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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Some
Moderate; the practice of 'release' — which Jonas discovers is euthanasia — is central; an infant is released on page; the community's sanitized violence is the moral horror
Language
Barely any
Mild language; the community's controlled register
Sexual Content
None
No sexual content; Jonas begins experiencing 'stirrings' which are managed with medication
Substance Use
None
No substance use; medication is used to suppress emotion
Emotional Intensity
Very heavy
Very strong; the cost of eliminating pain; what is lost when suffering is engineered away; the ambiguous ending is one of the most discussed in YA literature
What this book is about
Lois Lowry's The Giver is set in a seemingly perfect community where everything — family, occupation, weather — is controlled and sameness is enforced. Twelve-year-old Jonas is assigned the role of Receiver of Memory and begins receiving from the Giver the real history of humanity: color, music, snow, love — and the pain the community traded them away to avoid. The novel's final pages have been debated by readers and teachers since 1993.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Euthanasia (called 'release') including of an infant
Emotional suppression via medication
Ambiguous ending
Reader Verification
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