The Giver Jonas the narrator is an 11 year old boy living in a futuristic utopian society this Society is without pain fear war or hate everyone looks and acts the same and there is no competition everyone is polite and their lives are planned accordingly without any choice at age 12 everyone is assigned a job later they are assigned a spouse and two children the children of the Society come from birth mothers and they never see these children you spend their first year in a nurturing center before being assigned to a family once children are grown the family is eliminated and parents go into a community of childless adults until they are too old to function at this time they are put into the house of the old until they are released [Music] but who do not follow the rules or disrupt Society in any way are also released Jonah lives with his father who is a nurturer his mother's and sister Lily at the beginning Jonas is nervous for the ceremony of 12 when he is assigned his job Jonas has been a good citizen well-behaved and a good student but he is different he has pal eyes and unusual powers does not knowing yet but he can see color unlike everyone else in society at the ceremony Jonas is assigned to receiver of memory when Society became utopian and got rid of all bad things it also got rid of the memories of these things the receiver of memory is the person who has these past memories Jonas receives the memories from the current receiver a wise old man called The Giver Jonas receives the memories from The Giver placing his hands on his bare back [Music] Jonas's first memory is of an exciting sled ride he goes through memories of Pleasure and Pain of bright colors extreme temperatures he experiences all emotions through these memories good and bad and it gives his life meaning this makes him realize how bland their current Society is and he wants to share these memories with everyone because the people of society have not experienced real suffering they cannot experience real joy for without the bad there is no good [Music] this frustrates Jonas and the giver encourages him as it has frustrated him for years at home Jonas is helping take care of a problem new child who is having trouble sleeping he transfers soothing memories to him to help him and he starts to love the childlike family however Society still wants to release the child when The Giver tells Jonas release is the same as death is horrified and wants to change society forever Jonas and the giver form a plan to do this The Giver tells a story about how ten years prior his own daughter was set to become the new receiver but she couldn't handle it and asked to be released when she died all the memories were dispersed to the community and they couldn't handle it there is for Jonas to leave the community and have his memories dispersed and The Giver would help the community adjust with its new memories Jonas is forced to leave Society earlier than planned when Gabriel the newborn child is about to be released Jonas takes the baby and steals a bike and starts riding off search planes look for him but he climbs a mountain in the snow and finds a sled the same one from the memory he rides the sled down the mountain with the baby and they see a village in the distance with lights celebrating Christmas they continue to ride towards it into the night