The Giver — Chapter 10

About This Passage

Lois Lowry gives the reader two different philosophies of furniture in the same paragraph. The community's furniture has the grammar of a rulebook: 'practical, sturdy, the function of each piece clearly defined.' The Receiver's room has the grammar of beauty: 'thicker and more luxurious,' 'slender and curved,' 'a small carved decoration.' The second grammar is not more useful — it is simply more alive. Copy the passage to feel how the sentence rhythm itself changes as the objects change.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 10 as if you were Jonas writing in a private journal that night. Move through the arrival at the Annex, the buzzer, the Attendant's rising, the first look at the Receiver's room, the old Receiver's opening words, the attempt to describe his work with 'snow' and 'sled,' the speaker being switched off, and the moment Jonas lies face down on the bed. Keep the narration in Jonas's voice.

Discussion Questions

1. Lois Lowry opens the chapter with Fiona saying, 'I don't know why I'm nervous. I've been here so often before.' Why does she place this small confession about familiarity-turned-strange at the start of a chapter in which Jonas will encounter something genuinely new?
2. When the old Receiver says, 'Beginning today, this moment, at least to me, you are The Receiver,' the qualifier 'at least to me' quietly acknowledges a gap between institutional naming and personal recognition. What does the old Receiver's need to add this clause suggest about how identity is constructed in the community versus how he believes it should be?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide