In the first sentence of The Giver, Lowry creates suspense and foreshadows the outcome of the novel. The setting is an unknown future year in "almost December." Lowry uses the word December to symbolize short, dark days, cold weather, and end-ings — a time when nature seems dead. She also alludes to future, fearful situations because Jonas' fear — apprehension — has just begun. Lowry uses the third person, limited omniscient view-point — that is, she tells us what Jonas thinks and feels but not what the other characters' thoughts and feelings are. This viewpoint is limited omniscient because the thoughts and feelings of only one character, the protagonist, are revealed.
Although Lowry doesn't provide geographical details of Jonas' community, she does disclose certain characteristics of the community through Jonas' point of view. As Jonas remembers an incident a year earlier when a pilot mistakenly flew over the community, it becomes evident that the people in the community unhesitatingly obey instructions that the Speaker blasts over loudspeakers placed throughout the community. At the conclusion of the plane incident, the Speaker uses an amused tone to announce that the pilot is going to be "released" from the community. Through Jonas, we know that a release is a "terrible punishment, an overwhelming statement of failure." The irony of the Speaker's amused tone and the pilot's serious punishment creates a sense of foreboding — a threatening feeling that something bad is going to happen — because Lowry does not explain what "release" means.
