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Irony
Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Key Examples in The Giver
Chapter 17
Explanation and Analysis—River of Memories:
In Chapter 17, Jonas spends an unscheduled holiday riding his bike along the river. The river becomes a metaphor that foreshadows Jonas's departure from the Community at the end of the novel:
Now, through the memories, he had seen oceans and mountain lakes and streams that gurgled through woods; and now he saw the familiar wide river beside the path differently. He saw all of the light and color and history it contained and carried in its slow-moving water; and he knew that there was an Elsewhere from which it came, and an Elsewhere to which it was going.
Related Themes:
Chapter 19
Explanation and Analysis—Disposable Twin:
In Chapter 19, Jonas watches a recording of his father killing a baby and disposing of its body down a trash chute. The trash chute is a metaphor that emphasizes the shocking situational irony at play in this scene:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It seemed to be the same sort of chute into which trash was deposited at school.
His father loaded the carton containing the body into the chute and gave it a shove.
“Bye-bye, little guy,” Jonas heard his father say before he left the room. Then the screen went blank.
Related Themes:
Chapter 22
Explanation and Analysis—Starving:
In Chapter 22, Jonas tries to use memories to help himself and Gabriel feel less hungry, but the sensation of starvation takes hold, a "gnawing, painful emptiness." This imagery gives way to a metaphor that stands at the heart of the book's message:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Jonas remembered, suddenly and grimly, the time in his childhood when he had been chastised for misusing a word. The word had been “starving.” You have never been starving, he had been told. You will never be starving.
Now he was. If he had stayed in the community, he would not be. [...]
But if he had stayed . . .
His thoughts continued. If he had stayed, he would have starved in other ways. He would have lived a life hungry for feelings, for color, for love.
Related Themes:
