Chapter 1

Setting: November (almost the Ceremony) , on the way home

Characters: Jonas(11 years old)
--- Jonas: struggled to come up the word with a right word to describe his feeling
(X frightened)
--- a pilot made a mistake (pilot X allowed to over the community) and was released
--- People who made mistakes would be announced, they were to apologise while other
were to say “I accept your apology.”
--- Jonas’s feelings: apprehensive

Setting: at evening meal, dwelling (home)

Characters: Jonas, Lily, Mother , Father
--- Following the ritual (the telling of feelings), they had to share their feelings, to describe
an emotion that she or he experienced during the day and discuss it with the others.
--- spouses were assigned by the community
1) Lily: angry
• a child visited from a nearby community who did not observe her childcare group’s
play area rules
• the boy probably felt out of place
• Lily became less angry
2) Jonas’s father (a Nurturer  people who took care of the community’s babies or
newchildren) : struggled, worried
• a baby did not grow well and might be released
• therefore, was considering to bring the baby home and all members agreed
(though they were not allowed to adopt him --- every household was allowed only
one male and one female child)
3) Mother (was working at the Department of Justice): frustrated
• someone committed the same crime the second time and might be released if
there was a third transgression
4) Jonas: apprehensive
• the coming Ceremony of Twelves (the time he would be assigned an assignment)

Chapter 2
Setting: at evening meal, dwelling
Characters: Father, Mother, Jonas
--- the baby called Gabriel
--- The Receiver: the most important Elder, made the final decision for any appeals
--- Children, especially the Elevens, were observed by the Elders during their volunteer
hours
--- consider each child’s abilities and interests when they made their selection
--- after the Ceremony, the age was no longer important
--- all kids would start to receive training for their assignments

Chapter 3
Setting: dwelling
Characters: Jonas, Lily, Gabriel
--- Jonas and Gabriel had pale eyes (light eyes), while most ppl have darker eyes
--- Jonas was very self-conscious about his eyes
--- Bewildering incident: Jonas brought an apple back to their dwelling (meaning home) as
he observed a change in its shade (announcement was made which his name was not
mentioned)
--- Lily said that she would be assigned as a Birthmother when she grew up, since she liked
newchildren so much, but her mother told her that the position of Birthmother carried very
little honor: Birthmothers were pampered for 3 years while they produced children, but the
do hard labor and never get to see their biological children

Chapter 4
Setting: Rehabilitation Centre, volunteer hours
Characters: Fiona, Jonas
--- Jonas met Fiona there and worked together with her bathing the elderly for the
Recreation Duty
--- Jonas was still worrying about his assignment, which might affect how ‘meaningful and
interesting’ of one’s life before they were released
--- The old women, called Larissa, discussed the release of one of the Old, named Roberto
--- she described release as a wonderful celebration

Chapter 5
Setting: at breakfast, dwelling
Characters: Jonas, family
--- dream-telling, Jonas shared his dream as a morning ritual: he dreamed that he was in the
steamy bathing room at the House of the Old, trying to convince his friend Fiona to take off
her clothes and allow him to give her a bath
--- feeling a strong ‘wanting’
--- the feeling he was having were his first stirring
--- his mother give him a small pill as a treatment

Chapter 6
Setting: dwelling
Characters: Jonas, Mother, Lily
Age Items given by the community Symbolic meaning
 Fours, Fives and • back-buttoned jackets • interdependence
Sixes (相互依賴)
Sevens and Eights • front-buttoned jackets • independence (獨立)
Nines • bicycle • moving gradually out into the
community
--- Baby Gabriel was not joining the naming ceremony
--- Gabriel was given and extra year, rather than being released
--- Nothing would go wrong, including the Matching of spouse, Naming, Placement of
newchildren, and the Assignments

Chapter 7
Setting: the Ceremony of Twelves
Characters: Jonas and his peers, the Chief Elder
--- Jonas: nineteen, Fiona: eighteen
--- Each announcement is a lengthy speech, starting with recollecting the childhood og the
particular child and a description of the kid’s disposition
--- Asher was cheerful and was assigned to be the Assistant Director of Recreation
--- Asher: fun-loving nature (Asher confused the word ‘snack’ and ‘smack’ at the Childcare
Centre, and received a smack with the discipline wand every time)
--- ended with the line “ Thank you for your childhood”
--- Jonas was supposed the 19th to listen to his assignment, but he was skipped
(he was worried and wondered he had done wrong since they were unused to make
mistakes)

