The Giver
Chapter 22 — Teaching Companion
Lois Lowry · Trailblazers 4th–6th
Coaching, not a script — and not an answer key: every question here has more than one defensible answer.
This chapter's big question
Jonas first calls leaving “the wrong one,” then decides “there had not really been a choice.” Is he right that he had no choice?
The tension Long ago Jonas was corrected for saying “starving”: “You have never been starving, he had been told. You will never be starving.” Now, on the road, “Now he was.”
Today's focus
Notice each new thing the road shows Jonas, and how hunger changes the way he thinks about leaving.
Two core ideas
- The world beyond the community surprises Jonas at every curve: a bird he knows only from memory, a creature he cannot name, wildflowers, hills and real rain. It brings him both exquisite happiness and new fears.
- Starving for the first time, Jonas first calls leaving the wrong choice, then reasons that staying would have meant a life hungry for feelings, color and love, and no life at all for Gabriel.
The shape at a glance
The road beyond the community grows narrow and bumpy, no longer tended by road crews. One night the bike hits a rock. Jonas twists his ankle and scrapes his knees, but Gabe, strapped in, is only frightened. Jonas begins to ride by day; he has forgotten his fear of the searchers, but the strange land holds new fears. They see streams, a waterfall and their first wildlife. Gabe shouts “Plane! Plane!” and Jonas swerves into the trees, but it is a bird, which he knows from The Giver's memories. They see deer, and a small reddish-brown creature whose name Jonas does not know. After a life of Sameness, Jonas is awed, and happier than he has ever been. But the food runs out. He cannot catch fish by hand, so he loops the strands of Gabe's blanket around a stick to make a net, and they eat two fish raw. At night, starving, he calls up memories of feasts and is left emptier. He remembers being scolded, when he was small, for saying “starving.” Now he is. He decides that leaving was the wrong choice, then thinks again: at home he would have starved for feelings, color and love, and Gabe would have had no life at all, so there had not really been a choice. Weak with hunger, he reaches the hills he has long wanted to see. Then it rains for two days, not like the rains he liked in the memories. Gabe cries for the first time, and Jonas cries too, afraid he cannot save Gabe.
A way in
Before reading, ask the student about something they had only seen in pictures before they met it for real. Read aloud from the opening to “It was a bird.” and stop: ask why Jonas turned into the trees so fast. Read on to “You will never be starving.” and stop again: ask why that old scolding comes back to Jonas now. Then read to the end without stopping. Do not say whether Jonas and Gabe survive or reach anywhere: the chapter ends in cold, hunger and tears.
Lesson plan
Retell The student tells the chapter back in four parts. First the road: it narrows, the bike falls, Jonas is hurt and Gabe is only frightened. Then the new world: the waterfall, the bird Gabe calls a plane, the deer, the creature with no name, the wildflowers. Then the hunger: the food running out, the fish caught in the blanket net, the feasts remembered at night, the word “starving,” and Jonas's two answers about leaving, in the order he reaches them. Last, the hills, the rain and the tears. Ask for three or four sentences for each part.
Imitate the author After copying, the student writes four sentences built like the first passage, about a walk somewhere new: a short sentence that says it was all new; a sentence that opens with “After” and a comma; a sentence that lists three things done, each beginning with “to,” the last with “or merely to”; and a sentence that opens with “During” and a comma and ends on a strong feeling. Then three sentences built like the second passage, about a time someone got what they wanted and then doubted it: a short sentence that begins with “Once”; a sentence that begins with “Then,” sets off a “when” part with commas, and ends with a colon and the choice that was made; and a short sentence that begins with “And now.”
Debate Take sides on the last written question. First make two lists together. Reasons Jonas had no real choice: at home he would have lived a life “hungry for feelings, for color, for love”; for Gabriel there would have been “no life at all”; he could not have stayed and still been himself. Reasons he did choose: he could have stayed and been fed; he calls leaving the choice he “made”; he “yearned for choice” and got one; that night he weighs both sides before he decides. One side argues each, with a reason and a line from the chapter, then they switch.
Purpose Close with one word the writer uses twice: “yearned.” Jonas “had yearned for choice,” and the hills are “something he had for a long time yearned to see.” Both come to him in this chapter, and both come when they hurt: the choice has left him starving, and the hills arrive when he can barely push the pedal. Ask why the writer might give Jonas what he longed for at the very moment it is hardest to enjoy.
