THE GIVER by Lois Lowry

Answer the following questions:

Chapters 3-5

1. What was distinctive about Jonas and the newchild?

2. Explain the role of Birthmother. What did Lily's parents mention about it?
3. What occurred with the apple while Jonas was playing?
4. Summarize the Celebration of Roberto's Release.
5. Did Larissa know where Roberto or any others went after being released?
6. What was the content of Jonas's dream? How did his parents respond?

Chapters 6-7

1. Describe the jackets worn by the Fours, Fives, and Sixes, and explain their design
purpose. Also, describe the jacket worn by the Sevens and its significance.
2. Outline the Ceremony. What happened during the Naming and at the other age levels?
3. What Assignment was given to Asher?
4. What occurred when Jonas’s number was supposed to be called? What were Jonas’s
thoughts?

Chapters 8-10
1. What was Jonas's Assignment, and why was it significant and unusual?
2. What four traits did the Chief Elder say the Receiver of Memory should possess?
3. What happened when Jonas looked out at the audience?
4. Did Jonas agree with the committee’s decision to select him as the new Receiver?
5. What happened the last time a new Receiver was appointed?
6. Which rules was Jonas not required to follow?
7. What actions was Jonas forbidden from taking?
8. What was he permitted to do that he hadn’t been allowed to before?
9. What was the most notable difference in the Receiver of Memory’s living quarters?
10. What memories did the Receiver of Memory say he needed to pass on to Jonas?
11. What was the first memory the Receiver said he would share with Jonas?
Chapters 11-13
1. How did Jonas feel during the memory-receiving experience?
2. What words or ideas did Jonas encounter?
3. What happened to the old man's memory of the sled ride after he shared it with Jonas?
4. What questions did Jonas ask about snow, sleds, and hills, and how did the old man
respond? What was Jonas's reaction?
5. Jonas believed the Receiver of Memory had power. What did the old man explain to him?
6. What did the old man ask Jonas to call him, and why?
7. How did Jonas experience "seeing beyond"?
8. What was occurring when Jonas "saw beyond," and why was it significant?
9. Could others in the Community perceive colors? If not, why?
10. Summarize the discussion between Jonas and The Giver regarding choices.
11. What reasons did The Giver give for the necessity of a Receiver of Memory?

Chapters 14-16
1. What memory did The Giver share to explain his suffering when Jonas asked?
2. What realization did Jonas come to about his family after his session with The Giver?
3. Why did Jonas inquire about holding the memories, and what was The Giver’s response?
What example did he provide?
4. What did Jonas want to change regarding the memories and traditional practices?
5. How did Jonas assist Gabriel in falling asleep?
6. What pain did The Giver ask Jonas to experience in Chapter 15?
7. How did Jonas feel about being the Receiver at the start of Chapter 16?
8. Describe The Giver's favorite memory he shared with Jonas and how Jonas felt about it.
9. What question did Jonas ask his parents after his session with The Giver, and what was
their response? How did he react?
10. What did Jonas do differently the following morning?
Chapters 17-19
1. How did Jonas's feelings evolve, and what triggered this change?
2. What was Father’s role when twins were born?
3. How did Jonas feel about becoming the new Receiver?
4. What was the name of the Receiver-to-be chosen ten years prior to Jonas?
5. What happened to the previous Receiver-to-be before Jonas?
6. What impact did the incident with the Receiver-to-be have on the Community?
7. What did Jonas and The Giver believe would happen to the Community if Jonas were to
be lost?
8. Describe the newchild's release.
9. What realization did Jonas have while watching the tape of the release?

Chapters 20-23
1. How did Jonas feel after witnessing the release?
2. What did The Giver tell Jonas about the memories he had come to understand?
3. What were The Giver's thoughts on making changes?
4. What special memory did The Giver offer to Jonas, and how did Jonas respond?
5. When Jonas asked The Giver to escape with him, what was The Giver's reply?
6. What did Jonas decide to do instead of the original escape plan, and why?
7. Describe the escape.
8. How did the landscape change during their journey?
9. What was Jonas's greatest fear during this part of the journey?
10. How does the story conclude?
ANSWERS

Chapters 3-5

1. They both had pale eyes. Most of the Community members had dark eyes.

2. The Birthmothers had three children. They were not allowed to see the
children. After the third child, the Birthmothers were given jobs as Laborers
for the rest of their lives. The Assignment did not have much honor.

3. The apple changed for an instant. Jonas was not sure what the change was,
but he knew it had changed.

4. First, he told about his life. Then the attendants toasted, cheered, and
chanted the anthem. Then Roberto made a good-bye speech. After that, he
bowed and walked through a special door in the Releasing Room.

5. No, she did not.

6. He had a dream that he wanted Fiona to take off her clothes and get in a
bathtub. His parents said it was the Stirrings. His mother gave him a pill that
would stop them. She told him he would have to take one every day until he
entered the House of the Old.

Chapters 6-7

1. The jacket the Fours, Fives, and Sixes wore buttoned down the back so the
children would have to help each other dress and learn interdependence. The
jacket the Sevens wore had buttons in the front, which symbolized
independence and growing up.

2. During the Naming, the Nurturers brought the newchildren to the stage. They
received their names and parents. The Eights received new jackets with
smaller buttons and pockets. The pockets symbolized maturity and the ability
of the wearer to keep track of small possessions. The Nines got their bicycles.
The Tens had their long hair cut off. The female Elevens got new
undergarments. The male Elevens got longer trousers with a special pocket
for their school calculator.

3. He was named Assistant Director of Recreation.

4. The Chief Elder skipped Jonas's number. He thought he had done something
wrong.
Chapters 8-10

1. Jonas was selected to become the new Receiver of Memory for the
Community. It was unusual because the Community only had one Receiver,
and he chose his successor. Receiver was the most important job in the
Community.

