The Giver — Chapter 11

About This Passage

Lois Lowry writes Jonas's first memory as a doubling of reality: his hands are motionless at his sides, and at the same time they hold a rope. His eyes are closed, and he sees. She keeps both halves of this split on the page — no explanation, no commentary — because the whole point of a memory, for Jonas, is that it is a second reality he is now capable of inhabiting.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 11 in your own words. Begin with Jonas lying face down in the Annex and first feeling cold air on his tongue, then the sled ride down the hill, then the Giver's explanation of Climate Control and Sameness, then the memory of sunshine, then the painful memory of sunburn, and end with the Giver's quiet request: 'Call me The Giver.'

Discussion Questions

1. When the first memory begins, Lois Lowry describes the cold through Jonas's tongue, his breath, the backs of his hands, and his closed eyes that can still somehow see. What does the careful order and precision of these sensations reveal about how Lowry wants us to understand what 'memory' is in this novel?
2. The Giver tells Jonas the sled ride 'lightened me just a little,' but by the end of the chapter he looks 'drained, and a little sad.' What kind of relationship does the text suggest exists between what the Giver loses when he transmits a memory and what Jonas gains when he receives it?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide