In the Giver What Chapter Says That Jonass Dad Killed the Baby

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Chapter 19

Course Hero Literature Teacher Russell Jaffe provides an in-depth summary and analysis of Affiliate xix of Lois Lowry's novel The Giver.

The Giver | Chapter 19 | Summary

Summary

The session continues, and Jonas tells The Giver that he had been interested in release because his father was releasing a newchild that solar day—a twin. He says he wishes he could watch, because he knows his male parent is a gentle human being and likes the idea of seeing him brand the petty twin "clean and comfy." The Giver surprises him by telling him that, as The Receiver, he tin indeed watch a recording of the morning time's ceremony.

Jonas at commencement is hesitant, giving several reasons why perhaps he shouldn't. Merely The Giver keeps pushing him, and Jonas finally agrees. The Giver makes a request over the speaker, and a recording of the ceremony begins to play. Jonas is surprised to run into that information technology takes place in a modest, windowless room and begins to wonder aloud why it is not a larger ceremony. The Giver hushes him. Jonas then sees his male parent and an banana arrive with the twins and weigh them. His male parent laughs when 1 twin is clearly of a bottom weight, making the determination of which to release simple. Jonas smiles when his father uses " the special voice he uses with Gabriel" as he talks to the smaller twin.

Jonas tries once more to speak, and The Giver again quiets him, forcing him to keep watching. It is at that moment that Jonas's male parent takes out a syringe, fills it with a liquid, and inserts the needle into a pulsing vein in the newchild's forehead. Still using the special vox, his father continues to talk to the newchild, maxim he knows information technology hurts but that the veins in the child's arms are even so too "teeny weeny."

Jonas waits for his father to make the kid comfy, but stares in stupor as they babe's limbs jerk, then get limp. The child's caput falls to the side, eyes one-half open up. Jonas recognizes the expression as the same 1 he saw on the face of the boy who died on the battlefield. Horrified, he realizes that his begetter had killed the newchild. His begetter then places the fiddling torso in a carton and loads information technology into a chute very similar to the kind used to receive trash at school. The final thing Jonas hears his begetter say is "Bye-bye, trivial guy."

The Giver turns to Jonas and calmly tells the boy that he himself watched Rosemary's release, and that is was his "last glimpse of that cute kid." He could simply sit, numb with horror, as Rosemary told the attendants that she wanted to inject herself. That function, though, he was unable to force himself to lookout man. His vocalisation improve, The Giver says that Jonas now understands release. Jonas, withal in shock, feels "a terrible pain clawing its fashion forward to emerge in a cry."

Analysis

Readers have very likely figured out long before Jonas does that release is non simply a departure to a place called Elsewhere. It is death. Simply the revelations in this affiliate are even so overwhelming. Lois Lowry achieves this powerful effect past contrasting the apparent gentleness of Jonas's male parent and the unspeakable horror of what he does.

Father'due south chore, simply put, is to kill a newborn considering information technology had the misfortune to be born a twin and weighed a few ounces less that his blood brother. The fact that Begetter seems to feel no sadness as he carries out his assignment is frightening. It indicates that he feels no connection whatsoever to the child and is not considering the potential of the life he is snuffing out. He even laughs as he weighs the babies and is able to identify one with the lower birth weight, which makes the decision of which one to release unproblematic. He then continues using the "special voice"—a soothing tone sprinkled with baby talk—equally he euthanizes the child, suggesting that this vocalism is something he is trained to employ and not a issue of any real compassion. He even sends the little trunk downwards the chute with a cheerful "bye-adieu, little guy." The chute, described as resembling a trash receptacle at Jonas'south school, makes information technology that much clearer how footling value gild has placed on the kid'southward life.

Jonas's reactions during the chapter reveal a great deal about his own thought processes. At the beginning, he seems to be finding reasons not to watch the record. The curious, intelligent part of him wants to know what is involved in release. But deep down, he may non really want to larn the reply. He finally watches but after The Giver almost forces him to. Then, every bit Jonas observes the process, he keeps talking over the record, trying to provide his ain narration in which his Father is a gentle man making a baby clean and comfortable in grooming for Elsewhere. Just when the kid dies does Jonas finally take what he has seen. From this point on, he will never exist the aforementioned, and he will never exist able to view his family or his community in the same mode. It is the true emotional turning point for his character.

The terminal revelation of the chapter concerns what happened to Rosemary. She asked for death rather than have to continue to be the sole carrier of the miseries of humankind. But she as well showed courage and a rebellious nature by insisting on giving herself the injection. This was one selection she would non permit the leaders of the social club to make for her. The Giver is proud of her actions, even as he mourns her loss.

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