ENGLISH 4 - Project 1 : Study of “The Giver”

Chapters 1 and 2 (week July 23 – July 30):

1. What is the meaning of “distraught” and how is it different from “distracted”?
2. And apprehensive? Why was Jonas apprehensive?
3. What does a Nurturer do?
4. Jonas’ father mentions that “night crews (of nurturers) had not even been given
spouses” (Using past perfect) Why “given”? By who? Why not?
5. This is a community governed by strict rules. For example, each couple is “given”
one boy and one girl. What do you think “released” means? Who generally
receives this (apparently very severe) punishment?
6. What is the Ceremony of Twelve? What happens then? Why is it so significant
for the members of this community? Who defines the assignment?
Chapters 4, 5 and 6 (week July 30 – August 6):
1. Why is it that Jonas does not have the slightest idea of his assignment?
2. Where did Jonas go to serve with Asher?
3. Why tell a life before its release? What was the difference in the lives of Roberto
and Edna?
4. Was the Release a happy event for Roberto?
5. What was the strongest feeling in Jonas’s dream? His first stirring?
6. How and why does the community control stirrings?
7. What is the bicycle, given at Nine, a symbol of? (p41)
8. Why was little Gabriel given a year of reprieve? Why was labeled “Uncertain”?
9. What happened to those who were released? (Where is ‘Elsewhere’?)
10. How did the Community let little Caleb fade away and participated in the
Ceremony of Loss?
11. Why was the Ceremony of Eleven simply “a marking of time with no meaningful
changes”?
12. “If you don’t fit in, you can apply for Elsewhere and be released”? (p48)
13. “Even the matching of spouse is given weighty consideration.” Why? (p48)

Chapters 7, 8 and 9 (week August 6 – August 13):

1. Apart from “The Assignment”, what is most significant about the Ceremony of
Twelve (mentioned by the Elder)?
2. How did the community enforce language skills in Asher at three yrs old?
3. Poor Jonas! What happened to him during the Assignment Ceremony? Why was
he apprehensive?
 4. What Assignment is he given? What is so special about it? What is the selection
process like?
5. Why do you think the Elder mentions that courage to confront pain is an essential
characteristic of the Receiver?
6. What do you think the “Capacity to see Beyond” means? Why do the other
community members not see beyond?
7. What are the two feelings that fill his heart? Why pride? Why Fear?
8. What had happened to a previous Receiver?
9. Any comments on the Receiver of Memory’s Assignment sheet? Which
assignments surprise him / are unexpected?

Chapters 10, 11 and 12 (week August 13 – August 20):

1. Jonas goes on his first day to the Annex. What is strange with the receptionist and
with the door?
2. As he walks into the Receiver’s room, what does Jonas notice about the furniture
and the books?
3. How is the Receiver a Giver? What is it that he has to give to Jonas?
4. What metaphor does the giver use to describe he is “weighted” with memories’
Does Jonas understand? Why not?
5. Was the first memory transmitted a happy one? What was it?
6. What might “going to sameness” mean?
7. What is the first pain felt by Jonas?
8. How does Jonas know that he “seeing beyond”?
9. What happens to Jonas when he remembers the downhill slide in the snow? And
what is the first color he remembers?
10. Explain the statement: “We gained control over many things. But we had to let
go of others.”

Chapters 13, 14 and 15 (August 20 – August 27):

1. What is Jonas’s first reaction when he realizes he can only see the colors for very
short time periods? Why does he consider that to be unfair?
2. Why is it important for the community to protect people from making the “wrong”
choices?
3. Why did he feel irrationally angry at his groupmates for their acceptance of
“sameness”?
4. The Receiver CAN apply for a spouse. But what are some of the difficulties the
current Receiver mentions?
5. What is one of the most important roles of the Receiver?
 6. Jonas wants to share the pain of the Receiver. What is the first real pain he
experiences? Why does the Receiver NOT give him a pain relief, as is usually done?
7. What is the example the Receiver gives of how the memory of pain can be of use
to the Elders in their decision-making?
8. Why not share the burden of pain?
9. What is to happen with the two identical twins a birthmother is waiting to give
birth to?
10. How did Jonas calm the fretting of Gabriel? Why is this significant?
11. What is the extremely painful memory Jonas is given?

Chapters 16 to 20 (August 27 – Sept 3):

1. Why did Jonas not want to go back to the Annex? Why did he feel it was unfair?
2. Mention two happy memories that make the Receiver’s life more bearable.
3. Why are there no grandparents in the community? What was the feeling Jonas felt
in that family reunion (Xmas)?
4. Why do you think there is risk in the feeling of love? What words do Jonas’s parents
prefer to use instead of “love” when describing how they feel towards Jonas?
5. Why do you think Jonas decides to continue sharing some memories with Gabriel?
6. Why is it significant that Jonas decides to stop taking The Pill?
7. Why is Jonas’s ability to feel the depth of feelings important?
8. Why did Jonas feel such loss, after the “war game”, when Fiona and Asher say
goodbye?
9. Why do you think Rosemary, ten years ago, asked for Release?
10. Why was her Release such painful event for the community?
11. What is it that Jonas suddenly realizes when watching his father “release” the
“shrimp”?
12. How lonely do you think Jonas feels when he is told by the Receiver that “Only you
and I HAVE feelings”?
13. What happened to the Community when Rosemary was released?
14. Why does the Receiver believe Jonas should escape, leave the community? Why
must the Receiver stay?
15. What is their plan? Why would Jonas and the Giver’s absence not be noticed at
the Ceremony? Who is the Receiver’s daughter?
Chapters 21, 22 and 23 (sept 3 – Sept 10):

1. Why was Jonas forced to flee?

2. Comment the following statement by Jonas: “At dawn, the orderly, disciplined life
he had always known would continue again, without him. The life where nothing was
ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without color, pain or past.”
3. What are the four transgressions Jonas has committed?
4. During the escape, how did Jonas put Gabriel to sleep? How did he protect himself
and Gabriel from the search planes?
5. How does the landscape change as Jonas and Gabriel get further and further away?
Why is that significant?
6. As the fear of the search planes fades away, what are some of the new fears Jonas
has to confront?
7. Comment the following reflection of Jonas: “After a life of Sameness and
predictability, he was awed by the surprise that lay beyond each curve of the road.”
Would you agree that is a vital aspect to “living”? Why does this give Jonas such
happiness?
8. Why is Jonas having second thoughts (regrets) about life in the community?
9. As he holds on to the last, feeble, memories of warmth, he finds a sled and hugs
Gabriel as the sled speeds downhill. Where is Jonas going?
10. What are these “places where families created and kept memories, where they
celebrated love”? Where is the Elsewhere?