The Giver by Lois Lowry – Chapter Summary

Chapter Summaries

Each summary must have at 4-5 sentences.

Chapter 1: In chapter 1 in the giver we learn about what jonas’s life is like in the community. We learn that there are a lot of rules. Like you can’t fly a plane over the community and if you disobey the rules then you get released. Jonas is going to the ceremony of twelve in december, which he is nervous about. We also find out that people get assigned to families and in a family you can only have a female, a male and two children. That is what we have found out in chapter 1

Chapter 2: In chapter 2 we learn about what the ceremony of twelve is and what happens there. The ceremony of twelve is where all of the elevens go to a ceremony and recieve their life assingnment. The elders watch the elevens very closely to see what jobs will fit them best. Jonas’s parents are in law and order and nurturers. Jonas does not know what job will fit him best and he is worried he will get a job he does not like. That is what happened in chapter 2.

Chapter 3: In chapter 3 Jonas’s father had talked about how there was this baby, (He worked at the nurturing job so he took care of babies) who wasn’t doing very well so they were talking about realeasing him. So his father had brought the baby home. Many of the people in the community had dark eyes, but the baby had light eyes, like Jonas. Lilly had said he looks like you Jonas. Which had brought back a memory for him, It was that there had been a time where he had gotten called out on the loudspeaker. He  had been playing a game with asher and took an apple which you are not supposed to do. That is what had happened in chapter 3.

Chapter 4: It had been almost time for the ceremony of twelve. There were only a few volunteer days left. Jonas usually didn’t do volunteer jobs with his friend asher, but since there were only a few days left it didn’t really matter. He had gone to look for ashers bike and found it at the House of the old with fiona. He went in and did his work in the bathing room at the house of the old. That is what happened in chapter 4.

Chapter 5: In chapter 5  it explained how every evening jonas and his family told the dreams they had that night. Jonas rarely dreamed but that day he had vividly dreamed. In his dream he was at the house of the old, he was with there with fiona and no one else, and she was not taking him seriously. Then he admitted to his family that he had wanted to bathe her. His parents started talking to him about how those were stirrings, they gave him pills that every parent had to take, i think that they control your feelings. That is what happened in chapter 5.

Chapter 6: In chapter 6 they were going through all the ceremonies. The ceremony of the ones twos threes fours fives six sevens eights nines tens and elevens. The ceremony of twelve has not happened yet and that is jonas’s. The ceremony of eights was where lilly was and that is where you start your volunteer hours. At all of the ceremonies you recieve something different. Like at the tens you get your long hair cut off, at the ceremony of nines you get a bike. All of them are different. That is what happened in chapter 6.

Chapter 7: In chapter 7 they went through the ceremony of twelve. Every one of the elevens turned twelve and recieved their life assignment. All of his friends got the job they wanted. Whenever it was his turn, they skipped over him! He was so embarrassed he wanted to shrink up and disapear. That is what happened in chapter 7

Chapter 8: In chapter 8 all of the jobs had been given, except for jonas’s. The chief elder had finally called jonas up to the stage she apologized for all of the confusion and went on. Jonas has not been assigned, he has been selected to be the reciever of memory. The reciever of memory must have many traits which we think you have all of. There is one though that none of the community understands but the current reciever said the chief elder, the trait to see beyond. Jonas was about to say no you picked the wrong person, but then all the faces in the audience changed just like the apple. Then he understood. That is what happened in chapter 8

Chapter 9: In chapter nine he was about to go home from the ceremony of twelve with asher. When he went up to ask he said sure with his normal smile, but there was something different, a slight hesitation. The same thing happened when someone went to congratulate him. When he got home he read his rules which were surprisingly sparse. There were only 8 rules. You can lie, You cannot apply for realese, and a bunch of other ones. He was surprised at some of them and amazed how some people would actually do that. That is what happened in chapter 9.

Chapter 10: In chapter 10 it was the first day of jonas’s training. He rode his bike to the house of the old with fiona because she will get her training there as well. Jonas had gone to the back of the house of the old to recieve his training. He was surprised at all of the locked doors and a little scared, but the attendant cheered him up and said the reciever of memory just needs his concentration. When he went in he was amazed by all of the nice furniture but even more amazed by all of the books, he only thought three existed!! The older reciever of memory asked if he knew what snow was, jonas said no, then we have got a lot of work to do. That is what happened in chapter 10.