Chapter 8
Setting: the Ceremony of Twelves
Characters: Mother, Lily , Jonas
--- Jonas was assigned to be the Receiver of Memory
--- it’s rare for the committee to select a receiver, the last one was selected 10 years ago but
the selection had been a terrible failure
--- The receiver-in-training cannot be observed and would work alone
--- Five qualities the Receiver should have:
• Intelligence
• Capacity to See Beyond (saw the audiences’ faces changed and the apple)
• Wisdom (to be acquired through the training)
• Integrity
• Courage (especially important since he had to experience real pain that no one else
in the community would experience)
--- The training would involve physical pain, which the Chief Elder could not describe
--- Jonas: gratitude, pride and fear
Chapter 9
Setting: dwelling
Character: Mother, Lily and Jonas
--- Jonas felt apart from his friends as he felt the uncertainty and hesitation from Asher and
others
--- His frds and family treated him differently from before, though very respectful
e.g. At home, his family was quieter than usual, though his parents told him that they were
very honored that he had been selected as the Receiver
--- The last Receiver (a female with a name designated not to be spoken) was a great failure

--- Rules for the Receiver:

Rule Jonas’s thoughts/concerns
1) He was to go to the Annex entrance He thought he would miss his recreation hours,
behind the House of Old immediately at which was vital to him.
the end of school hours each day.

2) He was to return to his dwelling after the He worried about his friendships.
Training Hours each day.
3) He was exempted from rules governing He didn’t worry about it. He was always used to
rudeness. He might ask any questions. rules about courtesy.

4) He was not to discuss his training with He worried about his friendships.
any other members of the community,
including parents and Elders.

5) He was prohibited to dream-telling. He was glad to be excused from it, yet he

wondered if he should lie if he had one.
6) Except for illness or injury unrelated to his He worried about the warning from the Chief
training, he was not to apply for any Elder.
medication.
7) He was not permitted to apply for release. He didn’t think he would as he had not thought
about it at all.
8) He might lie. He wondered if the other adults all were allowed
to do so.

Chapter 10
Setting: The Giver’s office located at the Annex
Characters: Jonas, the Giver (formerly the Receiver)
--- All the doors in the community were unlocked, except the Giver’s in order to protect his
privacy as he needed lock
--- The Annex was delicately decorated, and Jonas was amazed by the tremendous amount
of books
--- The Giver, like Jonas , had pale eyes
--- The Giver said he was not as old as he looked indeed, the job aged him
--- The Giver felt weighted since he had to reexperience the memories every day
(he had to transmit the memory of the whole world belonging to generations before him)
--- The Giver encouraged Jonas to ask questions as he had little experience, explaining the
process to a new Receiver as it was forbidden to talk about it and the last training was ten
years ago

Chapter 11
Setting: The Giver’s office
Character: Jonas, the Giver
Memory Jonas’ feeling
1) Snow, sled, Cold (so he shivered) -> filled with energy -> felt a new sensation ->
hill he sat on a sled and it slid down the hill (In his community, all hills
had been levelled to make transportation easier) ->moving through
the snow, he felt speed and peace
2) Sunshine Warm and pleasurable / comforting
3) Sunburnt It hurt. Jonas thought it helped him understand pain
--- The community did not keep the memories Jonas experienced as the Community hoped
to achieve sameness and climate control
--- The Giver felt weary after the training though a but lightened

Chapter 12
Setting: school
Characters: Jonas, Fiona
--- At the recreation period, all the Twelves were excited to share their experience in their
training
--- Jonas felt isolated since it was hard for him to share that others would not understand
him
--- Jonas witnessed changed in Fiona’s hair

