Not enough birthmothers to keep the population steady?

[Lilac]

It's been a while since I read this book so I don't remember exactly but I remember being annoyed with this one little thing when I read it.

Each year there are a ton of kids born right? I think the number is about 50? And each year only one of those kids is given the job of being a birthmother, who gives birth to 3 babies. So my question is how are there enough birthmothers to give birth to 50 kids every year?

(sorry if I'm misunderstanding or missing something)

[Kristen]

It's been a while for me too, but I think there was more than just one birth mother every year. Actually, I'm not sure there was a set number for any of the careers. Jonas was the first one for the job they picked for him(forget the name), in several years. And not every career would require new people every year. They only had to keep it steady, and they had a span of about 50 or so years for every person. So like, they probably didn't need a doctor every year or a scientist or whatever the jobs were, but birth mothers were kind of a must within the span of 3 years to keep the population at 50 every year.

[Dee]

I figure they do like predictive analysis on jobs that they need in society - looking out potentially a decade or so...but who knows

[bubblegumpopper]

It has been years since I've read this book, so I had to look it up, but each birthmother gives birth three times before she's moved to a labourer position. Therefore there's a 3 to 1 return ratio. In other words, to maintain a steady population growth of 50 kids per year, they'd need to assign 17 birthmothers each year. And since the birthmothers become labourers after they're done birthing their three children, they play a dual role, so it's not like they'd need as many people immediately assigned the labourer role. It seems feasible to me.

[Ann Marie]

I calculated this after a discussion in a Children's Literature class this year, and also came up with 17 birthmothers per year. Considering that there are 50 children for every year--25 girls and 25 boys--and that "birthmother" is only a female job, I find it rather scary that such a high proportion of girls (17/25) would be assigned the role of birthmother, which Lowry hints through Jonas' father is considered a lower-class occupation. I think that this discussion raises another topic: class and gender discrimination that exists in this society that, on the surface, appears to promote a certain level of equality among its citizens, and is emphasized by the fact that the author herself focuses on a male, "upper-class" character, while barely mentioning the birthmothers and laborers.

[Kirby]

This topic made me realize that I don't remember who the birth-fathers were or how they were chosen...anyone else remember?

[Erika]

I think there's more than one kid made birthmother every year.

[bubblegumpopper]

Ann Marie wrote: "I calculated this after a discussion in a Children's Literature class this year, and also came up with 17 birthmothers per year. Considering that there are 50 children for every year--25 girls and..."

You make a good point, but it's hard to determine the extent of the gender equality without more knowledge of the jobs assigned and the specific needs of the community. There aren't going to be a high number of "upper-class" positions available; Society is always going to need a smaller proportion of doctors, lawyers/judges, engineers, etc than they will people performing more manual labour. Even if 17 of each gender are assigned to "lower-class" positions like laborer and birthmother, that still leaves 30% of the children (16, 8 boys and 8 girls) getting "upper-class" assignments.

This would definitely be an interesting classroom discussion topic for the book. I'll have to share it with my teacher friends.

[Keturah]

Kirby wrote: "This topic made me realize that I don't remember who the birth-fathers were or how they were chosen...anyone else remember?"

There was not any birth fathers chosen. In the giver the people in the community did not know how children were made. They knew that the birth mothers produced the children but they didn't know how. In the sequel "Son" it explains it a little more but I don't think there was any males involved.

[Sophia]

This is pretty late, but I was rereading the Giver recently, and noticed a quote where it says, "Now there were three assignments gone, none of them ones Jonas would've liked --- not that he could've been a birthmother," in chapter seven, page 67. It implies that there is one birthmother chosen, but it could be different.

[E]

I think I found the answer guys after 12 years.