The Giver

Only a few people in the community have pale eyes: Jonas, Gabriel, the Giver, Rosemary, and a little girl who is a Six. Jonas’s sister comments how unusual this feature is by calling it “funny” (20)and noting that Jonas and Gabriel share it. Noting differences in this way is a major faux pas in the community. However, pale eyes seem to come with some special qualities that make a person ideal for the Receiver role. The narrator says that people with these eyes seem to understand things in a way that others in the community do not; this feature seems to be linked to "seeing beyond" (91), as when Jonas sees the apple turn red. It’s also appears linked to receiving memories, as when Jonas transmits a memory of sailing to Gabriel, who is able to receive it, unlike Lily, who has dark eyes. Lily also points out that people with pale eyes might be related. This seems likely, considering that the Giver and Rosemary are father and daughter. Pale eyes are also linked to wisdom, perceptiveness, and depth of thought and feeling. As the narrator explains, looking into pale eyes is a bit like “looking into the clear water of the river, down to the bottom, where things might lurk which hadn’t been discovered yet” (21).

Colors symbolize difference, individuality, and beauty in The Giver. Jonas’s first experience with color involves seeing an apple’s hue for an instant. He has trouble describing it because he’s never seen color before and is unfamiliar with the concept. In his community, everyone but the Receiver sees the world in a “flat and hueless shade” (97). As Jonas progresses through his Receiver training, he begins seeing all of the colors, and for longer periods of time. He becomes exasperated when it’s difficult to see a color for more than a moment, noting that it is unfair. This is one of his first times grappling with the concept of fairness, and the notion that "Sameness" (84) is far from perfect. He notes that he wants to be able to choose between a blue tunic and a red one, because when “everything’s the same, then there aren’t any choices” (97).

Like the people of the past, the Giver can see all colors. He tells Jonas that seeing color comes with “the capacity to see beyond,” and Jonas will “gain wisdom, then, along with colors” (95). In working with the Giver, Jonas learns people used to constantly see color, but they sacrificed this ability when they chose a system of Sameness, or extreme uniformity. The Giver also informs Jonas that people’s skin used to come in different colors. Jonas sees this in some of his memories and learns that people’s trouble coping with differences such as skin color variations can lead to strife.

Red is the first color Jonas experiences and the most meaningful. It is the color of the aforementioned apple, the sled he rides in the first memory he receives, and the hair of Fiona, a girl he dreams about when having Stirrings. As with the apple, he struggles to describe Fiona’s hair color since color is a new concept for him: “She herself didn’t change, exactly. But something about her changed for a second. Her hair looked different; but not its shape, not its length” (91). He can’t quite put his finger on what about it was different, he concludes with frustration when relating the experience to the Giver. Red is also the color of the blood he sees on a battlefield where he watches a child soldier perish. The narrator describes the emotional impact color has in this memory: “The colors of the carnage were grotesquely bright: the crimson wetness on the rough and dusty fabric, the ripped shreds of grass, startlingly green, in the boy’s yellow hair” (119).