The hill, for Jonas, represents a gateway to Elsewhere. Riding a red sled down the hill is his first memory and his first awareness of the color red. It signifies his realization that outside his community there is a world not dominated by Sameness. Later, Jonas dreams of the hill and feels the need "to reach the something that waited in the distance," something "good…welcoming… [and] significant." Yet, through memories of the hill, Jonas learns the precarious relationship between joy and pain; without one, the other cannot exist. Jonas's first experience with real pain is falling off the same sled that thrilled him only days earlier.
The Snow-covered Hill Quotes in The Giver
The The Giver quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Snow-covered Hill. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 13
Quotes
He wondered what lay in the far distance where he had never gone. The land didn't end beyond those nearby community. Were there hills Elsewhere? Were there vast wind-torn areas like the place he had seen in memory, the place where the elephants died?
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Chapter 14
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The sled hit a bump in the hill and Jonas was jarred loose and thrown violently into the air. He fell with his leg twisted under him, and could hear the crack of bone. His face scraped along jagged edges of ice… In his agony he perceived the world "fire" and felt flames licking at the torn bone and flesh.
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Chapter 23
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For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps it was only an echo.
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The Snow-covered Hill Symbol Timeline in The Giver
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Snow-covered Hill appears in The Giver. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 11
...Receiver places his hands on Jonas's back and transmits the memory of sledding down a hill: Jonas does not just remember the activity, he feels the cold air and the snowflakes...
(full context)
Chapter 12
That night Jonas dreams he is at the top of a snow-covered hill, needing to reach whatever is waiting at the bottom. The next morning, during dream-telling, he...
(full context)
Chapter 23
When he reaches the top of the hill, Jonas recognizes it. He also sees a sled. Jonas and Gabriel ride the sled downhill....
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