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The Giver
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
After reading “You may lie,” Jonas can no longer be sure that any answer he gets is true. Has that rule taken something from him, or given him something?
The tension The crowd that chanted his name now steps aside and whispers, Asher pauses, and Mother repeats “Greatly honored” over a silence; then the boy who was once corrected for saying “I'm starving” reads that he may lie, and wonders whether every adult was told the same.
How the first evening after the Ceremony sets Jonas apart, through small changes in his friends and family and through a single printed sheet.
The chapter follows Jonas through the evening after the Ceremony of Twelve. Leaving the Auditorium with his folder, he already feels apart: people move aside for him, watch him and whisper. He asks Asher to ride home with him, and Asher smiles as always, but Jonas feels a moment of hesitation, and feels it again when they part; he tells himself he may have imagined it. Lily, already strapped into her seat, watches him solemnly while everyone else smiles. Supper is quiet. Lily chatters about volunteering at the Nurturing Center, where she already feeds Gabriel, and at Father's warning glance promises not to mention his name. Mother says Jonas has been greatly honored, and Father calls it the most important job in the community. Jonas asks about the failed selection the Chief Elder mentioned. Mother and Father hesitate; Father says it happened much as today did, and Mother says it was a female whose name may never be spoken or given to a newchild again. Asked what happened to her, they say they do not know; they never saw her again. After a silence, Mother rises and says again that he has been greatly honored. Alone in his room, Jonas opens his folder. Some of the other Twelves had thick folders; his holds one sheet of eight rules. He is dismayed that there is no time left for play, startled by the exemption from rudeness though sure he will never use it, and glad to be excused from dream-telling, until he wonders what he would say at breakfast if he did dream. The rule against medication for anything related to training unnerves him, since the Chief Elder called the pain to come indescribable. The rule against applying for release brings no reaction at all. Last he steels himself to reread the eighth rule: “You may lie.” He remembers being taken aside as a Four for saying “I'm starving.” He tells himself that Asher, Lily, Mother and Father do not lie, that no one does, unless the adults were given the same rule when they became Twelves. He could now ask his father, “Do you lie?” But he would have no way of knowing whether the answer was true.
Before reading, ask the student how they can tell when someone is telling them the truth. Read aloud from the opening to “Things couldn't change, with Asher.” and stop: ask only what Jonas notices on the ride home, and keep to what the page says. Read on through supper to Mother's “Greatly honored.” Ask what the room is like at the end of supper, without deciding why Mother says it again. Read the eight rules slowly, once, without comment. Then read Jonas's thoughts on them, and stop after “He felt no reaction to rule number 7 at all.” Ask which rule seemed to shake him most so far. Read on from “Finally he steeled himself” to the end without stopping, so the last thought comes as it does for him. At the end, ask what Jonas believed about the people around him at the start of the evening, and what he wonders now. Do not explain what release is, or why the Receiver may lie: the chapter does not say.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in three parts. First the ride home: the crowd stepping aside, Asher's pause, and Lily's solemn look. Then supper: the honor, the most important job, the failed selection whose name may never be spoken, and the silence. Last the sheet: the thin folder, the rules about where to go, rudeness, dreams, medicine and release, and the eighth rule with the memory of “I'm starving.” Ask for three or four sentences of the student's own for each part.
Imitate the author After copying, the student writes three or four sentences of their own about a new rule or a surprise. Ask for one sentence with a word like “however” set off by commas, and a semicolon joining two thoughts that turn on a contrast, like the rule that does not “compel” but only allows. Ask for one sentence that doubles its words, like “so completely, so thoroughly.” Then ask for a run of very short sentences that repeat one pattern, ending with one that breaks it, like “No one did.”
Debate Take sides on the last written question. First make two lists together. What the rule may take: the trust that every answer is true, the belief Jonas has held since the “starving” lesson that no one lies, and the comfort of not wondering. What it may give: a thought Jonas never had before, the choice not to lie when he could, and a possible way through his worry about what to say at breakfast if he dreams. One side argues the rule has taken something from Jonas. The other argues it has given him something. Each side gives a reason and a line from the chapter, and answers one from the other side. No one may say that Mother, Father or any other adult in the book lies, or give a reason for the rule: the chapter does not.
Purpose Close with the writer's choices about the sheet. Seven of the rules are full sentences of instruction; the eighth is three words, the shortest on the page, and it comes last. Jonas reaches toward it once, at the dream-telling rule, and backs away (“he wasn't quite ready to think about the final rule”). So the reader waits for it too. Ask the student what that waiting does to them. Then read the last line: “But he would have no way of knowing if the answer he received were true.” Ask why the writer might end the chapter on a thought Jonas cannot settle, and not on anything he does. Leave the question open, as the chapter does.
Easier Read aloud together from “Finally he steeled himself to read the final rule again.” to the end. Make two lists: what Jonas believed about the people around him before he reread the rule, and what he wonders after. Talk through the first discussion question (the goodbye to Asher) and the fourth (the crushed finger and the medicine rule), then answer the last written question aloud.
