The Giver — Chapter 16

About This Passage

This is one of the most important short passages in the book. Lowry uses the word confessed — a word that belongs to the vocabulary of churches and secrets — to tell us that admitting to love now feels risky. Then she shows Jonas glancing nervously at the speaker on the wall, the device that listens in the Community, so we know the risk is real. Finally, Jonas does not speak his wish out loud; he whispers it. Lowry moves from said, to confessed, to whispered across just a few lines, so the reader can feel Jonas's voice shrinking as his courage is tested.

Narration Prompt

In your own words, retell Chapter 16 in order. Begin with how Jonas feels after the war memory, move through the Giver's favorite memory, describe the dinner conversation with Mother and Father, and end with Jonas in his room at night with Gabriel. Try to include both what happens and how Jonas is changing.

Discussion Questions

1. At the start of the chapter, Jonas says he did not want to go back to the Annex — he wanted his childhood again, his scraped knees and ball games. What in the story shows that Jonas now understands the full weight of being the Receiver, and how do you know the Giver has seen this exhaustion in other Receivers before?
2. When Jonas asks his parents 'Do you love me?' his father chuckles and corrects his language. What in the story makes you think the parents are not being cruel, but are also unable to hear what Jonas is really asking? How can you tell, because of the way Lowry writes them, that the Community has trained them out of the word as gently as it has trained them out of color?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide