told them to wait because he recalled times “when people had destroyed others in haste, in fear, and had brought about their own destruction” (112).
Jonas asks the Giver why the rest of the community can’t have these awful memories. That way, it wouldn’t be so much for one person to bear, he reasons. The Giver agrees but says that everyone would then feel pain and burden: “[T]hat’s the real reason the Receiver is so vital to them, and so honored. They selected me—and you—to lift that burden from themselves” (113). The unfairness of this arrangement angers Jonas. He insists that he and the Giver change it. The Giver says he hasn’t figured out how, despite all his wisdom, and that this decision was made long ago.
At home, Gabriel is growing well and meeting his developmental milestones, but he’s still crying during the night and therefore needs a lot of attention. Jonas’s father mentions that there’s a Birthmother preparing to have twins. As usual, the community will keep one twin and release the other. Jonas’s father will have to choose which one to release, typically the smaller one. Jonas wonders if in Elsewhere someone is waiting to receive the released newborn, and if it would grow up never knowing it had a twin sibling. Jonas asks for Gabriel’s crib to be placed in his room that night. When Gabriel fusses, Jonas pats the child’s back with his hand, recalling a lovely memory of sailing. He feels the memory slipping away through his touch. As this happens, Gabriel becomes calm and quiet. Jonas pulls back what is left of the memory, but then transmits the rest of it to Gabriel when he starts fussing again. Jonas is frightened by this strange power and decides not to speak of what he’s done.
Chapter 15 Summary
When Jonas arrives at the Annex, the Giver is in bad shape. He implores Jonas to take away some of his pain. The memory torturing the Giver unfolds in a “confused, noisy, foul-smelling place” (118). The air is thick with smoke, and groaning men lay in a field. A horse whinnies in panic and falls down. Jonas meets a uniformed boy about his age. The boy begs for water. He is covered in blood. Jonas notices its bright red color. He also realizes that his own arm is badly wounded. He gives the boy a drink and notices that the injured men are “begging for water and for Mother and for death” (119). Jonas watches the boy die. He then lays in the field listening to other people and animals die as cannons fire in the distance. He now knows what warfare is. As Jonas’s consciousness returns to the present, the Giver asks Jonas to forgive him.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
Jonas tries to transmit knowledge of elephants to Lily, but she is unable to receive it. He wants her to feel the wonder he has felt in discovering what animals were like long ago, and the intensity of feeling that memories bring about. He might also want her to see the moving bond between the two elephants in the elephant memory he received. He wants her to feel more deeply than she does.
Lily complains that Jonas has hurt her in his attempt to share memories, so he apologizes. Her acceptance of his apology is a rote response, devoid of real feeling. This is typical of apologies and acceptances of apologies throughout the book. Although these actions were probably meaningful and filled with feelings at one point, they are empty, automatic reflexes now. It doesn’t matter how precise the language is; when people stop paying attention to the meaning and feeling, the message loses its impact.
While time has stripped the meaning from apologies, it has also set certain community practices in stone. Jonas observes that “back and back and back,” one of the Giver’s terms for a long time ago, means that “nothing can be changed” (113). Both he and the Giver want to change their society’s worst qualities, but they feel hopeless and unable to make change happen. One reason is they feel that no one understands them. They have intense emotional experiences while others do not. They can "see beyond" (95) while others cannot. They have a life filled with pain and many people’s emotional burdens while others do not. However, they cannot mention any of these differences to others.
Jonas’s decision to share calming memories with Gabriel is significant. It shows that he believes the release of babies is unjust and cruel. He recognizes how the community expects minimal disruption from even its youngest, neediest members, as being responsible for a newchild who cries at night and needs tending during the day is seen as an unfair burden on parents. To Jonas, it seems even more unfair to deprive a child of life simply because he needs extra attention.
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