History Literature / TheGiver

* Jonas [[spoiler:escaping]] is actually the most obvious and sensible explanation. This conclusion is similar to what happens in "This Perfect Day", where [[spoiler:isolated communities of "incurables" really do exist outside of the Family.]]

* Jonas [[spoiler:escaping] is actually the most obvious and sensible explanation. This conclusion is similar to what happens in "This Perfect Day", where [[spoiler:isolated communities of "incurables" really do exist outside of the Family.]

* MeaningfulName: Ophelia in ''{{Hamlet}}'' reminds us that "There's [R]osemary, that's for remembrance" - is it any wonder the community banned her name after what she did to them?

Newbery Medal-winning young adult novel by Lois Lowry. Known for its expertly merciless {{Deconstruction}} of the {{Utopia}}, and incidentally provides an introduction to the {{Dystopia}} genre for grade-school readers for whom some of the bits of ''NineteenEightyFour'' and ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' would be a bit too saucy.

Anyone who cannot or will not conform - the very Old, the handicapped, people who break the Rules three times - is "{{released to Elsewhere}}", vaguely understood to mean sent somewhere outside the Community.

Thanks to his new position, young Jonas is exposed to how life used to be, and slowly but surely grows to believe it was better that way. His dilemma comes to a head when he discovers he's now allowed access to the most secret ceremonies of his Community, including the ceremonies of Release. Excited to peek in on his gentle father at work as a Nurturer of newborn babies, [[TheReveal Jonas instead finds himself watching]] him [[MoodWhiplash cheerfully kill]] a newborn twin with a painful lethal injection, simply because 'having two identical people running around' would disrupt community harmony.

* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler:Either Jonas escapes, or the ending is a DyingDream. Lois Lowry responded with a {{Shrug of God}} when asked about it.]]

* HeroesWantRedheads- Our protagonist Jonas has his Stirrings on Fiona, who has red hair.

* NuclearFamily: All of them, without the dog.

** Each family unit is allowed a maximum of 2 children, the same number of children are born each year and they are all assigned to a family unit. Not all adults have children, and not all family units have the maximum of 2 children.
** Birthmothers, the only job that allows giving birth, are only allowed to have 3 children each before they become laborers. This would require that at least 2/3 of all women become birth mothers to maintain a stable population, but this doesn't happen at the beginning of the book as the administration is handing out jobs to graduates.

* CommonKnowledge: Despite strict regulations on behavior, the book acknowledges that people in the Community still have distinct personalities (government-mandated personality tests are a huge plot point) and that certain people have distinctive physical traits (in spite of selective breeding designed to prevent this). Still, ''The Giver'' is generally known as "that book about a futuristic society where everyone looks and acts the same", even though the truth is a bit more complex.

* YouAreNotReady: The everyday citizens for the memories.

* ScienceFictionVersusFantasy / MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: Everything that happens in the book is mostly within the realm of reality, except for the psychic way memories are passed from The Giver to The Receiver. No science is involved, just physical contact and concentration, implying use of some form of magic or supernatural ability. But in the sequels, especially ''Messenger'', certain people possess "gifts" that are essentially magical powers that perform a set task. There is even a [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve forest that changes itself to reflect the attitudes of the members of a community]].

** One theory received by Lowry from a reader was that Jonas and Gabe traveled in a huge circle, and by the time they got back to the Community, it had been transformed by the memories of hope and love.

Newbery Medal-winning young adult novel by Lois Lowry. Known for its expertly merciless {{Deconstruction}} of the {{Utopia}}, and incidentally provides an introduction to the {{Dystopia}} genre for grade-school readers for whom some of the bits of ''NineteenEightyFour'' and ''BraveNewWorld'' would be a bit too saucy.

* NeverSayDie: Not in the book -- eventually -- but in the Community.

** Actually, it's more accurate to refer to the books as companions, not sequels, seeing as how they share no specific plot points, no characters, and only one theme: color.

** While that's stated in the book, the Giver later says that the elders actually did not know who was piloting the plane and that they sought his advice on what to do about it, implying that the plane was not, in fact, flown by a Community Pilot and that the announcement was made to ease the Community's collective mind.

** {{Averted}} in that the reader is meant to assume, when the Giver reveals that [[spoiler:Rosemary was his daughter, that he is actually the biological father of Rosemary, Jonas, the female Six, and Gabe.]] And, when you think about it, male genetic DNA has to come from ''[[FridgeLogic somewhere]]''...

* CanonDisContinuity: The two sequels are... there's argument as to whether they really fit with ''The Giver'' or not.
** Actually, neither of them were ''official'' sequels; Lowry simply says that people can view them as such if they choose.
*** Considering Jonas is mentioned in the second book and appears in the third, it'd kind of hard to think of them as anything other than sequels, though.
**** We're using that weird, fluid definition of sequel that allows us to overwrite WordOfGod for things we don't like.

Turns out, perfect painlessness isn't as easy to maintain as it looks. There are still memories of the time before Sameness, when people still knew want, and grief, and pain... and excitement... and happiness... and love.

**** We're using that [[DisContinuity weird, fluid definition of sequel]] that allows us to overwrite WordOfGod for things we don't like.

* DisContinuity: The two sequels are... there's argument as to whether they really fit with ''The Giver'' or not.