The Giver — Chapter 8

About This Passage

Lowry opens the chapter with a sustained study of collective sound failing to organize itself. The applause is described in acoustic terms — piecemeal, not a crescendo, not united — so that the reader hears the community's confidence disintegrating before the Chief Elder names it. Jonas's interior response is the negative of the audience's: his earlier anticipation and kinship have been evacuated, leaving only humiliation and terror. The passage performs the chapter's central move: the community's failure of ritual and Jonas's failure of self-possession occur in the same moment, through the same silence.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 8 in six to eight sentences. Trace the arc from the Chief Elder's apology, through her announcement that Jonas has been selected (not assigned), through the listing of the Receiver's required qualities, to the community's chant of Jonas's name at the chapter's close.

Discussion Questions

1. The Chief Elder says, "We have not been hasty this time. We could not afford another failure." Later she says, "I will not dwell on the experience because it causes us all terrible discomfort." What does the community's refusal to name its past failure reveal about how it metabolizes its own history?
2. Find three specific qualities the Chief Elder attributes to Jonas — Intelligence, Integrity, and Courage are named explicitly — and identify the evidence she offers for each. Where does her evidence feel strongest, and where does it rely on the community's assumptions?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide