The Giver Chapters 13-16
Chapters 13-16
As the weeks of training go by, Jonas begins to feel frustrated. He is angry at his group mates for their inability to see the vibrancy in colors and wants to share with them his new reality. Jonas realizes that he is different and that his life is no longer ordinary. He fails to share his perception with his best friend Asher, and with family members. Jonas increasingly sees more color but wishes that he were able to see them all the time so that he could make decisions. The Giver explains that the colors were taken away as a part of removing the ability to choose which could lead people to make mistakes thereby making the community less safe.
The color red takes a new significance when the Giver shares with Jonas a memory of poachers killing an elephant and harvesting its ivory tusks. Jonas watches another elephant drape the torn body of the dead with a branch and mourns the dead. He has trouble forgetting the sound of the sad elephant. Jonas enquires about the Giver's marital status, and the Giver tells Jonas that he can apply for a spouse but that he could not maintain the relationship in the typical sense. The Receiver cannot talk about his work to anyone, and the memories were his life. Jonas asks about the Receiver's role in society, and the Giver explains that the Receiver advises the committee of elders in novel situations. The Giver wishes the committee would seek his counsel more often but he understands that they like their simple and ordered life. Jonas fails to understand why the Giver is supposed to experience and store the memories if he is to be consulted so infrequently. The Giver informs him that the Elders had come to realize the importance of the Giver ten years ago when the trainee Receiver had failed to complete the training. The memories she had been given hadn't returned to the Giver but they had remained outside and the citizens were able to access them. The memories had caused people a lot of pain, and so the elders had come to understand that it was important to have a Receiver who could hold those memories so that none of the citizens had to experience them.
There are some days when the Giver is unable to conduct Jonas's training because he is overwhelmed by the pain of his memories. On these days, Jonas walks through the community and attempts to understand if there are still places in the world that don't have the sameness. After one such day of wandering, Jonas asks the Giver to transmit to him some memories of the pain so that he doesn't have to experience the pain all by himself, and the Giver complies.
He shares with Jonas another memory of sledding in the snow, but this time Jonas crashes and breaks his leg. He feels like his leg has caught fire, and he screams aloud with pain, but he is alone on a hill with no one around. He returns to the physical world with tears streaking his face, and the ache of a broken leg lingering in his whole and uninjured leg. He isn't allowed any medication, so Jonas returns home limping, unable to even share the trauma of his pain with his family. He stays inside his sleeping room and overhears his family laughing. He is separated from them with the knowledge of pain, something they have never felt.
The Giver shares painful memories with him every day and ends the session with a pleasant memory. That never helps, Jonas can always feel the pain even once the memory has passed. After bearing the torturous memory of a starving child, Jonas breaks down and asks the Giver why they needed to have such intense memories of Pain. The Giver explains how the memory of hunger had helped him counsel the committee against increasing the size of family units. He had also been able to counsel the committee to be patient and to not shoot down the plane that had flown over the community, he had done so because of the memories of destruction. Jonas is fearful of receiving the memories of destruction, and wonders again whether they should alone bear all of that pain. The Giver tells him that the rules dictated only one Receiver and it had been like that for several generations. The rule couldn't change.
That night, his father discusses the birth of a set of twins. The community did not allow identical twins to coexist, one of the identical twins always had to be released. Jonas decides to help his father and mother by taking Gabriel to his room for the night. Gabriel has trouble sleeping, and his mother is bothered when Jonas's father has to wake in the middle of the night to care for him. During the middle of the night, Gabriel begins to turn in his sleep. Jonas pats the child to comfort him, but he mistakenly transmits a memory of the calming ocean. He panics but the memory calms Gabriel and he returns to sleep. Jonas decides not to share what he had done with the Giver and is surprised that he has this power of sharing. Jonas walks into the Annex to find the Giver wracked with severe pain, usually, the Giver would ask him to leave and return the following day. Today, Jonas offered to help, and the Giver readily accepted Jonas's aid and passed to him the memory of war. Jonas witnesses the carnage and death of war as he lies on the battlefield surrounded by dying soldiers. A boy no older than him begged for water, covered in dirt and blood. Jonas sits in the field of dying men for hours and breaks out of the memory just when it has finally become too much for him to bear. The Giver looks away from Jonas and avoids meeting his eye, embarrassed at having given him something so terrible.
Jonas stops wanting to go back to the Giver, he sits in his dwelling and watches the people go about their day. Unaware of the terrible pains that existed in the world. For the next few sessions, the Giver shares with him only happy memories and reminds him that there are many pleasures in the memory. Jonas asks the Giver to tell him about his favorite memory, and the Giver readily decides to transmit the memory to Jonas. The memory is of a family gathering to celebrate Christmas. Jonas smells delicious foods, and watches as the family exchanges then opens their presents. Jonas returns from the memory but continues to lie down, basking in the warmth of the memory. Jonas discusses the feeling of family, and wonders if the Giver is like his Grandfather. The Giver reminds Jonas of how the family unit evolves in their world. That Jonas's parents would move to live with the Childless adults once Lily and he grew up. They would then live there until they were old and then would move to the House of the Old. Then they would be released and Jonas would not even see them at their release or even know that it had occurred.
Jonas returns home and asks his parents if they love him. His father laughs off the use of the word and explains that love is too generic a word that has now become obsolete. He encourages Jonas to ask him more specific questions such as whether they enjoyed him or took pride in his achievements.
Gabriel has begun to sleep throughout the night, but only when he sleeps in Jonas's room. His father has grown certain that Gabriel will soon become well enough to sleep independently, and that Gabriel will not be released. Jonas shares with Gabriel many pleasant memories and talks to him about finding an alternative to his present existence. He talks of a world that could include love and Grandparents. Jonas then began to stop taking his medication for the stirrings, as he felt like it was the right thing to do.
Analysis
As Jonas gains more memories, he begins to ask questions that had never occurred to him before. The Giver had in the earlier chapters explained the sameness, which is a standardization that the society has imposed not only on its citizens but also on nature. Freedom of choice is a major theme in the book, and the Giver explains that society had sought to eliminate differences such as race and hair color to create a community devoid of any conflict. Jonas begins to experience unrest and frustration because he fails to share with others his newfound appreciation of the world they inhabit. Jonas's first experience of real physical pain involves the Sled, which was also his first experience of a memory. His isolation on the hill mirrors his position in real life. Jonas and the Giver alone possess the memories and their accompanying wisdom, and can therefore be considered to be responsible for all of society. As Jonas sits in his room, still reeling from the painful memory, he hears his family laughing and playing with one another. In this powerful scene, Jonas's isolation from the rest of society becomes apparent.
Jonas decides to help out his parents by taking care of Gabriel, and in the middle of the night, he shares happy memories with the child. He is surprised by his power and decides to hide the incident from the Giver. Jonas's quick understanding of his powers and his decision to rebel against even the authority of the current Receiver foreshadows his desire to change the status quo. Jonas's quick realization of the wrong that was done in taking away colors from the population also indicates innate wisdom. Jonas's experience of warfare is the most intense memory that he has ever experienced. He is forced to lie in the field of dying men, wracked with immeasurable pain as destruction reigns all around him. Near the conclusion of the memory, Jonas thinks that he would welcome death itself by that point. This is a crucial development, for Jonas has not only begun to understand, pain and conflict but also death.
The imposition of sameness has caused society to forget about deep emotions like familial love. Jonas's own parents seem to believe that love is an inappropriate word that fails to express any precise emotion. Jonas's decision to stop the medication for stirrings indicates his increasing willingness to make choices, and discover other emotions that may have been lost in the sameness.
