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The Giver Chapter 5 Summary

  • At breakfast, Jonas and his family go through yet another ritual: telling their dreams.
  • Jonas usually doesn't remember his dreams, but this morning is a different story.
  • In Jonas's dream, he narrates to his family, he was in a bathtub—like the ones at the House of the Old. He was bare-chested.
  • And Fiona was there.
  • And he was trying to convince her to get in the tub with him.
  • Cue the steamy music.
  • Jonas talks about two feelings: wanting, and feeling that he shouldn't. (In other words...puberty!)
  • His family thanks him for sharing. While Jonas's Father takes Lily off to school, Mother asks Jonas to stay behind.
  • Jonas's Mother tells him that these feelings are called "Stirrings," that he has to report them every time they happen (awkward!), and that she has a pill that will make them all go away. (It's like, anti-Viagra.) Turns out, everyone takes these pills, every day, until they end up in the House of the Old.
  • (So we're thinking sex isn't happening in this community.)
  • And thus ends the weirdest birds and bees conversation ever.
  • As Jonas bikes off to school, he remembers that the "Stirrings" felt good. He wants to feel that way again.
  • Except he took a pill. So he forgets all about the dream.