Rosemary was selected to be the new Receiver exactly as Jonas was. The Giver began training her, giving her happy, joyful memories until she demanded that he also give her painful and anguished memories. She felt it was her duty to share the burden of pain.
But one day, after receiving a few painful memories, Rosemary said goodbye to The Giver, left the Annex, and asked to be released. The Giver never saw her again. As The Giver discusses Rosemary, Lowry provides meaningful details describing The Giver's actions that indicate his overwhelming sadness about Rosemary's decision. While he is talking, he "painfully" hesitates, his voice trails off, and he sorrowfully closes his eyes. When Rosemary was released after only five weeks of training, the community was in turmoil.
All of the memories that Rosemary had received returned to the people in the community. Because memories are forever and are never lost, the people were forced to experience the anguish and the joy contained in the memories.
For the first time in their lives, they experienced real feelings. Grief stricken and angry over the loss of Rosemary, The Giver was unable to help the community through its ordeal. Knowing that memories will destroy the community's Sameness, Jonas asks The Giver a hypothetical question: "What if I fell into the river.
Every memory that The Giver has transmitted to Jonas would return to the people, and Sameness would no longer be possible. The community would have to change, and with The Giver's help, the people would endure the experience and benefit from it. Again Lowry foreshadows the future as she concludes Chapter 18 with The Giver deep in thought about Jonas' suggestion to help the community experience freedom once again.
The topic of release is on Jonas' mind because his father was scheduled to release a newborn twin earlier that morning.
To Jonas' amazement, The Giver informs Jonas that he can watch the twin's release because all private ceremonies in the community are recorded on video, and being The Receiver, Jonas can ask for anything.
Jonas is unaware that the community's every activity is taped. Videotaping everything that goes on in the community is yet another way that the Committee of Elders maintains control of the people. Concerning the twin's release, Lowry describes in detail the release room in the Nurturing Center.
Her style is straightforward, and her tone is foreboding. Suspense builds as The Giver insists in a very firm voice that Jonas be quiet and watch the video recording of the release.
Jonas wants to see a release because he thinks that a release is a celebration; he's never had a clue that it is anything else. In an "ordinary room," Jonas' father, talking to the newborn twins, uses the "special voice" that he always uses with newborns. Everything appears to be as it should. Jonas watches as his father sends the heavier newborn twin off to the Nurturing Center and then gives a hypodermic shot into the lighter twin's head.
Jonas figures that this shot is a routine vaccination that all newchildren get. He expects that his father is going to make the baby as "comfy" as possible before sending it to Elsewhere. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. By Lois Lowry. Previous Next. Chapter 18 The next time he sees The Giver , Jonas asks him about release.
The Giver admits that he sometimes wishes he could be released, but he knows he's not allowed to do so until he trains Jonas. Jonas knows he can't ask for a release either; that's in the rules. The Giver then explains that they made those rules ten years ago, after the failure with the other Receiver. Jonas wants to know more about her. He asks her name, and The Giver reveals that it was Rosemary. Jonas is appalled when he witnesses his father lethally inject an infant and casually place its body in a carton to be disposed of.
In The Giver, when identical twins are born, they are weighed and the smaller one is released. Release is a euphemism for euthanasia, which means that one of the twins is killed by lethal injection. He thinks that his father will make the twin clean and comfy and then the baby will go to live and grow up in elsewhere.
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