The Giver

"Release” is the community’s euphemism for killing someone. Most people in the community believe that being released means being sent “Elsewhere,” possibly to another place where life continues peacefully. Old people are honored before release, criminals are threatened with release as punishment, and weak babies can also be released. Because the community hides pain and death from its citizens, no one except a few officials truly understands what release means.

Jonas gradually becomes suspicious of the practice. Larissa describes an old man’s release as joyful, saying, “Pure happiness, I’d call it.” But Jonas keeps wondering where released people actually go. The truth is finally revealed when The Giver shows him a recording of his father releasing an infant twin. Jonas watches his father inject the baby with a lethal substance and then throw the body away. Horrified, Jonas realizes: “He killed it! My father killed it!”

This discovery changes everything for Jonas. Up until this point, he believed his community was orderly and caring, even if it lacked freedom and emotion. Learning the truth about release forces him to see that the society’s peace depends on ignorance and the destruction of anyone who does not fit its ideals. Babies, the elderly, and rule-breakers are treated as expendable because the community values Sameness and stability above individual human life.

Lowry uses the concept of “release” to show how dangerous language can become when it hides reality. The community’s careful “precision of language” actually prevents people from understanding death, grief, and moral responsibility. By framing killing as a polite, emotionless ritual, the society removes compassion along with pain.