Easier Read aloud together from “Soon there were many birds along the way” to “simple moments of exquisite happiness.” Talk through the first discussion question (whether “curious and unafraid” fit Jonas too), then the copywork's talk prompt (would Jonas have called leaving “the wrong one” while he watched the wildflowers). Then read from “At night, while Gabriel slept beside him” to “So there had not really been a choice.” and answer the last written question aloud, starting from what Jonas would have had at home and what he would have gone without.
On level Talk through the four discussion questions in order, then have the student write answers to both written questions in complete sentences, with a reason and a line from the chapter for each side they weigh.
Harder Ask the student to write the last written question as an argument: a claim, the strongest reason against it, and an answer to that reason. Then go back to the promise in the first written question: “You will never be starving.” Ask whether the community kept that promise, and whether that changes the answer. The answer must not say whether Jonas and Gabriel survive or reach anywhere.
Discussion
- A small reddish-brown creature looks at Jonas and Gabe, “curious and unafraid.” Do those words fit Jonas too?Character
What it asks It asks the student to hold Jonas up against the creature. Just before, Gabe's “Plane! Plane!” sends Jonas swerving into the trees, “Terrified,” until he sees it is a bird. Soon after, beside the road, the creature watches them, “curious and unafraid.” Jonas slows the bike, and “they stared at one another until the creature turned away.” The chapter says the land holds “hidden, unknown perils,” and also that Jonas is “awed by the surprises.” The student decides whether each word fits Jonas too: both, one, or neither. It takes up one part of the last written question: what the world beyond the community gives Jonas, and what it asks of him. Do not say the search is over; Jonas has only “forgotten the fear of the searchers.”
One reading
Both fit. He slows the bike to look, and he does not look away until the creature does. He stays and stares at something no one ever named for him.
He slowed the bike and they stared at one another until the creature turned away and disappeared into the woods.
whose name Jonas did not know
Another reading
Only “curious” fits. Moments before, a bird in the sky made him dive for the trees. Out here everything is new, and anything new might be dangerous.
Terrified, he looked up, but it was not a plane at all.
the unfamiliar landscape held hidden, unknown perils.
Listen for
- Uses the moment with the bird just before the creature.
- Notices that the creature, not Jonas, is the one called unafraid.
- Notices that Jonas slows down rather than riding away.
- Does not say the search is over; Jonas has only “forgotten the fear of the searchers.”
If stuck
- What does Jonas do when Gabe shouts “Plane! Plane!”?
- What does Jonas do when he sees the creature?
- Can someone be curious and afraid at the same time?
A strong answer A strong response might say both words fit: Jonas slows the bike and he and the creature stare “at one another” until it turns away, though he does not even know its name. Another might say only “curious” fits: a bird has just sent him into the trees, “Terrified,” and the land around him holds “hidden, unknown perils.” A careful answer may notice that the writer gives these two words to the animal, which belongs here, and not to Jonas, for whom all of it is new.
- At night Jonas tries to remember feasts. Afterward he is left with a “gnawing, painful emptiness.” Why would a starving boy do that to himself?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to stay with Jonas at night. He is “tortured by hunger,” remembering home, where meals came to every dwelling every day. He uses “the flagging power of his memory” to bring back “banquets with huge roasted meats,” “birthday parties with thick-frosted cakes,” and fruit eaten warm from the trees. He manages only “brief, tantalizing fragments,” and afterward comes “the gnawing, painful emptiness.” The student decides what Jonas is reaching for. It takes up one part of the last written question: what hunger does to his thinking about leaving. Do not say the memories have reached the community; the chapter says only that his memory is “flagging.”
One reading
For comfort. For a moment the feast is almost real, and a moment of fullness is better than none, even if the emptiness comes back after.
He tried to use the flagging power of his memory to recreate meals
and lush fruits picked and eaten, sunwarmed and dripping, from trees.
Another reading
He cannot help it. Hunger pulls his mind to food, the same way it pulls his mind back home. The memories are a torment he cannot stop.
Jonas lay awake, tortured by hunger, and remembered his life in the community where meals were delivered to each dwelling every day.
But when the memory glimpses subsided, he was left with the gnawing, painful emptiness.
Listen for
- Uses the word “tried”: Jonas sets out to call up the memories.
- Names one of the remembered feasts.
- Notices that he also remembers the meals delivered at home.
- Does not say the memories have reached the community; his memory is “flagging.”
If stuck
- What does Jonas remember at night?
- How does he feel when the memories stop?
- Have you ever thought about something you wanted, even when thinking about it made it worse?
