The Giver Chapter 16

Jonas blurted out what he was feeling.

But this time he fit right in and felt the happiness that pervaded the memory.

The family in the memory seemed a little more--" He faltered, not able to find the word he wanted.

"I wish we still had that," he whispered.

In one ecstatic memory he had ridden a gleaming brown horse across a field that smelled of damp grass, and had dismounted beside a small stream from which both he and the horse drank cold, clear water.

"Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it's become almost obsolete," his mother explained carefully.

"As long as they're still working and contributing to the community, they'll go and live with the other Childless Adults.

Precision of language, please!"

"And of course our community can't function smoothly if people don't use precise language.