Wednesday 27 January 2016

Why did Jonas's family receive a girl in The Giver?

Because Jonas's family already had one male, they were due to receive a female next. We learn in Ch. 2 that new children do not simply arrive at random times, either. Everything is very carefully planned.


"The year we got Lily, we knew, of course, that we'd receive our female, because we'd made our application and been approved" (Ch.2).


Each family "unit" in The Giverhas one male child and one female child, because as...

Because Jonas's family already had one male, they were due to receive a female next. We learn in Ch. 2 that new children do not simply arrive at random times, either. Everything is very carefully planned.



"The year we got Lily, we knew, of course, that we'd receive our female, because we'd made our application and been approved" (Ch.2).



Each family "unit" in The Giver has one male child and one female child, because as Jonas notes toward the end of Ch. 1, "It was written very clearly in the rules." This uniformity in family size and gender composition is another area in which the community applies the rule of Sameness.


We also find out in these early chapters that family units are very carefully governed, not just in who receives children and when, but also who is assigned a spouse or entitled to a family unit. In Ch. 1 we know that Jonas's father works at the Nurturing Center during the day but that he regularly complains about the night crew who, for the most part, have



"not even been given spouses because they lacked, somehow, the essential capacity to connect with others, which was required for a family unit" (Ch.1).



So, there are certain requirements for being given a spouse, a first child, and then even a second child. Applications appear to be at least part of the process, as well as having certain personal traits.

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