Setting: The Giver’s office at Annex

Characters: Jonas, The Giver
--- The change Jonas witnessed was in fact his Capacity to See Beyond
--- In the memory about the sled, he saw the colour red (at once, everything in the world
had colour as well as shape and size)
--- The red tone in ppl’s face disappeared because the community wanted to achieve
Sameness.
--- Jonas received the memory of a rainbow (and learn to recognize colours)

Chapter 13
Character: Jonas, The Giver
--- Jonas perceived that choice is important, it was not fair for ppl not to choose jobs and
spouse (the community had to protect ppl from wrong choices cuz it’s unsafe to let them
choose)
--- Jonas tried to transmit the awareness of colour to Asher (made Asher to stare at a
flowerbed)
--- Jonas tried to explain to Lily the existence of animals in the past (after the Giver
transmitted the memory of an elephant mourning the death of another elephant that was
brutally killed by poachers)
--- Jonas asked if the Giver had a spouse, the Giver had and now she lived in the Childless
Adults (as almost all adults do when their children grown and their family units have
dissolved)
--- Being a Receiver made family life difficult as he was not able to share memories and
books to his children and spouse
--- When the new Receiver who was selected 10 years be4 failed, all the memories received
returned to the community

Chapter 14
Character: Jonas, The Giver
--- The Giver transmitted the memory of another ride on a sled which lose control and Jonas
experienced pain and nausea from a badly broken leg

(14-16)The Giver transmits the memory of another ride on a sled, only this time the sled
loses control and Jonas experiences pain and nausea from a badly broken leg. The pain
lingers after the experience is over, but the Giver is not allowed to give him relief-of-pain,
and Jonas limps home and goes to bed early. Forbidden to share his feelings with his family,
he feels isolated, realizing that they have never known intense pain. Over the next days, the
Giver transmits more and more painful memories, always ending the day with a memory of
pleasure. After experiencing starvation, Jonas asks why these horrible memories need to be
preserved, and the Giver explains that they bring wisdom: once, for example, the
community wanted to increase the number of children allowed to each family, but the Giver
remembered the hunger that overpopulation brings and advised against it. Jonas wonders
why the whole community cannot share the pain of these important memories, and the
Giver tells him that this is the reason the position of Receiver is so honored—the community
does not want to be burdened and pained by memories. Jonas wants to change things, but
the Giver reminds him that the situation has been the same for generations, and that there
is very little hope for change.
Meanwhile, the newchild Gabriel is developing well, but still cannot sleep through the
night. Jonas’s father worries that he will have to be released after all. He mentions that the
Nurturing Center will probably have to make another release first, though: a Birthmother is
expecting twin males, and if they are identical, one will have to be released. Jonas wonders
what happens to children who are released. Is someone waiting for them Elsewhere to bring
them up and take care of them? He asks his parents to let Gabriel sleep in his room that
night so that he can share the responsibility of caring for him. When Gabriel wakes up
crying, Jonas pats his back while remembering a wonderful sail on a lake transmitted to him
by the Giver. He realizes that he is unwittingly transmitting the memory to Gabriel and stops
himself. Later, he transmits the whole memory and Gabriel stops crying and sleeps. Jonas
wonders if he has done the right thing.
The next day, Jonas finds the Giver in incredible pain, and the Giver asks him to take some of
the pain away. The Giver transmits the terrible memory of a battlefield covered with
groaning, dying men and horses. Jonas, himself horribly wounded, gives water to a young
soldier and then watches him die. After this memory, Jonas never wants to go back to the
Annex for more wisdom and pain, but he does, and the Giver transmits beautiful memories
—birthday parties, art museums, horseback riding, camping—that celebrate individuality,
brilliant colors, the bond between people and animals, and solitude, all things absent from
Jonas’s society. He asks the Giver what his favorite memory is, and the Giver transmits a
memory of a family—grandparents, parents, young children—opening presents at
Christmas. Jonas has never heard of grandparents. In his community, parents cease to be a
part of children’s lives once the children have grown up—children do not even know when
their parents are released. He understands that his organized society works well, but he felt
a feeling in the room that he liked. The Giver tells him that the feeling is love, and Jonas says
that he wishes his own family could be like the family in the memory and that the Giver
could be his grandparent. At home that evening, he asks his parents if they love him. They
laugh and tell him to use more precise language: the word “love” is so general that it is
almost meaningless. They enjoy him, and they are proud of him, but they cannot say they
love him. Jonas pretends to agree with them, but secretly he does not understand. That
night, he tells little Gabriel—who can only sleep through the night when Jonas gives him
memories—that if things were different in the community, there could be colors and
grandparents and love. The next morning, Jonas decides to stop taking his morning pill.

