The Giver/Characters

A listing of characters who appear in Lois Lowry's The Giver (and its "sequels"). Beware of unmarked spoilers!

The Giver

Jonas

• Blue Eyes: As they are very rare in the community, they are taken as a hint of his Receiving capabilities.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror
• The Chosen One: And how!
• Erotic Dream: Jonas' dream of his "favorite female friend," Fiona, which prompts his mother to start giving him the pills.
• Heroes Want Redheads: He has his Stirrings on Fiona.
• Inferred Survival: It's strongly hinted in Messenger that Leader is Jonas: the mentions of his blue eyes, his sister, and Fiona, the sled makes an appearance, and that he first discovered his powers via an apple.
• Love Interest: Fiona and implied in Messenger, Kira.
• Meaningful Name: Jonas is a variation of Jonah, as in the reluctant prophet Jonah. Jonas knows that what the community is doing is wrong, but he is afraid to do the right thing and leave until someone around him is in danger, at which point he assumes the mantle of prophet and leaves the community at great risk to his own life, giving Gabriel a chance to live and releasing the stored memories back to the community.
• Nice Guy
• Nightmare Fuel: Some of the memories he gets from the Giver.
  • War Is Hell: He receives one about a dying (implied to be Civil War) soldier. And it lasted for hours.
• Only One Name
• Psychic Powers: To a certain extent in Messenger.
• Someone Has to Do It
• What Is This Thing You Call Love?: When Jonas learns about love through memories received from the Giver and asks his parents if they love him, they admonish him for not using precise language and say that asking "Do you enjoy me?" or "Do you take pride in my accomplishments?" would have been better.

The Giver

• Character Title
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His real name is never revealed.
  • No Name Given
• The Mentor: To Jonas.
• Younger Than They Look: While it's unclear how old he actually is, it's (very briefly) mentioned that the stress of keeping all the memories is part of the reason he looks so old.

Asher

• Cheerful Child / Keet
• The Hedonist: Is absolutely delighted when he is assigned to be the Assistant Director of Recreation.
• Meaningful Name: "Asher" means "happy."
• Only One Name

Fiona

• Fiery Redhead: Inverted. She is said to be calm and serene from Jonas.
• Nice Girl: Though her job of "releasing" old people is not so nice.
• Only One Name

Rosemary

• Driven to Suicide: She couldn't take the horrors of the memories she received and decided to kill herself.
• In the Blood: She was the Giver's daughter.
• Meaningful Name: Boy howdy. After she killed herself the community banned her name, decreeing that it was never to be used for a new child again.

Ophelia: There's rosemary, that's for remembrance...

• Posthumous Character: Big time.
• Released to Elsewhere
• Unperson

Gabe

• Blue Eyes
• Cheerful Child

Jonas' family

• Annoying Younger Sibling: Lily can come off as this sometimes.
• Motor Mouth: Lily. She does almost all of the talking out of her whole family.
• Nuclear Family: Minus the dog.

Gathering Blue

Kira

• The Chosen One: Along with Thomas and Jo.
• Cool Big Sis: To Matty.
• Disappeared Dad: No, her dad's still out there.
  • Missing Mom: Her mother dies at the beginning of the book.
• Dream Weaver
• Disability Superpower: She's been crippled since birth, but since her mother's death, her dream weaving skills keep her from being killed by the council.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness
• Love Interest: Possibly, for Jonas.
• Two Guys and a Girl: With Thomas and Matt.

Matty

• A Boy and His X: His dog Branchie.
• Happily Adopted: In Messenger, he is now Seer / Christopher's adopted son.
• Heroic Sacrifice
• The Medic: In Messenger, Leader gives him the name of Healer - and his purpose really is to heal the world.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Branchie.
• Sidekick
• Tagalong Kid: To Kira in Gathering Blue.
• World-Healing Wave: At the end of Messenger - effectively healing the world of all evil, but effectively taking his life in the process.

Christopher

• Disappeared Dad

Jamison

• Cool Old Guy: At first.
• Evil All Along
• Manipulative Bastard
• Karma Houdini
• Treacherous Advisor

Thomas

• The Chosen One
• Ship Tease: With Kira, but it's revealed in Messenger that he's gotten married.

Messenger

Leader

• Blue Eyes: One of the few things that hint that he's actually Jonas from the first book.
• Epileptic Trees: It's heavily implied, but never outright stated, that the Leader is Jonas. Lois Lowry acutally does confirm it, rather offhandedly, in an interview.
• Psychic Powers
• Reasonable Authority Figure
• Ship Tease: Done rather subtly with Kira. When he first sees Kira, he describes her as being beautiful.