The Giver Book Notes Summary

When his mother asks in the morning, Jonas lies and tells her that he has had no dreams although he has had many dreams about riding the sled down the snowy hill. "Always in the dream, it [seems] as if there [is] a destination: a something--he [cannot] grasp what--that [lies] beyond the place where the thickness of snow [brings] the sled to a stop. He is left, upon awakening, with the feeling that he [wants], even somehow [needs], to reach the something that [waits] in the distance. The feeling that it [is] good. That it [is] welcoming. That it [is] significant. But he [does] not know how to get there." Chapter 12, pg. 88

Topic Tracking: Feelings 10
Topic Tracking: Memory 4

At school, the classes are the same, but his groupmates are busy discussing their first day of training during break. Jonas can only listen because he is not able to discuss anything with anyone. After school, he rides again with Fiona to the House of the Old. Talking about her training at the House of the Old, Fiona seems to expect Jonas to share his training and Assignment with her, but when he does not say anything, she says good bye.

Watching Fiona walk toward the entrance of the House of the Old, Jonas is startled to see her change. More specifically, it is just her hair that changes for a short moment just like the apple and the audience in the Auditorium during the Ceremony had.

Jonas decides to ask The Giver about the changes he has been seeing. After listening to Jonas, The Giver tells him that he will give him a little test. Lying on the bed with his eyes closed, Jonas waits for The Giver's hands on his back. But instead of transmitting a memory to Jonas, The Giver instructs him to recall the memory of the sled and the snow and to look down at the sled. The memory is no longer The Giver's to give; it is Jonas's to call back. Concentrating, Jonas does as he is told, and looks down at the sled which looks just as the apple and Fiona's hair had. But this time, the sled does not change, simply staying the same. The Giver then instructs Jonas to look at a book on the shelf. Jonas notices that the same thing happens to the book in that it changes back and forth.

Finally, The Giver explains that Jonas is beginning to see colors and especially the color red. Fiona's hair is red as well as the apple and the book on the shelf. The Giver explains that long time ago, there were colors, and one of them was called red. In the past, before Sameness, there were colors as well as different color-peopled. Sameness has not been perfected yet since there are people like Fiona with bright red hair. The Giver tells Jonas that he will begin to see all the colors as he receives memories. He explains: "Our 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 difference. We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others." Chapter 12, pg. 95

Topic Tracking: Choice 4

Jonas thinks that it would be better to have colors, and The Giver tells him that unlike Jonas, he had taken a long time to begin thinking that way. In order to help Jonas better understand colors, The Giver gives him a memory of a rainbow.