History YMMV / TheGiver

** [[spoiler:Poor, poor Rosemary... She received several happy memories from the Giver, but, then, she's so horrified by some of the painful ones that she [[DrivenToSuicide asks for Release]]. And she even ''injects herself.'']]
** The Giver definitely qualifies as well (in fact, he arguably has it worse than the other two COMBINED!). First off, he ALONE must carry all of society's memories, good and bad, whilst living apart from the rest of the Community (not that they could understand and be of any help anyway). And then [[spoiler: is daughter Rosemary]] is selected to be the next receiver and he is forced to transmit those memories to her. He gave her only positive ones at first, but was finally forced to face reality and start giving her the painful ones (which, he later tells Jonas, "Broke [his] heart"). After just five weeks, she is unable to bear the burden any longer and [[spoiler: [[ DrivenToSuicide Releases herself]]]]. So now the Giver must live with the knowledge that [[spoiler: he caused ''his own child'' so much pain and suffering that she actually KILLED herself]] over it]].

* {{Moe}}: Gabriel is an utterly adorable baby with bright eyes and a giggling spirit. Both Jonas and Lily fawn over him, with Lily commenting on how cute he is. [[spoiler:Even though Jonas is later terrified for Gabriel's life and steal him away on hearing he's been marked for Release, they have a sweet play-wrestling scene where Jonas tries to tuck him into bed while they're on the run]].

** Likewise, Jonas and Lily's mother rebukes Lily for saying she wants to be a Birthmother to spend time with the babies. She explains that Birthmothers don't actually spend time with the babies and are then relegated to menial labor; Jonas's father instead suggests that Lily could become a Nurturer, who ''do'' help rear the newborns. [[spoiler:''Son'' shows exactly how hard it is to be a Birthmother from Claire's perspective; it is quite traumatizing for a teenager and it gets worse for her when Gabriel goes missing]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The book ''Deconstructing Penguins'' applies some FridgeLogic and points out that people don't lie unless they know what they are doing is wrong. The argument escalates until "Jonas is no longer running away from a place where everyone believes the same things and he's different. He's running away from a place of terrible corruption that desperately needs him as the one person who might be able to make things better." In-story, this is explained as the reason The Giver stays, and Jonas does not. One must leave for the memories to return, and the Giver is not as hale and is more experienced with comforting people.

* MoralEventHorizon:
** The reveal of the true nature of the "Release" is this for the entire society. For Jonas, [[spoiler:his father in particular goes over the line, as he's the one doing the Release to a ''baby''.]] This is softened in [[Film/TheGiver the film adaptation]] as [[spoiler:he undergoes a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment once, upon the release of the memories, it dawns upon him that he's been committing murder all along]].
** Subverted by Asher in [[Film/TheGiver the film adaptation]] when he's sent to kill Jonas mid-flight and he accepts the task [[spoiler:only to merely pretend to do so by dropping him into a river, with the deception allowing Jonas to continue down to Elsewhere]].

* RetroactiveRecognition: Who woulda guessed Asher would later become the clown-themed bringer of disorder and anarchy?
* RomanticPlotTumor: The biggest complaint of the movie is the romantic story between Jonas and Fiona that was not in the book. In the book, Jonas merely had a crush on Fiona and the tragedy was that romance was ''impossible'' for them because Fiona was irretrievably brainwashed by the community and even committed "Release" on senior citizens.
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * SoOkayItsAverage: Seems to be the consensus.

* FirstInstallmentWins: The book has three sequels, rendering all those English essays about the ambiguous ending completely moot. One of the sequels only barely references the book, another is plenty ambiguous itself, but the third clearly explains the ending of the original and references it heavily.

* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: In the movie, one of the segments the Community's leaders watch is that of [[spoiler:Fiona and Jonas kissing]]. One of the elder leaders wonders out loud "What are they doing" in a voice as though they were a curious innocent child. Kind of ironic.

%% * SoOkayItsAverage: Seems to be the consensus.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: In the movie, one of the segments the Community's leaders watch is that of [[spoiler: Fiona and Jonas kissing]]. One of the elder leaders wonders out loud "What are they doing" in a voice as though they were a curious innocent child. Kind of ironic.

