“‘Family” isn’t defined only by last names or blood. It’s defined by commitment and by love. It means showing up when they need it most. It means having each other’s backs. It means choosing to love each other even on those days when you struggle to like each other. It means never giving up on each other!” (Dave Willis). In the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry “family units” are assigned by the community elders. The adults apply for a spouse once they are married for three years and approved they may apply for children. The children who are born to “birth mothers” are given to their family and named at the December ceremonies. Because of the process of children being assigned to a family, the community has a result of none of the families are biologically related. Due to this a theme for The Giver is being biologically related is not the only contributing factor to being family. There are many examples of this theme throughout the text including when the family got Lily, when Jonas asks the Giver to be his grandparent and when Jonas in taking care of Gabriel on the journey to “Elsewhere”.
One example of this theme is when Jonas in remembering how the family got his sister Lily. Although the two of them are not related he in having thoughts that would be the same if his parents were having a child themselves. The narrator tells us, “Though Jonas had only become five the year they acquired Lily and learned her name, he remembered the excitement the conversations at home wondering