Chapter 14 · The Giver

Copywork

They have never known pain, he thought. The realization made him feel desperately lonely, and he rubbed his throbbing leg. He eventually slept. Again and again he dreamed of the anguish and the isolation on the forsaken hill.

Sometimes it had seemed humorous to him. Sometimes it had seemed meaningful and important. Now it was ominous. It meant, he knew, that nothing could be changed.

Jonas thinks, “They have never known pain.” Is he right?

For the educator Two passages: Jonas alone in his room on the evening after the hill, and a phrase that changes for him in the Annex. The first passage is a whole paragraph. Just before it, Jonas hears Mother, Father and Lily laughing as they give Gabriel his bath, so “They” is his family. The first sentence is a thought, and it has no quotation marks: “he thought,” after a comma, tells us whose thought it is. The second sentence joins two actions with a comma and “and.” The third, “He eventually slept.”, is only three words long. The fourth begins with “Again and again” and holds the vocabulary word “isolation”: “the anguish and the isolation” sets two nouns side by side, each with “the.” The second passage is the four sentences that follow Jonas's “Back and back and back.” Two sentences begin the same way, “Sometimes it had seemed,” and the third breaks the pattern with “Now.” It holds the vocabulary word “ominous.” In the last sentence “he knew” sits between two commas, a short break in the middle. The talk prompt asks whether Jonas's thought is true. One student may say yes: in everyday life every hurt is eased at once, with ointment, a pill or an injection, and nothing like the hill has ever reached them. Another may say not quite: later in the chapter Mother says the lack of sleep is “awfully hard” for her, and Father sighs before he speaks of the twins. A student may also ask what counts as pain. Either answer can stand if the student points to the page. Keep the talk on the family; whether Jonas's secret is right belongs to the last written question.

Discussion

Narration Tell back the chapter in order. Start where Jonas waits on his sled at the top of an icy hill. Stop where he decides not to tell The Giver.

Jonas is alone on the icy hill, and alone again behind his bedroom door. Which time is lonelier? Character
The Giver did not know the pilot was lost, but he told the Elders to wait. Was that wisdom, or a lucky guess? Theme
Father says choosing which twin to release is “usually not hard.” Do you believe him? Character
Right after the talk about the twins, Jonas asks to have Gabriel's crib in his room. What makes him think of it just then? Inference

Make a Connection Think of a story where one person carries something hard so that others don't have to. Do the others know what it costs?

Vocabulary

skittered: They skittered sideways and the sled gathered speed. Slid and skipped quickly and out of control across a slippery surface.
writhing: Then, suddenly, he was in the Annex room again, writhing on the bed. Twisting and turning the body because of great pain.
lingered: But this ache lingered. Stayed on longer than expected, slow to go away.
isolation: Again and again he dreamed of the anguish and the isolation on the forsaken hill. Being completely alone, cut off from anyone who could help.
ominous: Now it was ominous. Seeming to warn that something bad is coming.
identical: If they're identical, I hope you're not the one assigned Exactly alike in every way, like twins who look the same.
qualified: He was not yet qualified to be a Giver himself; nor had Gabriel been selected to be a Receiver. Having the training or right needed to do a certain job.
serene: Larissa's life Elsewhere would be quiet and serene as befit the Old Calm and peaceful, with nothing to disturb it.

Critical thinking

Jonas tells The Giver it would be easier if everyone took a part of the memories. Later, at Gabriel's crib, the memory of a sail slides from his hand into the baby. Is that the sharing he wanted?
Jonas could tell The Giver about the sail he gave Gabriel, but he decides not to. Is keeping that secret the right choice?