The Giver: Dramatic Irony 2 key examples

Neither Jonas nor Larissa knows exactly what happens when someone is Released. Larissa is able to tell Jonas about the ceremony that took place before her friend Roberto was led to a private room to be Released (i.e., killed). Only members of the Committee have ever been inside the private room. Jonas wishes he had been allowed to attend the ceremony at least. This comment makes Larissa "frown" and realize, it seems, that she has never thought about why children are kept away from these ceremonies. She explains it away as a practical matter of room capacity. However, her frown indicates that she has had an uncomfortable realization. The Committee has been gatekeeping Release for some reason that they have not made clear to the public.

Jonas makes light of the tense situation by joking that they should ask the Committee to consider enlarging the Releasing Room. "Maybe they'd study it," he says. Both Jonas and Larissa know that Jonas is being sarcastic. It is a running joke in the Community that the Committee "studies" difficult questions not to find the answers, but rather to avoid answering the questions altogether. When the Committee says it must "study" a question, everyone knows that they will set it aside until everyone forgets that they were waiting for an answer. Jonas's verbal irony diffuses the tension and allows him and Larissa to laugh together over a frustrating situation. At the same time, it also allows them to indirectly discuss some shared skepticism over the Committee's honesty and effectiveness. Open critique of the Committee is not yet possible in the Community, but Jonas and Larissa use laughter to find allies in one another.

The Giver is the only person in the Community who knows what it is like to carry all the memories of history. The Giver tries to use imagery to describe to Jonas the extraordinary pressure of this position. For any of Lowry's readers who have been sledding, the Giver's imagery effectively draws on remembered sensations of cold, speed, excitement, deceleration, and the atmospheric smell of snow. These readers may even remember how sledding for fun always ends with the exhausting task of trudging back uphill. Most of Lowry's readers probably also have some experience with the mixture of wonder and devastation that comes from learning about history. There is an endless amount of history to learn. Sometimes it is empowering, and sometimes it is so painful and violent that it is difficult for anyone to bear. The Giver's imagery helps readers imagine how exhilarating and excruciating it would be to be barraged with all of society's historical memories and have no one to discuss them with. And the fact that readers, like the Giver, have access to information and experiences Jonas lacks—an example of dramatic irony—underscores the unique difficulties of Jonas's role.

Jonas has never been sledding. He has never even been confronted with a historical memory. He wants to follow along with what the Giver is saying, but the imagery is lost on him. The irony of this moment is what prompts the Giver to give Jonas his first memory, a simple memory of sledding through snow. The fact that the Giver must start so small indicates just how profoundly the Community has altered the human experience for its citizens. This scene should not be mistaken for an argument that sledding is the most basic human experience and that anyone living in a climate without snow cannot be a full person. Rather, sledding represents a simple childhood experience the Community has taken away from its citizens for the sake of ease. The Community tries to keep people safe and happy, but in so doing it keeps them from experiencing both the ups and downs of the world. Jonas has a huge job cut out for him: he is to be the Giver's replacement, shouldering the weight of all the world's memories. Before he can take this task on, he must learn a whole slew of basic sensations so that he can make sense of the world he is to remember.