The Giverdoes have an ending. Jonas and Gabe slide down a sled in the snow towards a house with Christmas lights. BUT, that is not the ending most readers want. It leaves us with so many loose ends and we don't really know what happens next. We like happy endings or at least ones with a resolution. The tricky part about this novel is that Lois Lowry ended the book exactly this way to...
The Giver does have an ending. Jonas and Gabe slide down a sled in the snow towards a house with Christmas lights. BUT, that is not the ending most readers want. It leaves us with so many loose ends and we don't really know what happens next. We like happy endings or at least ones with a resolution. The tricky part about this novel is that Lois Lowry ended the book exactly this way to encourage her readers to imagine, on their own, what really happened next. So, what are some possibilities?
- Jonas and Gabe arrive, alive, at a new house
- Jonas and Gabe arrive in the new house, but Gabe is already dead
- Jonas and Gabe arrive, dead, at a new house
- Jonas is delirious and there is no house at all
- Jonas has died and this house is really some other world after death
When asked by a student about the ending, Lowry once said,
"It ends with Jonas and Gabriel going downhill in a sled toward a house with welcoming lights. Ho ho ho. Aren’t I a mean author, not to be more specific? I like it when you argue. It makes you think."
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