Below are a few questions for your to think about as you read chapters 1-10 of Lois Lowry's The Giver. Please post your comments and your own questions to the blog.
1. When you were first reading about the society that Jonas lives in what were your initial feelings, thoughts, or reactions?
2. How is the community described in The Giver different from the community you live in; do you think there are more rules to abide by, or less?
3. How did you feel about the schooling structure described in the book; about the different ceremonies of passage that every child goes through each year?
4. What are you thoughts about the morning ritual of telling dreams, described in chapter 5? How would you feel if you had to share your dreams every morning with your parents?
5. What were your thoughts and feelings as Jonas was skipped during the Ceremony of 12 and then given his assignment at the end? Were you concerned about the assignment he was given?
6. On page 68 of The Giver the rules that Jonas must obey as part of his training to become the Receiver of Memory are listed. What are your thoughts about the rules he was given to follow?
7. How were you feeling when you realized that Jonas did not understand the concept of snow before he was to receive his first memory at the end of chapter 10?
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3. How did you feel about the schooling structure described in the book; about the different ceremonies of passage that every child goes through each year?
ReplyDeleteHi everyone! I'd like to start by discussing question 3. One of the most interesting things I've found about this book so far is community's schooling structure.
On page 11 of The Giver, Lois Lowry writes "The Ceremony for the Ones was always noisy and fun. Each December, all the newchildren born in the previous year turned One. One at a time - there were always fifty in each year's group, if none had been released - they had been brought to the state by the Nurturers who had cared for them since birth". This passage shows me that no matter when each child was actually born during the previous year, they were all considered to be One year old in December. In the schooling structure in this community, everyone is the same! I feel like this is very strange. The schooling structure is very different in this community from our real life schooling structure because everyone is considered to have the same birthday (everyone turns another year old in December, no matter when they were actually born). There are no differences, and people's individuality is not recognized.
What do you all think of this?
Thanks for your input!
~ Lola
This is a very astute observation, Lola! You are right, everyone in the community in The Giver is considered to be the same age, no matter when they were actually born. As you read further, be on the look out for the concept of "sameness". It is a very dominant theme in this book.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you are correct that the structure of the community (schooling, and otherwise) is very strange, and seemingly very different from life as we know it. This is why this book is considered to be in the Science Fiction genre. Check out the link below for the definition of "Science Fiction" from Wikipedia. Why do you think The Giver is considered to be Science Fiction?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Fiction
~Ms. Flamino
I loved reading The Giver. It was such a weird world, everyone seemed happy, but sort of flat. As I read it I sort of started to realize why that was. This was a really good book.
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