* HarsherInHindsight: One inspiration for the story was Lois Lowry's conversations with her son, a USAF fighter pilot, prior to the Persian Gulf War. Her son would later go on to die in a plane crash after the novel's publication. It gets harsher when you know the details and background events. The novel opens with a plane flying low over the community. A few years after the novel was published, a USAF pilot, who was known for low overflights and showing off,[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Fairchild_Air_Force_Base_B-52_crash crashed his plane, killing all on board]]. Later in the novel, the Giver told Jonas of how wars had been started when planes were fired on by mistake. Also a few years after the novel was published, two US fighter jets misidentified two US Army Blackhawk helicopters and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Black_Hawk_shootdown_incident shot them down, killing all on board]]. These two incidents resulted in a push for greater accountability among USAF personnel. On May 30, 1995, Major Donald Lowry's F-15 crashed. The cause: two airmen had misconnected two control rods. The Air Force sought to prosecute the two airmen involved, despite evidence that the Air Force knew of the potential for such an accident and had done nothing to fix it. They sought the Lowry family to testify for stiff punishment of the men involved, but the Lowrys wrote a letter asking for leniency. The day the court-martial was to begin, one of the airmen charged left the base and headed to a wooded location he frequented. The airman's father and other Air Force personnel joined a search. The airman in question was in a hunting shack. As his commander approached, he shot himself in the head. He left a note for the Lowrys, in which he stated, [[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,135113,00.html "I know I am going to heaven. And in heaven I cannot hurt anyone else, not even by accident."]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Rosemary. She couldn't take the horrors of the memories she received, and applied for Release, which, unknown to most of the characters, is a lethal injection. And she knew exactly what it was—she asked to perform the injection herself. This prompted the community to add a new rule: In the future, Receivers of Memory cannot ask to be released. It's even sadder when it's revealed she was the Giver's ''own daughter.'']]
* FirstInstallmentWins: Almost no one knows that the book has three sequels, rendering all those English essays about the "ambiguous" ending completely moot. One of the "sequels" only barely references the book, another is plenty ambiguous itself, but the third clearly explains the ending of the original.

** [[spoiler:Poor, poor Rosemary... She received several happy memories from the Giver, but, then, she's so horrified by some of the painful ones that she [[DrivenToSuicide asks for Release]]. And she even ''injects herself.'']

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Rosemary. She couldn't take the horrors of the memories she received, and applied for Release, which, unknown to most of the characters, is a lethal injection. And she knew exactly what it was—she asked to perform the injection herself. This prompted the community to add a new rule: In the future, Receivers of Memory cannot ask to be released.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Rosemary. She received several happy memories from the Giver, but, she's so horrified by some of the painful ones that she asks for Release. And she even ''injects herself.'']]

* HarsherInHindsight: One inspiration for the story was Lois Lowry's conversations with her son, a USAF fighter pilot, prior to the Persian Gulf War. Her son would later die in a plane crash after the novel's publication.\\
\\
It gets harsher when you know the details and background events. The novel opens with a plane flying low over the community. A few years after the novel was published, a USAF pilot, who was known for low overflights and showing off [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Fairchild_Air_Force_Base_B-52_crash crashed his plane, killing all on board]]. Later in the novel, the Giver told Jonas of how wars had been started when planes were fired on by mistake. Also a few years after the novel was published, two US fighter jets misidentified two US Army Blackhawk helicopters and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Black_Hawk_shootdown_incident shot them down, killing all on board]]. These two incidents resulted in a push for greater accountability among USAF personnel. On May 30, 1995, Major Donald Lowry's F-15 crashed. The cause: two airmen had misconnected two control rods. The Air Force sought to prosecute the two airmen involved, despite evidence that the Air Force knew of the potential for such an accident and had done nothing to fix it. They sought the Lowry family to testify for stiff punishment of the men involved, but the Lowrys wrote a letter asking for leniency. The day the court-martial was to begin, one of the airmen charged left the base and headed to a wooded location he frequented. The airman's father and other Air Force personnel joined a search. The airman in question was in a hunting shack. As his commander approached, he shot himself in the head. He left a note for the Lowrys, in which he stated, [[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,135113,00.html "I know I am going to heaven. And in heaven I cannot hurt anyone else, not even by accident."]]

