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The Snow-covered Hill
The river forms a border of the community before continuing on to Elsewhere. As a border, the river comes to symbolize escape—crossing the river means leaving the community. Because it takes the life of the four-year-old Caleb, the river also symbolizes the danger inherent in that escape.
The River Quotes in The Giver
The The Giver quotes below all refer to the symbol of The River. 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:
).
Chapter 17
Quotes
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 Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Giver LitChart as a printable PDF.
The River Symbol Timeline in The Giver
The timeline below shows where the symbol The River appears in The Giver. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6
...a replacement child to a family whose Four, also named Caleb, had fallen into the river and drowned. Jonas remembers the Ceremony of Mourning for the drowned boy, in which everyone...
(full context)
...get Sanitation, and tells Jonas that he once heard that someone in Sanitation swam the river and left to join another community. Jonas has never heard of someone joining another community,...
(full context)
Chapter 17
Jonas rides his bike along the river. He knows the river must lead to Elsewhere and wonders what Elsewhere must be like.
(full context)
Chapter 18
Jonas wonders what would happen if he fell in the river and died accidentally. The Giver tells him that memories are forever, and that all of...
(full context)
Chapter 20
...supplies. On the morning of the annual Ceremony, Jonas will leave his bicycle by the river. Meanwhile, The Giver hides Jonas in the trunk of a vehicle and drives Jonas a...
(full context)
Chapter 21
...memories of courage he had expected to have from The Giver, he rides across the river and out of the community.
(full context)
