History Headscratchers / TheGiver

** I always thought this was the case, due to my teacher encouraging us to fill in the blanks on our own. Even encouraged us to explore the idea that Rosemary, Jonas, and Gabe were all half-siblings fathered by the Giver, or that their Birthmother was from the same gene pool (like coming from the same Birthmother as the Giver, i.e., the Giver's biological sister). Even suggested that Lily's line suggesting Jonas and Gabe had the same Birthmother could imply that Birthmother's don't always have babies one after the other. Meaning it's possible the community had multiple children with the potential to be the Reciever of Memory without actually having the job because the current Reciever is still able to hold the position. This teacher also suggested the idea that Rosemary ''could'' still be alive, just escaped, as the Giver didn't actually see the injection, so make of that what you will.

* If only the Giver can turn off the speakers in his office, then wouldn't whoever is on the other end hear Jonas leaving his house with Gabe?

* Jonas asks about Rosemary and learns that her name was never to be used for a newchild again. His internal monologue explains that this is because it is a name Not-To-Be-Spoken. Are all those who were Released because of a transgression designated thus or just Rosemary? And what other crimes would lead to this designation?

*** Also, given that "light" eyes are tied to the ability to give and receive memories, it's possible that the Community (or at least the Elders) know about this. And if not, well, the Giver would certainly know, and since he can tell that Jonas's eyes are blue on top of that, he could've easily told the Elders that Jonas had the potential to be a Receiver.

*** Maybe the [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies meat]] comes from a source [[HumanResources closer to home]]. after all, it is never explicitly stated what happens to people's bodies after they are released...

** Yes, he hoarded the apple, but that didn't occur until he was Eleven, so did they wait that long to decide that he would be the Giver's successor? And there didn't seem to be any other incidents that Jonas could have told anyone about.

* How the hell did the community manage to get rid of sunshine? I don't really think it's possible to get rid of the sun. Sure, you could block out the sun, but I don't think you could block out the heat.

* It seems that even after getting assigned their job at Twelve, children live with their families until their training is over. Does this mean that Jonas will live with his parents for years until he has all the memories?

* Gabriel is labeled as "Uncertain" because he has issues sleeping through the night. The births are timed so that even the youngest are a few months old by the Ceremony of One. But many issues do not arise until the child is a bit older. Does this mean that if there is an issue after they are assigned to a family, then they are Released?

* In the film, what is the purpose of the hedge/fountain? If privacy is frowned upon it seems like a silly thing to put in the park.

*** I don't think the book ever described Jonas's journey to Elsewhere as passing through desert (although they do end up in a snowy village as well). It's mentioned Gabe nearly dies over the trip, with Jonas just keeping him alive with happy memories.

--> ''Finally, from one seventh grade boy: "I was really surprised that they just died at the end. That was a bummer. You could of made them stay alive, I thought."''

* At the end of The Giver, Jonas has been traveling for a few weeks or so. He thinks he hears music from the Community, meaning the Giver has been Released. Wouldn't the Community want to keep the Giver around much longer, since they're probably in chaos dealing with all the memories?

** The doctors of the Community should likely use sperm retrieval and extraction in some men, it should be a simple operation (in real life, it isn't complicated). In that way, they avoid any sexual stimule.

* Why is it every "Anti-utopia" book (by which I mean, opposes engineering a perfect/better world.) filled with such poor utopias? I mean seriously, i could design a better utopia that's more feasible than this without much effort.

*** It's often argued that The Giver belongs to a class of science fiction that takes a "What if..." future standpoint based on current trends and issues. In this case, it's basically, "What if we tried to make the world perfect by eliminating conflict, since we're always banging on about war and discrimination?" The 'perfect' part is what gives us the idea of Utopia, and the 'oh, wait, I guess humans just can't really be perfect - but they can certainly carry a single socio-scientific experiment way too far, way too long after people forget what the whole point of it was!!' part is what makes The Giver an example of anti-utopia now verging on dystopia. Interestingly, Sir Thomas More, who wrote Utopia in 1516, reportedly did not believe that a pure utopia could ever exist BECAUSE of our human flaws. (And it's all the human flaws that make us human, right? Emotions, screw-ups, hormones and all that jazz? Which is why Jonas totally... intentionally... tried to bring that all back once he'd tasted the proverbial fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil... thus making a point about human nature and how trying to screw with/squash it is more evil than letting the pain of life exist... yay for young adult literature! End middle school lit lesson.)

** In this troper's days, we read it in 8th grade, but when i was graduating the age kids started to experiment with drugs and sex was as low as 6th (11-12 in age mostly) When i was young, we first got dare in 5th grade which by rebellious tactics helped usher more kids to try it then and sex ed in 6th grade. As witnessed these happen younger, so kids are obviously rebelling younger. However on a side note, even though i know of kids who did it that young, the earliest i ever saw someone pregnant in my schooling was 10th grade (15-16 in age mostly)

** This troper's too old to have read ''The Giver'' in school, but in my day we were reading ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' by grade 6. ''Giver'' is rainbows and lollipops by comparison.

* If Sameness is the governing philosophy of the community, why do they object to twins? How exactly would that undermine community stability or Sameness? If anything, the Sameness philosophy should look favorably on twins as a model for all of society (see Literature/BraveNewWorld.)

** Given where the sperm for babies comes from is still left unknown, perhaps the receiver of memory is one that is selected as sperm doner with hopes they will pass on their gift to another person to take the mantle?

** This is still unknown because within all the books where the sperm for babies comes from is never addressed. It's possible the Receiver is selected as a sperm doner with hopes he will pass on his gift to another future receiver?

*** That's this troper's interpretation as well. Presumably the Genetic Fathers (or whatever their job title would be) would have to go off their pills for a period of time in order to produce viable sperm (just as Birthmothers are taken off of them for pregnancy). Thus they would almost DEFINITELY be separated from their wives (and in all likelihood all other females in the Community as well) during the donation process. Wouldn't do for them to start having Stirrings, after all!

** That's... actually a good question, though I'm not sure if it would actually happen. It works with children since the replacement would still be a child, keeping everything even, but getting a child to replace an adult would screw up the numbers. Maybe if ''two'' (or an otherwise even number of) adults get Released, then the spare adults could be paired up accordingly? They also might be able to make an exception for Laborers, since those would be "extra" adults floating around. Pairing up people whose partners got Released seems more likely, though.