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Literary Devices
Definition of Allegory
An allegory is a work that conveys a hidden meaning—usually moral, spiritual, or political—through the use of symbolic characters and events. The story of "The Tortoise and The Hare" is... read full definition
An allegory is a work that conveys a hidden meaning—usually moral, spiritual, or political—through the use of symbolic characters and events. The story of "The... read full definition
An allegory is a work that conveys a hidden meaning—usually moral, spiritual, or political—through the use of symbolic characters and... read full definition
Chapter 23
Explanation and Analysis—Prophets:
It is possible to read the novel as a religious allegory, in which Jonas and Gabriel are both prophets or messengers from God. Both have special access to information about a more wonderful "Elsewhere" most of their community has forgotten. Both of them are named after biblical figures who speak for God.
Jonas shares his name with a Jewish prophet who struggles with doubt and disobedience. The biblical Jonas, or Jonah, is best known for spending three days in the belly of a whale as punishment for defying God. After the three days, he emerges repentant with new resolve to follow God's orders. In The Giver, Jonas's struggle with right, wrong, and rule-breaking parallels Jonah's crisis of faith in the belly of the whale. Jonas's trials on the run with Gabriel are marked by repentance not for disregarding the rules of the Community, but rather for his entire Community's moral disregard in their pursuit of an easier world.
The biblical Gabriel, meanwhile, is an archangel who tells the Virgin Mary that she will give birth to Jesus, the Son of God. The end of Chapter 23 makes it clear that the character of Gabriel is a stand-in both for Jesus and the archangel who heralds his birth:
Suddenly [Jonas] was aware with certainty and joy that below, ahead, they were waiting for him; and that they were waiting, too, for the baby. For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing.
Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps it was only an echo.
Context clues such as snow, singing, and the Christmas tree featured in the Giver's favorite memory suggest that the people at the bottom of the hill are celebrating Christmas. They are waiting not only for "the baby" Gabriel, but also "the baby" Jesus. Many Christians believe that Jesus was born to sacrifice himself, offering his own death as atonement for all of the sins that would otherwise make humans unfit for heaven. In The Giver, Gabriel evades death, but his exile with Jonas is nonetheless a Christlike sacrifice on behalf of his people. He is fated to grow up Elsewhere and transmit "echoes" of music, joy, and love back to the Community. Like the archangel as well as Jesus himself, Gabriel helps the Community see that they can be saved.
There are other layers to the allegory as well. For example, there are strong parallels between Gabriel and the biblical figure of Moses. The book also enacts the ancient Greek philosopher Plato's famous allegory of the cave. Plato believed that humans have only a vague idea of what is most real and true in the universe. The "Platonic ideal" of beauty, for instance, is beauty in its purest form, as humans never encounter it. He imagined humans as people stuck in a cave, eyes fixed on the cave wall and the shadows projected there by the "Platonic ideals" outside the cave. Learning, Plato argued, involves turning around and trying to look at what is making the shadows. Memories help Jonas, the Giver, and Gabriel turn around to see what is Elsewhere, outside the cave. At the end of the novel, Jonas hopes that he has found a way to help the rest of the Community turn around as well.
Related Themes:
