Quote 7
"Do you love me?"
There was an awkward silence for a moment. Then Father gave a little chuckle. "Jonas. You, of all people. Precision of language, please!"
"What do you mean?" Jonas asked. Amusement was not at all what he had anticipated.
"Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it has become almost obsolete," his mother explained carefully.
Jonas stared at them. Meaningless? He had never before felt anything as meaningful as the memory. (16.56-60)
There it is, in all its explicit glory. Language in the community = empty words. Of course, you realized that language was meaningless six chapters ago, so good job.
Quote 8
"Mother? Father?" he said, the idea coming to him unexpectedly, "why don't we put Gabriel's crib in my room tonight? I know how to feed and comfort him, and it would let you and Father get some sleep." (14.69)
Jonas reaches out to Gabriel as a result of his isolation. It says something about the futility of language that he connects best with an infant with whom he cannot communicate verbally.
"But don't you want to be with me, Giver?" Jonas asked sadly.
The Giver hugged him. "I love you, Jonas," he said. "But I have another place to go. When my work here is finished, I want to be with my daughter." (20.101-102)
The idea that death can be a solution to isolation is an interesting one, and this has implications for the ambiguous ending to The Giver. The Giver hints at something like a heaven, some sort of afterlife, where he imagines he will be with his daughter Rosemary. Could it be, then, that Jonas forms the same sort of bond with Gabriel because they're dying together?