The Giver (Chapters 9-13)

Jonas felt different now as he received the job: the receiver of memory. This person holds all of the memories of the past and helps the Chief Elders (Rulers) to make choices for the community. The receiver of memory has the power to make the choice to lie or to be truthful. Page 68 rule 8

In his earliest childhood, Jonas was taught never to lie. When he was a four he was reminded not to lie. He said once that he was “Starving” and then he was corrected by his teachers. They said he was not starving, he was hungry. “No one in the community was starving, had ever been starving, would ever be starving. To say “starving” was to speak a lie.” Page 70

After that Jonas has never lied all these years until he was permitted to by his new job.

Now that he was a twelve and got his rule sheet, he read over the last rule “You may lie” and his mind suddenly filled with questions: What if other twelves got the same rule? What happens if some adults lie, too? How will this affect my life? When Jonas was smaller, he was told many stories by other fives and sixes. He knows that their stories were true, but then his father, his mother and some people at the house of the Old told him stories as well. Once he got his rule sheet, he doesn’t know anymore, if they were telling the truth or not.

This was a frightening thought for Jonas, because he could from now on decide to lie to the community without them knowing that he was not truthful.