The ground was wet, and the air also had a damp quality, as though someone had watered the grass with a hose. But there was no one else here, and the wetness seemed to be high above him too. He looked around and saw something he perceived as rain, but at the same time he recognized sunshine.

He looked up at the sky, and he could see the thing that the Giver had called a rainbow.

Jonas perceived the word stripes – or perhaps he had heard that word before, but it was so uncommon that he barely remembered. There were no patterns or decorations in the community.

Even as these thoughts ran through his head, Jonas' eyes never left the arc in the sky. He had had no idea that so many colors – all of them different, yet connected and similar – existed.

He remembered the name red, and recognized this color in the first stripe of the rainbow. The others came to him through the Giver's consciousness: orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. These were basic colors, capable of variation. It was hard to tell where one stripe ended and another began. They seemed to blend into each other, like … Jonas couldn't think of anything to compare it with.

He was happy, and grateful, that the Giver had cleverly selected this memory to teach him about color. Now he would always be able to recall and relive this memory; and though he enjoyed being here now, he was already looking forward to returning to the annex and discussing the rainbow with the Giver.

The Giver was the only person with whom he could speak freely, and who could explain both the world around them and the world that had once been. At least, he could try; but the Giver had just as much trouble describing color as Jonas did. It was something that had to be seen and experienced, rather than heard of and described.

Ironically, there was a word which meant "too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words." Ineffable. That was it. Another definition was, "not to be uttered."

Jonas came to understand that his work as the Receiver was ineffable, by both definitions. He couldn't describe it to his friends, because he wasn't allowed, and because the things he learned about were beyond their comprehension and his capacity for words.

His first glimpses of color were the first times words had ever failed to satisfy him. And seeing the rainbow now, Jonas wondered what else he did not know, what else could be different from the world he lived in.