The Giver Chapter 22

Jonas moves ahead into an unfamiliar territory with untended roads. There are also more trees, forests, and streams. For the first time, they see a waterfall and wildlife. They even see a bird flying over them which Jonas vaguely remembers from the memories he received from The Giver. Soon, more birds appear as well as a deer and an animal he cannot identify. Jonas is happy looking around the new landscape, never having encountered these things before in the community with "a life of Sameness and predictability."

But there are new fears as well, one of them being the fear of starvation.

Topic Tracking: Feelings 21

It is difficult finding food in a wild area, and there is no longer any food left. After many failed attempts, Jonas makes a net out of pieces of Gabriel's blanket with which he succeeds in catching two fish in the stream. Suffering from hunger, Jonas tries to call back memories of feasts and party meals in his mind, but when the memories fade away, he is still left with the same feeling of hunger. He remembers the time when he was scolded for incorrectly using the word "starving." Now he knows that he is truly starving. "If he had stayed in the community, he would not be. It [is] as simple as that. Once he [yearned] for choice. Then, when he has had a choice, he [has] made the wrong one: the choice to leave. And now he [is] starving." Chapter 22, pg. 174 But Jonas quickly thinks that even if he had stayed, he would have suffered "a life hungry for feelings, for color, for love." Besides, Gabriel would have had no life at all, so there really hadn't been a choice.

Topic Tracking: Feelings 22
Topic Tracking: Choice 12

The journey on the bicycle becomes more difficult as a result of the lack of food and the rain that comes for two days. Hungry, cold, and weak, Gabriel cries, and Jonas weeps because he fears not being able to save Gabriel.