A strong answer A strong response might say the memories are a comfort he chooses: he “tried” to use his memory to “recreate meals,” and for a moment he has roasted meats and fruit “sunwarmed and dripping.” Another might say he cannot help it: “tortured by hunger,” his mind runs to food, and to home, where meals were delivered “every day.” A careful answer may notice that he remembers two kinds of eating, the grand feasts from the memories and the meals delivered at home, and may ask which of the two pulls at him harder.
- Jonas had liked the rains in the memories, but this one is “different.” Is it the rain that is different, or Jonas?Character
What it asks It asks the student to decide where the difference lies. “Jonas had never seen rain, though he had experienced it often in the memories.” He “had liked those rains, enjoyed the new feeling of it, but this was different.” This rain lasts two days. He and Gabriel are “cold and wet,” and it is “hard to get dry, even when sunshine occasionally followed.” Jonas has changed too: they are “always hungry” now, and he is weak from lack of food. The student weighs the rain itself against the change in Jonas. It takes up one part of the last written question: the gap between the world in the memories and the world itself. Do not read the rain only as hardship; the chapter sets it against rains he enjoyed.
One reading
The rain. A memory gives the feel of rain for a little while. This rain goes on for two days, and nothing dries. No memory held that.
It rained for two days.
He and Gabriel became cold and wet, and it was hard to get dry, even when sunshine occasionally followed.
Another reading
Jonas. When he felt rain in the memories, he was not starving. Now he is weak and always hungry, so the same rain feels like something else.
and now they were always hungry.
It became a struggle to ride the bicycle as Jonas weakened from lack of food
Listen for
- Uses the words “this was different.”
- Names something about this rain that the remembered rains did not have.
- Names something that has changed in Jonas: his hunger, his weakness, or his hurt ankle.
- Does not read the rain only as hardship; he “had liked those rains.”
If stuck
- How long does it rain? What happens to Jonas and Gabe?
- How did Jonas feel about rain in the memories?
- Can the same thing feel different depending on what else is happening to you?
A strong answer A strong response might say the rain itself is different: the memories gave Jonas “the new feeling of it,” but not two days of being “cold and wet” with no way to get dry. Another might say Jonas is what changed: in the memories he was not starving, and now they are “always hungry” and he is weakening “from lack of food.” A careful answer may notice that the hills come in the same stretch of the road, something he had “for a long time yearned to see,” so the real world brings him what he longed for and what he never pictured, side by side.
- Gabe is safe only if Jonas stays strong. At the end, Jonas “no longer cared about himself.” What could that mean for Gabe?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to set the last line of the chapter beside an earlier one. On the road, Jonas is “newly aware that Gabriel's safety depended entirely upon his own continued strength.” At the end, Gabriel cries for the first time, “hungry and cold and terribly weak.” Jonas cries too, “for the same reasons, and another reason as well”: he is afraid he cannot save Gabriel, and “He no longer cared about himself.” The chapter ends there. The student decides what that last line means for Gabe, who depends on him. It takes up one part of the last written question: Gabriel, for whom staying would have meant “no life at all.” Do not say whether Jonas and Gabriel survive, and do not say Jonas regrets taking Gabriel; he ends caring only about him.
One reading
Good news, in a way. All of Jonas is turned toward Gabe now. He weeps for Gabe, not for himself, the same boy he reached for first when the bike fell.
He wept because he was afraid now that he could not save Gabriel.
He grabbed instinctively for Gabriel
Another reading
Bad news. Gabe needs Jonas strong. A boy who no longer cares about himself may stop guarding the very strength that keeps Gabe safe.
He was newly aware that Gabriel's safety depended entirely upon his own continued strength.
He no longer cared about himself.
Listen for
- Uses the line about Gabriel's safety and Jonas's “own continued strength.”
- Names the “another reason” Jonas cries.
- Notices that this is the first time Gabe cries on the journey.
- Does not say whether they survive, and does not say Jonas regrets taking Gabe.
If stuck
- What does Gabe's safety depend on?
- Why does Jonas cry at the end?
- If Jonas stops caring about himself, what happens to his strength?
A strong answer A strong response might say it is good news for Gabe: Jonas's fear now is all for him, the same boy he grabbed “instinctively” when the bike fell. Another might say it is bad news: Gabriel's safety depends “entirely” on Jonas's “own continued strength,” and a boy who no longer cares about himself may let that strength go. A careful answer may notice that Gabe, who “had not cried during the long frightening journey,” cries now, and that the chapter stops there, in the rain, without saying what Jonas does next.