** Jonas. The poor guy eventually starts to break down, when he realizes that he can't express the new things he knows and feels to his friends or family. His best friend becomes impatient with him after inadvertently triggering Jonas's memory of dying in a war and brushes it off when Jonas tries to explain why he's upset. Jonas's parents scold him for using imprecise language when he asks them "do you love me?" And then, [[spoiler:he finds out that his father--a kind man who Jonas always thought of as being good with kids--cheerfully euthanizes babies who don't measure up to the community's criteria. Even worse, he learns that his dad has every intention of doing this to a baby that had been living in their house and who they'd all been bonding with.]] Jeez!
** [[spoiler:Poor, poor Rosemary... She received several happy memories from the Giver, but, then, she's so horrified by some of the painful ones that she [[DrivenToSuicide asks for Release]]. And she even ''injects herself''.]]

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: In the movie, one of the segments the Community's leaders watch is that of [[Fiona and Jonas kissing]]. One of the elder leaders wonders out loud "What are they doing" in a voice as though they were a curious innocent child. Kind of ironic.

%% ** [[spoiler:Poor, poor Rosemary...]]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Given her expanded role, Chief Elder is subjected to this. Does she truly believe in what she preaches or is she more interested in power? Is it possible that she was [[spoiler: Rosemary's mother]] and that [[spoiler: her daughter's death]] played a role in shaping her character?

** Jonas. The poor guy eventually starts to break down, when he realizes that he can't express the new things he knows and feels to his friends or family. His best friend becomes impatient with him after inadvertently triggering Jonas's memory of dying in a war and brushes it off when Jonas tries to explain why he's upset. Jonas's parents scold him for using imprecise language when he asks them "do you love me?" And then, [[spoiler:he finds out that his father-a kind man who Jonas always thought of as being good with kids-cheerfully euthanizes babies who don't measure up to the community's criteria. Even worse, he learns that his dad has every intention of doing this to a baby that had been living in their house and who they'd all been bonding with.]] Jeez!

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: The book ''Deconstructing Penguins'' applies some FridgeLogic and points out that people don't lie unless they know what they are doing is wrong. The argument escalates until "Jonas is no longer running away from a place where everyone believes the same things and he's different. He's running away from a place of terrible corruption that desperately needs him as the one person who might be able to make things better." In-story, this is explained as the reason The Giver stays, and Jonas does not. One must leave for the memories to return, and the Giver is not as hale and is more experienced with comforting people.

* FollowTheLeader: The film is one of the many film adaptations of YoungAdult books with dystopian settings, spawned from the success of ''Film/TheHungerGames''.

* HarsherInHindsight: Doubly so. One inspiration for the story was Lois Lowry's conversations with her son, a USAF fighter pilot, prior to the Persian Gulf War. Her son would later die in a plane crash after the novel's publication.
** It gets harsher when you know the details and background events. The novel opens with a plane flying low over the community. A few years after the novel was published, a USAF pilot, who was known for low overflights and showing off [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Fairchild_Air_Force_Base_B-52_crash crashed his plane, killing all on board]]. Later in the novel, the Giver told Jonas of how wars had been started when planes were fired on by mistake. Also a few years after the novel was published, two US fighter jets misidentified two US Army Blackhawk helicopters and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Black_Hawk_shootdown_incident shot them down, killing all on board]]. These two incidents resulted in a push for greater accountability among USAF personnel. On May 30, 1995, Major Donald Lowry's F-15 crashed. The cause: two airmen had misconnected two control rods. The Air Force sought to prosecute the two airmen involved, despite evidence that the Air Force knew of the potential for such an accident and had done nothing to fix it. They sought the Lowry family to testify for stiff punishment of the men involved, but the Lowrys wrote a letter asking for leniency. The day the court-martial was to begin, one of the airmen charged left the base and headed to a wooded location he frequented. The airman's father and other Air Force personnel joined a search. The airman in question was in a hunting shack. As his commander approached, he shot himself in the head. He left a note for the Lowrys, in which he stated, [[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,135113,00.html "I know I am going to heaven. And in heaven I cannot hurt anyone else, not even by accident."]]