Chapter 8 · The Giver

Copywork

"But you will be faced, now," she explained gently, "with pain of a magnitude that none of us here can comprehend because it is beyond our experience. The Receiver himself was not able to describe it, only to remind us that you would be faced with it, that you would need immense courage. We cannot prepare you for that.

For a moment he froze, consumed with despair. He didn't have it, the whatever-she-had-said. He didn't know what it was.

Which is harder for Jonas to face: the pain no one can describe, or the quality he cannot name?

For the educator Two passages: the Chief Elder's warning about pain, and Jonas's frozen moment just before he answers. In the first, her speech is broken by who is speaking, set off with commas: “she explained gently,”. The speech goes on in the same sentence, so it picks up again with a small “with”. That sentence holds the vocabulary word “magnitude”. The second sentence adds two phrases after a comma, each beginning with “that you would”. Her speech runs on into a new paragraph in the book, so there is no closing mark after “that.”; copy the marks exactly as printed. The short last sentence comes right after the longest one. In the second passage, the first sentence holds the vocabulary word “despair”. The second sentence names the quality with a phrase Jonas makes up, joined with hyphens: “the whatever-she-had-said.” Point out that the hyphens turn a whole question into one name for a thing he cannot name. The talk prompt sets the two endings side by side. A student may say the pain is harder to face, because it is still ahead and even the Receiver could not describe it, or the quality, because the chapter calls that feeling “despair” while the pain brought only a flutter of fear. Either answer can stand if the student points to the words.

Discussion

Narration Tell back the chapter in order. Start with the uneasy clapping after the last Assignment. Stop at the last line, after the crowd chants Jonas's name.

Jonas answers the Chief Elder's apology with the usual words, but he says them “shakily.” What does his shaky voice tell us that the words do not? Character
The whole crowd gasps in awe, and the next line stands alone: “And still he did not understand.” Why might the writer show his confusion right after their awe? Author's choice
The Chief Elder brings up a failure from ten years ago and will not say what happened. Why bring it up at all? Inference
Everyone else will be watched and corrected while they learn their new jobs, but Jonas is to be “alone, apart.” Why does that make him uneasy instead of glad? Character

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when someone said yes to something they did not fully understand. How could you tell whether they really meant it?

Vocabulary

successor: It is he who trains his successor. The person who takes over a job after the one who has it now.
benign: The community, relieved from its discomfort very slightly by her benign statement, seemed to breathe more easily. Gentle and kind, meaning no harm.
anguish: I caused you anguish. Terrible pain or worry in your mind.
jaunty: Earlier that day, dressing in his own dwelling, he had practiced the kind of jaunty, self-assured walk that he hoped he could make to the stage when his turn came. Lively and confident, with a bit of a bounce.
unanimous: It must be a unanimous choice of the Committee. Agreed on by every single person, with no one saying no.
fleeting: They can have no doubts, however fleeting. Lasting only a moment and then gone.
magnitude: "But you will be faced, now," she explained gently, "with pain of a magnitude that none of us here can comprehend because it is beyond our experience. How great or large something is.
despair: For a moment he froze, consumed with despair. The feeling that there is no hope left at all.

Critical thinking

Jonas has always owned up to his small wrongs, and the Chief Elder calls that integrity. Does that show he will be honest when no one is watching?
As the crowd chants his name, Jonas knows they are giving him life, the way they gave it to the newchild Caleb. How is Jonas like a newborn at this moment?
Jonas was ready to say, “No, I don't,” but then the faces in the crowd changed. When Jonas says “I think it's true” about seeing beyond, is he being brave or simply saying what the crowd is waiting to hear?