Asher

The clumsy boy

In the first chapter of the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, Asher is introduced as Jonas' best friend (Chapter 1, 27%). He belongs to Jonas' age group of Elevens and was born number four in his year. This means that he was born at the beginning of the year and is one of the oldest in his group (Chapter 4, 77%).

Asher is characterized as a clumsy boy. In addition, he often speaks too fast and does not have a good command of language and sometimes uses inappropriate or incorrect expressions. Jonas describes this as follows: "[...] Asher, who talked too fast and mixed things up, scrambling words and phrases until they were barely recognizable and often very funny." (Chapter 1, 27%).

In addition, Asher is often late for class and is apparently easily distracted . For example, one day, Asher was late for school "as usual" because he wanted to watch workers cutting up fish (Chapter 1, 27%). 

As Asher recites his apology for being late, the students are “grinning, because they had listened to Asher’s explanations so many times before" (Chapter 1, 27%).

Asher is not particularly tidy either: "But he [Jonas] finally found Asher’s bicycle—leaning, as usual, instead of upright in its port, as it should have been—at the House of the Old....