2. They were intelligence, integrity, courage, and wisdom.

3. They changed, the way the apple had changed.

4. He agreed with it.

5. The girl was not successful. No one really knew exactly what had happened.

6. He was exempted from rules governing rudeness. He could ask anyone any
question and he would receive an answer.

7. He was not allowed to tell his dreams.

8. He was allowed to lie.

9. It was the books. Ordinary people did not have any.

10. It was the memories of the whole world.

11. He said it was the memory of snow.

Chapters 11-13

1. One part of his consciousness knew he was lying on the bed in the Annex
room, but another part could experience the sensation of snow and the sled.
He could see, even though his eyes were closed.

2. He experienced snow, sled, hill, runners, and frigid air.

3. He did not remember it anymore. He had given the memory completely to

Jonas.
 4. Jonas asked why they did not have the things. The old man said that they had
disappeared when the communities got Climate Control. Jonas said he
wished they still had snow and the other things.

5. The old man said he had honor, but not power, and they were not the same.

6. The old man told Jonas to call him The Giver. Jonas was the new Receiver.

7. It was a short, indescribable change. First it happened with the apple. Next, it
happened with the audience at the Auditorium. Then it happened with Fiona.
Her hair changed in a way he could not describe.

8. He was seeing the color red. It was the beginning of his ability to see colors.

9. No, they could not. They gave up that ability when they went to Sameness.

10. Jonas wanted to have colors all the time. He wanted to be able to make
decisions, to choose what color to wear. He thought being able to see colors
might help Gabriel develop. The Giver said that if people were able to make their
own choices, they might choose wrongly. Jonas agreed that it was not safe for
people to make choices.

11. They sometimes needed the Receiver to use his memories to help them
make decisions. Most of the time, they needed the Receiver to keep all of the old
memories so they would not have to have them.

Chapters 14-16

1. The Giver transmitted a memory of a sledding accident. Jonas fell off the sled
and broke his leg.

2. He realized his family members had never known pain.

3. He said the memories gave them wisdom. He explained the request from the
Committee of Elders when they wanted to increase the birth rate. The Giver
remembered hunger and famine and warfare and told them not to increase
the birthrate.
 4. He wanted to change the traditional way of doing things and give everyone
the memories.

5. Jonas gave Gabriel a memory of sailing on a lake.

6. The Giver transmitted the pain of being injured in a battle during a war.

7. He didn't want to be the Receiver. He wanted his childhood and his friends.

8. There was a tree with lights on it inside a house. Children were unwrapping
packages. Jonas perceived family. The Giver explained what Grandparents
were. He also gave Jonas the word “love.” Jonas liked the memory. He
wished his life could be that way although he thought it might be a little bit
dangerous.

9. He asked if they loved him. They told him to use more precise language. They
said he had used an old, meaningless word. They asked if he understood why
it was inappropriate. He lied for the first time and said he did.

10. He did not take his pill.

Chapters 17-19

1. He had not taken the pills for the Stirrings for four weeks, and he knew this
accounted for some of his feelings. Also, he had the memories from The
Giver. He knew much more about Elsewhere than anyone else in the
Community.

2. He weighed the two, gave the larger to a Nurturer, and cleaned up the
smaller one. Then he performed a Ceremony of Release.

3. He was not looking forward to it. He was beginning to understand that he

would probably have a difficult and lonely life.

4. It was Rosemary.

5. After five weeks, The Giver transferred loneliness and loss to her. He
continued to give her both pleasant and unpleasant memories although he did
not give her physical pain. After a while, she went to the Chief Elder and
 asked to be released. The Elder granted her request.

6. Her memories were released back into the Community. It was very difficult for
the members, because they had never experienced the feelings before.

7. The Giver said they would have all of the memories Jonas had received over
the year. Jonas said they would not like it. The Giver said he could probably
help any of the Community members the way he was helping Jonas. He said
he would have to think about it some more.

8. Father weighed both of the newchildren. He gave the heavier one to the
Nurturer. He filled a syringe with a clear liquid, then injected the smaller
newchild with it.
He was talking cheerfully to the newchild during the procedure. The newchild
moved around for a few minutes, then stopped. Then his father put the body
in a carton and put the carton in a chute in the wall.

9. From his memories of the war, Jonas recognized that the newchild was dead.
He realized his father had killed it.

Chapters 20-23

1. He cried and became sarcastic.

2. He said he realized that memories needed to be shared. His job was lonely
because he had to keep all of the memories to himself. He said he was
thinking of a plan to change things.

3. The Giver said if Jonas escaped and went Elsewhere, the Community would
have to take the memories. He knew it would be hard, but he thought it was
possible. He would stay with them to help them, but Jonas could never return.

4. The Giver offered him music. Jonas said he wanted The Giver to keep it for
himself, to have when Jonas was gone.

5. He said his job was to help the Community become whole. Then he wanted
to be with his daughter, Rosemary.

6. Jonas learned that Gabe was to be released. He escaped that night with
Gabe.
7. Jonas took Gabe on his bicycle. They rode all night, then rested during the
day. Jonas transmitted calming memories to put Gabe to sleep. They traveled
that way for several days. Jonas hid them when the search planes flew
overhead. He transmitted memories of cold and snow so the heat-seeking
devices could not find them. Finally, the planes stopped searching.

8. There were more trees and streams. The forests were thick and dark. They
saw their first birds.

9. He was afraid they would starve.

10. It began snowing and the ground became hilly. Jonas was forced to leave the
bicycle and walk up the hill. When he reached the top, he was flooded with
memories of joy. He found a sled at the top of the hill and used it to sled down
the hill. On the way down he heard music and people singing.