The Giver Chapters 9-12
Chapters 9-12
Jonas feels separate and different for the first time in his life, even Asher, his best friend, seems hesitant to interact with him. At dinner, Jonas talks to his parents and his mother tells him that she had never expected it. The Receiver wasn't a job because there could only ever be one at a time. Jonas asks them about the previous selection that the Chief Elder had alluded to in her speech. His mother tells him that a selection had occurred ten years ago, but the girl that had been selected had simply vanished one day. Her name is forbidden in the community, and no new child is ever to receive it again. Jonas knows that the banning of a name is a mark of great disgrace.
Later that night, Jonas opens the folder he had been given after the selection. His instructions for the assignment were simple enough to be on one page. Jonas has to go to the Annex behind the House of Old every day after school and then return directly home after finishing there. He is not to speak to anyone about his training and is no longer required to follow the rules of rudeness. Jonas can ask any citizen any question and receive a response. He cannot take medication for any illnesses or injuries that are related to his training, and he can never ask for release. Lastly, Jonas can lie.
Jonas, from a very young age, has been taught precision of language like all the other children which prevents them from speaking even unintentional lies. Some of the rules for his training worry Jonas. He goes to the Annex after school the next day and finds a single receptionist at the desk. She stands up as he enters and addresses him as the Receiver, she then unlocks a door by her side. Jonas is surprised by the lock because no door in the community is ever locked. He heads inside and finds a typical living space, but the furniture seems to be better made.
The most pressing difference however is that there are thousands of books in the room, and Jonas has never seen so many. The current Receiver sits in a chair and directs Jonas to another. Jonas misunderstands the title and his Job, he believes that he is to receive the memories of the old man but the man informs him that he will inherit the memories of the whole world. The old man had received his memories in that very room and experienced them every day. Using those memories the Receiver helps the committee of elders govern society. The Receiver recounts how he had tried to train another successor but had failed, and so encourages Jonas to ask questions. The Receiver mentions snow as he talks about the weight of the memories, but then notes that Jonas doesn't know what snow is. He decides that snow will be their starting point. He tells Jonas to lie face down on the bed without his tunic, he then switches off the speaker in the room. Jonas asks him what he is going to do, and as the man presses his fingers on Jonas's naked back, he replies that he is going to transmit to him the memories of snow.
Jonas experiences the cold, the snow, and riding a sled downhill. It is as if he is in another place but he maintains knowledge of his physical surroundings. Jonas enjoys the thrill of the snow sled, and the words for the things he sees in the memory come to him naturally. Jonas opens his eyes once the memory is over and finds the old man sitting down from weariness. Jonas asks him why they no longer have snow or hills, and he explains that their people had chosen sameness. They had put in place climate control and flattened the surface so that things like agriculture and transportation of goods could take place more efficiently.
Jonas asks him what the Chief Elder had meant about the pain he would experience in his training, and the old man tells him that the painful memories would come later. He had failed to train a successor in the past because he had begun to share memories of pain, but with Jonas, he didn't wish to repeat that mistake and so would first share with him the memories of pleasure. He also explains that sharing the memories causes him to experience a lightening in his burden. He decides to share another memory with Jonas without first telling him its name. Jonas then experiences the warmth of the sun, but as hours pass in that world of memory, the warmth turns to heat and his skin begins to hurt. He identifies the warmth as sunlight but fails to name the pain. Jonas sits up with the pain, and the elder names the pain Sunburn. Jonas thinks that the pain of the sunburn was a lot, and thanks the elder for showing him what he had meant by pain, but the elder doesn't respond. Their time together ends, and as Jonas is leaving, he asks the elder how he should address him. The elder replies that Jonas can call him the Giver.
Jonas dreams about the snow and the sled ride but doesn't share his dream with his family the next morning. In school, the other twelves are all too excited to follow the rules of polite conversation. They talk excitedly and interrupt one another over and over again. Jonas isn't just prevented from telling his friends about his training by the rules, but also by the indescribable nature of his experience. Fiona accompanies Jonas again as they go to the House of Old after school, and she discloses that the elderly are punished for disobedience just like the young children in the community. As Fiona is walking away from him, Jonas gets another glimpse into the beyond. Fiona's hair changes for a moment and then returns to normal. Jonas decides to ask the Giver about this ability.
The Giver hears Jonas's account and reasons that Jonas's ability was developing in a different way than his own. He asks him to try to recall the memories of the sled ride and to focus on the sled. Jonas had expected the Giver to place hands on his back again, but the Giver explains that the memories he shares with Jonas are his to keep and recall at will. Jonas closes his eyes and recalls the memory with ease, he looks down at the sled and sees in it the same character he had glimpsed in the real world. In the memory, the sled retains that character and doesn't change. He returns to the room, and the Giver explains that Jonas is slowly becoming able to see the color red. The genetic scientists weren't yet able to make everyone look the same, and Fiona's red hair stood out starkly. Jonas asks the Giver why the world had given up the colors, and he explains that they had to give up many things to achieve sameness. Jonas immediately declares that it was a mistake. The colors should have stayed. The Giver smiles and tells him that it had taken him much longer to reach that conclusion, and perhaps Jonas would grow to be wiser than him. He then tells Jonas that he is going to share with him the memory of a rainbow.
Analysis
The Giver is as much a coming-of-age story as it is dystopian fiction, and Jonas's journey towards maturity begins with his selection as the new Receiver of the community. His first interaction with the Giver is interesting because it gives us a clearer picture of the world that Jonas inhabits. Jonas had never before seen as many books in his life, he had never seen a locked door or even a speaker with an off switch. The reader is forced to realize that there is no concept of privacy in this world and that the citizen's access to information is severely curtailed as they can only ever access a limited number of books. Jonas surprises the reader by telling the Giver that he had never before considered the possibility of a past that preceded his society, and had always believed that there had never been a way of life other than their own.
Nakedness is a powerful motif in the Giver. Earlier, when Jonas was bathing Larissa at the house of old, he had felt a connection with her due to her nakedness. Now, when the Giver has to transmit knowledge to Jonas, he asks him to remove his tunic. The rules of the community specifically mention that no adult is allowed to look at the nakedness of another. This could be because Nakedness alludes to trust and intimacy, and Jonas thinks of Larissa as being free in her nakedness.
The Giver is written in a very plain and sometimes repetitive style, but the scenes describing the memories utilize colorful and intricate language that sets it apart from Jonas's experience of the real world. The reader is also introduced to Colors in this section and learns that Jonas occupies a colorless world. Jonas's world is appropriately black and white since there are no ambiguities in it. Society dictates what is right and what is wrong, there is no room in their world for any shades of gray. Jonas first begins to experience the color red, a color that has a strong association with warmth and life. The Giver then reveals to him a rainbow, whose colors can be seen to represent a whole range of new emotions. Jonas's lack of knowledge about colors can be seen as an indication of his stunted emotional knowledge as well.
