In The Giver, who created the rules?

The rules are created by committees of elders.

Tradition is very important in Jonas’s community.  There are a lot of rules, and most of them have been in place for a long time.  Rules are designed to keep the community running extremely smoothly.  They regulate behavior very carefully.

Breaking the rules is serious.  If a person breaks a major rule, such as the pilot who accidentally flew over the community, he or she is immediately...

The rules are created by committees of elders.

Tradition is very important in Jonas’s community.  There are a lot of rules, and most of them have been in place for a long time.  Rules are designed to keep the community running extremely smoothly.  They regulate behavior very carefully.

Breaking the rules is serious.  If a person breaks a major rule, such as the pilot who accidentally flew over the community, he or she is immediately released.  “Release” is a euphemism for “killed.”  However, a person can also be released for braking three rules.

The rules say that if there's a third transgression, he simply has to be released." Jonas shivered. He knew it happened. There was even a boy in his group of Elevens whose father had been released years before. No one ever mentioned it; the disgrace was unspeakable. (Ch. 1)

There are many rules in the community.  For example, rules govern the use of language, the telling of feelings and things like riding bicycles.  The rules dictate who can do what and when.  They also govern the ways families are created and when people are born and die.

The rules come from committees of the community’s leaders, known as elders.  It is very hard to get a rule changed.  Rules go to a committee to be studied. 

Rules were very hard to change. Sometimes, if it was a very important rule--unlike the one governing the age for bicycles—it would have to go, eventually, to The Receiver for a decision. The Receiver was the most important Elder. (Ch. 2)

The Receiver of Memory advises on the rules because he or she has access to the memories.  Since no one else in the community knows anything about the community’s past, the Receiver is expected to have more knowledge and wisdom and has the ability to determine if a rule should be changed.