Chapter 17

The Giver

Trailblazers · 4th–6th

Copywork

Now, through the memories, he had seen oceans and mountain lakes and streams that gurgled through woods; and now he saw the familiar wide river beside the path differently. He saw all of the light and color and history it contained and carried in its slow-moving water; and he knew that there was an Elsewhere from which it came, and an Elsewhere to which it was going.

Jonas trudged to the bench beside the Storehouse and sat down, overwhelmed with feelings of loss. His childhood, his friendships, his carefree sense of security—all of these things seemed to be slipping away. With his new, heightened feelings, he was overwhelmed by sadness at the way the others had laughed and shouted, playing at war.

On the bench, Jonas feels three things slipping away. Which one do you think hurts him most today?

For the educator Two passages, one from the holiday morning and one from the afternoon on the bench. The first is a whole paragraph of two long sentences. The first sentence opens with “Now,” and sets off “through the memories” between two commas, so we learn where the new sight comes from before we learn what he saw. Its list, “oceans and mountain lakes and streams,” uses “and” in place of commas, and the sentence turns at a semicolon followed by “and now,” repeating the word it began with. The second sentence does the same twice more: “light and color and history,” and the pair “contained and carried.” It has a joined describing word, “slow-moving,” and it ends on a matched pair, “an Elsewhere from which it came, and an Elsewhere to which it was going.” Elsewhere takes a capital letter here, as a place name does. The second passage is the first three sentences of the bench paragraph. The first holds the vocabulary word “trudged” and ends with a phrase after a comma, “overwhelmed with feelings of loss,” that tells how Jonas sits down. The second lists three things, each opening with “his,” then gathers them with a dash into “all of these things.” Have the student copy the dash as one long mark with no spaces. The third opens with a phrase set off by a comma, “With his new, heightened feelings,” which holds the vocabulary word “heightened”; it uses “overwhelmed” a second time and ends on a phrase after a comma, “playing at war.” The talk prompt asks which of the three hurts Jonas most today. One student may pick his friendships, since Asher and Fiona have just ridden away. Another may pick his childhood, since the game he played all his life is now a war to him. Another may pick his sense of security, since a field where he always felt safe now brings back a dying boy. Any choice can stand if the student points to the afternoon. Keep the talk on the three things; whether his new depth of feeling is more gift or loss belongs to the last written question.

Discussion

Narration Tell back the chapter in order. Start when the speaker on the wall calls a surprise holiday. Stop where Father tells Lily it is bedtime.

1. Jonas now decides that Lily never felt real anger. But he remembers his family talking until her fist relaxed. Did the talking make her anger small, or was it small to begin with?Character

2. The book says Jonas “found himself walking forward into the field.” What pulled him in?Inference

3. Jonas is the one who stopped the game. So why does Asher say “I apologize”?Character

4. Jonas shakes his head when Fiona asks him to ride along the river. At home, he thinks about teaching Lily to ride a bike. What makes the two rides different for Jonas?Character

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when a game stopped being fun for one person but not for the others. Should that person say so, or keep quiet?

Vocabulary

Crossword

1	2		3		4


				5
		6
						7

				8

Across

Across 1. Made stronger and sharper than before.
Across 6. Carefully, watching for trouble.
Across 8. Walked slowly and heavily, as if tired or sad.

Down

Down 2. Unfair treatment that hurts people who did not deserve it.
Down 3. Special skill or knowledge that comes from training in one area.
Down 4. Looked at closely, piece by piece, to explain it.
Down 5. Lasting only a very short time.
Down 7. Exactly alike in every way.

The words in the chapter

heightened And his new, heightened feelings permeated a greater realm than simply his sleep.
analyzed Somehow they were not at all the same as the feelings that every evening, in every dwelling, every citizen analyzed with endless talk.
injustice Now he had, in the memories, experienced injustice and cruelty
expertise "Expertise," Jonas corrected him automatically.

warily Asher looked warily at him.
fleeting For a fleeting instant he thought he would like nothing better than to ride peacefully along the river path
trudged Jonas trudged to the bench beside the Storehouse and sat down, overwhelmed with feelings of loss.
identical The twins are being born tomorrow, and the test results show that they're identical.

Critical thinking

1. Even on that hard afternoon, Jonas corrects Asher's wrong word without a thought. How much of the old Jonas is still there?

2. That morning, Jonas knows the river flows on to “an Elsewhere.” Does Elsewhere mean the same thing to him that night, when Father talks about the twins?

3. Jonas feels love for Asher and Fiona, but without the memories they cannot feel it back. Is his deeper feeling more a gift to him or more a loss?