(17-18)
Four weeks after Jonas stops taking his pills, an unscheduled holiday is declared in the
community. His Stirrings have returned, and he has pleasurable dreams that make him feel a
little guilty, but he refuses to give up the heightened feelings that the Stirrings and his
wonderful memories have given him. Jonas realizes that he now experiences a new depth of
feeling. He understands that the feelings his family and friends call anger and sadness and
happiness are nothing like the feelings of rage and despair and joy he knows through his
memories. On this particular holiday, Jonas refuses to participate with his friends in a game
of good guys and bad guys, because he recognizes it as a war game. He tries to explain to his
friends that the game is a cruel mockery of a horrible reality, but they are only puzzled and
annoyed. He leaves his friends, knowing that they cannot understand his feelings or even
return the strong love that he feels for them. At home, he feels better when he sees Gabe,
who has learned to walk and to say his own name. His father talks about the upcoming
release of one of the identical twins that will be born the next day. Jonas asks his father if he
will actually take the newchild Elsewhere, and his father says no. He will only select the child
with the lowest birthweight, perform a Ceremony of Release, and wave goodbye. Someone
else will come and get him from Elsewhere. Lily speculates about two identical twins
growing up with the same name, one here and one Elsewhere.
The next day, Jonas asks the Giver if he thinks about release. The Giver says he thinks of his
own when he is in great pain, but that he cannot apply for release until Jonas is trained.
Jonas cannot ask for release either, a rule that was created after the failure of the new
Receiver ten years ago. At Jonas’s insistence, the Giver tells him what happened. The failed
Receiver was intelligent and eager to learn, and her name was Rosemary. The Giver tells
Jonas that he loved her, and that he loves Jonas in the same way. When Rosemary’s training
began, she loved experiencing new things, and the Giver started with happy memories that
would make her laugh. But she wanted more difficult memories. The Giver could not bring
himself to give her physical pain, but at her insistence he gave her loneliness, loss, poverty,
and fear. After a very hard session, she kissed the Giver’s cheek and left. He never saw her
again. Later, he learned that she had applied for release that day. Jonas knows that he
cannot apply for release, but he asks the Giver what would happen if he accidentally
drowned in the river, carrying a year’s worth of memories with him. The Giver tells him it
would be a disaster: his memories would not be lost, but instead all of the people in the
community would have them, and they would not be able to deal with them. The Giver
becomes thoughtful and says that if that happened, perhaps he could help the community
to deal with the memories in the same way that he helps Jonas, but that he would need
more time to think about it. He warns Jonas to stay away from the river, just in case.
(19-20) Jonas explains that he is curious about release because his father released a
newchild that day. The Giver says that he wishes that newchildren were not released, and
Jonas reminds him that it would be confusing to have two identical people walking around.
The Giver tells Jonas that, as Receiver, he is allowed to have access to any information he
wants and that if he wants to watch a release, he can. Since all private ceremonies are
recorded, Jonas can even watch his father’s release of the newchild that morning. Jonas
agrees to watch it, and the Giver calls the recording up on a video screen. Jonas watches as
his father weighs the twins, then gently injects something into a vein in the smaller one’s
head. The newchild twitches and lies still, and Jonas realizes that it is dead. He recognizes
the gestures and posture of the boy that he saw die on the battlefield. Horrified, he watches
his father place the body in a garbage chute and wave goodbye. The Giver tells Jonas that he
watched the recording of Rosemary’s release. She had been told to roll up her sleeve, but
she chose to inject herself.
Jonas is overcome by pain and horror when he realizes what release really is. He starts
crying and refuses to go home to his family, knowing that his father lied to him about what
would happen to the newchild. He cannot believe that his friend Fiona efficiently kills the
Old when they are released. The Giver allows Jonas to spend the night with him and tries to
explain that the people of his community do not feel things the way that he and Jonas do.
He tells Jonas that Jonas has helped him to decide that things have to change, that the
memories have to be shared.