Chapter 11: In chapter 11 the older Reciever Of Memory asked Jonas to take his tunic off. The old man put his hands on Jonas’s back and gave him the memory of snow. It was very cold and he could see his breath. In the next memory the reciever gave him the memory of sunlight. It was very warm and hot. Jonas had a question, “the chief elder said it would be painful but it actually has been very enjoyable. The old man said that it would be painful soon and that they would have one more memory. It was sunburn, it had hurt but he thought it was interesting. When the training ended the old man seemed tired. That is what happened in chapter 11.

Chapter 12: In chapter 12 every one of the twelves was talking about there first day of training. Jonas wanted too to talk about his training but he is not supposed to and he would not know how to explain it. Then he went back to the house of the old with Fiona after school. When Fiona started rushing in to go to her training her hair had changed just like the audience and the apple. Once he got to the Giver Jonas asked about it. The Giver said that he was beginning to see the color red. Jonas did not understand this so the Giver had to explain. He explained that in memories things had a shape and size like now but they also had color. Jonas did not understand much so the Giver gave him the memory of a rainbow.

Chapter 13: In chapter 13 Jonas starts to see every color every so often. He see’s flashes of color every so often. Now when Jonas goes to the Givers house for training he often see’s the giver rocking on the floor. He asks what’s wrong but the giver just asks for him to go away. Hes worried about the giver so he asks to transmit the memory of pain to him. Thats what happened in chapter 13.

Chapter 14: In chapter 14 the Giver gave Jonas a memory when he was on the sled again but on ice. He started zooming down and fell and twisted his leg. The pain lingered in him for the rest of the day. As the days went on, Jonas begun to feel more and more of the pain and understood it better, every day it got worse. That is what happened in chapter 14.

Chapter 15: In chapter 15 Jonas went into the Annex room and realized that he would get sent away, he saw that The Giver looked in pain. “I’ll go now sir,” Jonas said quickly, “unless there is something i can do to help.” The Giver  had asked him to take some of the pain. Jonas had quickly took of his tunic and lay on the bed. The Giver had placed his hand on him and he braced himself for what was to come. It was warefare, wounded people were everywhere. When he could not go on anymore the memory stopped and he looked at The Giver. The Giver looked away from Jonas not bearing what he could have done to him.

Chapter 16: In chapter 16 it was after Jonas had recieved the memory of warfare. He didn’t want to go back, but he did. Ever since the warfare memory, the giver had given him happier ones and less bad ones. “There are a lot of good memories too,” the Giver had said, and there was. Jonas had seen a birthday party. Jonas asked The Giver what is favorite memory was. The Giver then gave it to him. It was a memory of christmas. That is what happened in chapter 16.

Chapter 17: In chapter 17 it was an unscheduled holiday. That meant that all the kids were off school, training and volunteer hours and the parents were off work. Jonas had went to find Asher. He had found him at the playing field. They were playing a game where you have a pretend weapon and you shoot people with the fake weapon. Jonas had started to play when he walked out on the playing field but then he froze up. All of the other children backed away because they didn’t know what was going on. It had reminded him of the memory of war. Everyone was gone except for Asher and Fiona. Jonas asked them not to play it again. You can’t tell us what to play said Asher, then Fiona had rode off with Asher and Jonas felt he had lost his friends. That is what happened in chapter 17.

Chapter 18: In chapter 8 Jonas had a lot of questions for the giver about the last reciever in training. It seemed like it caused the giver pain to talk about her. I loved her like i love you the giver had said, her name was rosemary. He asked what had happened why it had been a failure. She had applied for release and then all the memories were loose, The Giver had said. I cannot apply for release said jonas, its in my rules. But it wasn’t in hers. That is what happened in chapter 8.

Chapter 19: In chapter 19 Jonas was interested in the release of the newchild. Jonas asked the giver about it. My father is doing the release today, Jonas had said. The Giver wished that they would not do that. Jonas wished that he could see it. The Giver had the film out and was ready to show Jonas but he thought that his father would be mad. When they started watching it it started out in a room with a table and some equipment. His father brought two children and weighed them. The smallest one had to be released so his father took a needle with medicine in it and put it in his head, that had killed the baby, Jonas was in shock at what his dad had done.