Chapter 19 / 20 / 21
The session continues, and Jonas tells The Giver that he had been interested in release because his father was releasing a newchild that day, a twin.
The Giver told him that, as The Receiver, he can indeed watch a recording of the morning's ceremony.
The Giver makes a request over the speaker, and a recording of the ceremony begins to play.
Jonas waits for his father to make the child comfy, but stares in shock as they baby's limbs jerk, then go limp. The child's head falls to the side, eyes half open. Jonas recognizes the expression as the same one he saw on the face of the boy who died on the battlefield. Horrified, he realizes that his father had killed the newchild.
It is at that moment that Jonas's father takes out a syringe, fills it with a liquid, and inserts the needle into a pulsing vein in the newchild's forehead. Still using the special voice, his father continues to talk to the newchild, saying he knows it hurts but that the veins in the child's arms are still too "teeny weeny."
The Giver turns to Jonas and calmly tells the boy that he himself watched Rosemary's release, and that is was his "last glimpse of that beautiful child." He could only sit, numb with horror, as Rosemary told the attendants that she wanted to inject herself.
Jonas becomes hysterical after witnessing his father's release of the newchild, experiencing the most intense emotions he has ever suffered. The Giver allows him to spend the night at the Annex.
Old people and newborns are killed when the rules dictate they should be. Even his gentle friend Fiona is being trained "in the fine art of release." The Giver tries to help him understand that his Father and Fiona are not evil. "They know nothing," he tells Jonas, because "feelings are not part of the life" they've learned.
The Giver then says Jonas has helped him realize that society does not need to continue down this path. The two of them together can execute a plan that will lead to putting things right again
The plan involves Jonas escaping the community, which will result in a year's worth of his memories being released. Jonas feels the plan can work, although success means he can never return to his home, and failure would probably mean his death. He considers, though, that if he stays, his life is "no longer worth living."
Jonas asks The Giver to go with him, but the old man says that he needs to stay behind to help the community deal with the torrent of memories that will return to them when Jonas leaves. Jonas first responds that they don't need to care about the others but quickly realizes he is wrong. Caring about others "was the meaning of everything.
As Jonas prepares to return to his family, he asks The Giver how he first became aware that he was different. The old man smiles, and tells him that his own awareness began with the "hearing-beyond" of something called music.
The next day, Jonas goes over the escape plan in his head. In the middle of the night, before the December Ceremony, Jonas will leave a note for his parents telling them he's gone on an early morning ride along the riverbank. He will leave his dwelling, hide his bicycle and a folded stack of clothing along the river, and head to the Annex.
There, The Giver will have arranged for a vehicle, saying he would be visiting the Elders in another community. Instead, he will take Jonas outside the community to begin his journey to Elsewhere. Later, he will announce that Jonas has been lost in the river and begin to help the community deal with the released memories.
Jonas tries once more to convince The Giver to come with him, but the old man tells him that when his work with the community is finished, he only wants to go be with his daughter: Rosemary.
After working out his detailed plan with The Giver to escape, Jonas returns to his dwelling. As usual, he listens to Lily's chatter and his parents' comments (and "lies," Jonas thinks). But then Father looks at Gabriel, playing happily on the floor, and casually mentions that the little boy will not be staying with them anymore.
He explains that when Jonas spent the night at the Annex, he had sent Gabriel to the Nurturing Center to see how he did on his own. Without Jonas near him, the little boy cried all night. The Nurturers all agreed that this was unacceptable behavior for a child Gabriel's age.
Father had been among those to decide that, as a result, Gabriel would be released the next morning.
Jonas knows that to save Gabriel, he must leave that night instead of in two weeks. As soon as it is dark, Jonas steals some food and his father's bicycle, which has a child seat on the back. He puts Gabriel into a sound sleep through a memory, and pedals away from the community. He hopes The Giver will understand.
Over the next few days, Jonas makes his way through nearby communities and learns to avoid the search planes that come after him. He also uses memories of cold to cool down his and Gabriel's body temperatures so that heat-seeking technology cannot locate them.
During their quiet times, Gabriel giggles with delight as he plays with grass and twigs. Jonas keeps giving the little boy his dreams but notices they are becoming weaker and shallower. This is what he had hoped for that as he moved further from the community, he would shed dreams and they would return to the people who need them.