The Giver and Jonas come up with a plan: Jonas will escape from the community, leaving all
his memories for the people of the community. Jonas begs the Giver to come with him, but
the Giver explains that someone needs to stay to help the others deal with those memories,
or the community will be thrown into utter chaos. Jonas says that he does not want to care
about the other people, but he knows that the only reason he and the Giver devised the
plan is because they do care about the others. The Giver tells Jonas that he himself is too
weak to make the journey anyway. He cannot even see colors anymore. Jonas asks the Giver
about his early experiences with seeing beyond, how they were different from Jonas’s own,
and the Giver tells him that he heard beyond. He heard music, something Jonas would not
understand because the Giver has kept music to himself.

For the next two weeks, the Giver plans to transmit memories of courage and strength to
help Jonas with his journey. At midnight on the night before the Ceremony, Jonas will slip
out of his house with an extra set of clothing, which he will hide by the riverbank next to his
bicycle. The next day, the Giver will order a vehicle for a visit to another community, hide
Jonas in the storage area, and give him a head start on his journey to Elsewhere. The Giver
will tell the community that Jonas has been lost in the river, they will perform the Ceremony
of Loss, and he will help them bear Jonas’s memories. The Giver tells Jonas that afterward,
he will be with his daughter, Rosemary.
(21-23)
Instead of waiting two weeks as he and the Giver had planned, Jonas is forced to escape
right away. At the evening meal, his father tells the family that he tried to see if Gabriel
could sleep through the night at the Nurturing Center, and that the newchild had cried all
night. The staff, including Jonas’s father, voted to release him the next day. Jonas cannot
allow this to happen, so he takes some leftover food and his father’s bicycle, which has a
child seat, and leaves, relying on his own courage and strength instead of on the memories
that the Giver had promised. Jonas has broken serious rules against leaving his dwelling at
night and taking food. After riding all night, he and Gabe rest during the day, hiding from the
planes that fly overhead searching for them. He transmits memories of exhaustion to
Gabriel in order to make him sleep during the day, and in order to avoid the heat-seeking
technology of the planes, he transmits memory of intense cold to both of them so that their
body heat does not show up on the planes’ devices. After several days, when Jonas and
Gabriel have left all communities far behind, the planes come less frequently.

The landscape around them begins to change: the terrain becomes bumpy and irregular,
and Jonas falls and twists his ankle. He sees waterfalls and wildlife, all new things to him
after a life of Sameness. He is happy to see beautiful things, but worries that he and Gabe
might starve, since there is no sign of cultivated land anywhere around. He catches some
fish in a makeshift net and gathers some berries, but they are only just enough. If he had
stayed in the community, he would have had enough to eat, and he realizes that in choosing
to leave, he chose to starve. But in the community he would have been hungry for feelings
and color, and Gabriel would have died. The weather changes, and Jonas feels cold and
hunger and pain from his twisted ankle. But he suspects that Elsewhere is not far away and
hopes that he will be able to keep Gabriel alive.

One day, it begins to snow, and Jonas’s bicycle cannot climb the steep hill that rises before
them. Jonas has lost most of the memories he received from the Giver, but he tries to
remember sunshine and the feeling of warmth that it gives. When it comes, he transmits
the feeling to Gabriel, and it helps them make it up the hill on foot, despite the intense cold
and hunger they feel. When he can no longer remember sunshine, and is almost totally
numb with cold, Jonas remembers his friends and family and the Giver, and the happiness
their memories give him helps him to reach the top. He recognizes the snow-covered
summit of the hill, and somehow finds a sled waiting for him there. He gets in the sled and
steers himself and Gabe to the bottom, toward warm, twinkling lights that glow from the
windows of houses. He feels certain that the families in those houses, where they kept
memories and celebrated love, were waiting for him and Gabe. Ahead of him, he hears
singing for the first time in his life, and he thinks that he hears the music behind him too.