Critical thinking
- When Jonas was small, he was told, “You will never be starving.” Now he is. He also thinks that at home he “would have starved in other ways.” How alike are those two kinds of starving?
What it asks It asks the student to write about the word at the center of the chapter. When Jonas was small, he “had been chastised for misusing a word.” The word was “starving,” and he was told, “You have never been starving,” and “You will never be starving.” Now, on the road: “Now he was.” A few lines later he uses the word again, for something else. If he had stayed, “he would have starved in other ways,” and “lived a life hungry for feelings, for color, for love.” The student compares the two kinds of starving and decides how much they share. It takes up one part of the last written question: what staying would have cost him. Do not treat the hunger as only the body's; the chapter names a second kind.
One reading
Very alike. Now Jonas knows what starving is: an emptiness that does not let up. A life without feelings, color and love would be empty in the same steady way, in the heart instead of the stomach.
He would have lived a life hungry for feelings, for color, for love.
The most relentless of his new fears was that they would starve.
Another reading
Not much alike. Real starving is a body giving out, an effort “almost beyond him.” At home Jonas would have been fed. He knows the difference better than anyone now.
His sprained ankle throbbed as he forced the pedal downward in an effort that was almost beyond him.
Now he was.
Listen for
- Takes a position on how alike they are and gives a reason from the chapter.
- Uses what starving feels like in Jonas's body.
- Uses “hungry for feelings, for color, for love.”
- Writes in complete sentences.
If stuck
- Why was Jonas scolded when he was small?
- What does hunger feel like for Jonas now?
- Can a person be hungry for something that is not food?
A strong answer A strong response takes a position and backs it with the page. A student might argue the two are very alike: Jonas now knows starving as one of his most “relentless” fears, and a life “hungry for feelings, for color, for love” would be empty in the same steady way. Another might argue they are not much alike: real starving is a body that can barely force “the pedal downward,” and at home meals came to every dwelling every day. A careful answer may notice that the old scolding was about using a word exactly, and that Jonas now uses the word for his body and then for a whole life, in the same night.
- Jonas first calls leaving “the wrong one,” then decides “there had not really been a choice.” Is he right that he had no choice?
What it asks This is the last question the student meets, and it gathers the earlier ones: whether “curious and unafraid” fit Jonas too when the creature stares back, why he tries to remember feasts that leave him empty, whether the rain is different or Jonas is, what it could mean for Gabe that Jonas no longer cares about himself, and how alike the two kinds of starving are, now that the boy told he would never starve is starving. Now the student judges Jonas's whole line of thought. First he decides that if he had stayed he would not be starving, “It was as simple as that,” and calls leaving “the wrong one.” Then: “But if he had stayed...” He weighs the other hungers, and Gabriel, for whom “there would have been no life at all,” and ends: “So there had not really been a choice.” The student decides whether that is true, or whether Jonas did choose. Do not settle it by quoting his last line as the answer. Do not say whether Jonas and Gabriel survive, and do not say he regrets taking Gabriel.
One reading
He is right. Staying meant a life without feelings, color or love, and no life at all for Gabriel. When one road leads there, the other is the only real way to go.
And Gabriel? For Gabriel there would have been no life at all.
So there had not really been a choice.
Another reading
He did have a choice, and he made it. He could have stayed and been fed; he says so himself. Calling it no choice may help a hungry, frightened boy keep going, but leaving was something he chose.
It was as simple as that.
Then, when he had had a choice, he had made the wrong one: the choice to leave.
Listen for
- Takes a side and gives at least two reasons from the chapter.
- Uses both of Jonas's verdicts: “the wrong one” and “not really been a choice.”
- Weighs the cost of leaving (hunger, cold, the danger to Gabe) against the cost of staying.
- Answers the other side fairly, in complete sentences, and does not say whether they survive.
If stuck
- What did Jonas first decide about leaving, and why?
- What changed his mind?
- Is it still a choice if one side is much worse than the other?
A strong answer A strong response takes a position and tests it. A student might argue he is right: staying meant a life “hungry for feelings, for color, for love,” and for Gabriel “no life at all,” so no one who cared about Gabe could stay. Another might argue he did choose: he says himself that staying would have kept him fed, and he calls leaving the choice he “made.” A careful answer may notice that the chapter holds both: Jonas really does weigh two paths that night, and he also finds that one of them was no path at all for Gabe. It may also notice that the chapter ends with him crying in the rain, unsure he can save Gabe, without saying whether he weighs it all again.