On level Talk through the four discussion questions in order, then have the student write answers to the three written questions in complete sentences, each with a reason and a line from the chapter.
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 bring in supper. Father calls the Receiver “the most important job in the community,” and Jonas answers that just the other night, the job of making Assignments was called the most important. Mother answers at once, “This is different. It's not a job, really.” Ask how a boy who was corrected for “starving” might hear that exchange, and whether it changes the student's answer. The answer must not say Mother or Father lies or meant to mislead; the chapter shows only that Jonas notices the words, and that Mother answers him.
1. At his door, Jonas calls out, “See you in the morning, Recreation Director!” Why might he use Asher's new title just then, and not his name?Character
What it asks It asks the student to hear one parting line. Leaving the Auditorium, Jonas already “felt the apartness,” and at the bicycles he feels “a moment of hesitation” from Asher. The two ride home “exchanging only small jokes and unimportant remarks.” At his door Jonas calls, “See you in the morning, Recreation Director!” Asher calls back, “Right! See you!” Then, “Once again, there was just a moment when things weren't quite the same.” Jonas tells himself, “Perhaps he had imagined it. Things couldn't change, with Asher.” The student decides what the title does in that moment: keeps things light between old friends, or shows what has come between them. It takes up one part of the last written question: whether the words people say to each other still match what they feel. The talk should not say Asher has turned against Jonas; the chapter says only what Jonas felt, and that he may have imagined it.
A joke between old friends, to keep things the way they were. The whole ride home is light on purpose. Calling Asher by his new title is a tease, and it praises him, the way he praised Asher at the bicycles for all his applause.
exchanging only small jokes and unimportant remarks with Asher
You got more applause than almost anybody else.
A sign of what has come between them. On this one night, Jonas says goodbye to his longtime friend with a job, not a name. Right after it, Jonas feels the change again, the same pause he felt at the bicycles.
Once again, there was just a moment when things weren't quite the same, weren't quite as they had always been through the long friendship.
But Jonas felt a moment of hesitation from his friend, an uncertainty.
A strong answer A strong response might say it is a friendly joke: the ride was “only small jokes and unimportant remarks,” and Jonas had already praised Asher at the bicycles (“You got more applause than almost anybody else.”). Another might say the title shows what has come between them: right after it, “there was just a moment when things weren't quite the same,” like the “moment of hesitation” Jonas felt before. A careful answer may notice that one joke can do both at once, and that Jonas ends by telling himself, “Things couldn't change, with Asher.”
2. Mother tells Jonas he has been “greatly honored,” and after a silence, she gets up and says it again. Who is that second time for?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to hear the same words at two different moments. Supper is “quieter than usual.” Mother begins, “You've been greatly honored,” and adds that she and Father are very proud. Then Jonas asks about the failed selection. Both of them hesitate, Father tells it, and Mother says her name may never be spoken again. Jonas asks “nervously” what happened to her. “We don't know,” Father says. “We never saw her again.” A silence falls, and they look at each other. Then Mother, “rising from the table,” says, “You've been greatly honored, Jonas. Greatly honored.” The student decides whom that second time is meant for. It takes up one part of the last written question: whether the words Jonas hears at home mean just what they say. The talk should not say Mother is lying or hiding what she knows, and should not guess who the failed Receiver was or what became of her; the chapter says only “We don't know.”
For Jonas. He has just heard of a Receiver whose name can never be spoken, and he asked about her nervously. Mother turns him back to the honor so the story will not be the last thing he hears tonight.
he asked nervously
Your father and I are very proud.
For Mother and Father, and for the room. No one has an answer, and the silence is heavy. Saying the honor again, and standing as she says it, closes a talk that cannot go any further.
A silence fell over the room. They looked at each other.
rising from the table
A strong answer A strong response might say the second time is for Jonas: he has just asked “nervously” about a girl who was never seen again, and Mother turns him back to the honor she and Father are proud of. Another might say it is for the room: “A silence fell over the room. They looked at each other,” and she speaks while “rising from the table,” which ends supper and the talk together. A careful answer may notice that the words are the same as the first time, but the silence before them changes how they sound.
3. No rule on Jonas's sheet says a word about friends. So what makes him think of them first?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to look at Jonas's first reaction to his sheet. His folder holds a single sheet, while some of the others got folders “thick with printed pages.” He reads it twice, and “Jonas was stunned.” His first thought is “What would happen to his friendships?” Then he thinks of “His mindless hours playing ball, or riding his bike along the river,” times that “had been happy and vital” for him. Rules 1 and 2 only tell him where to go and when, and he knew to expect that. Yet he is “a little dismayed” that his schedule leaves no time, “apparently,” for play. No rule names his friends at all. The student decides why his mind goes to them first. It takes up one part of the last written question: what the sheet may take from Jonas. The talk should not say Jonas will lose his friends, or that Asher has turned against him; the chapter only lets Jonas wonder.
The schedule. Rules 1 and 2 send him to the Annex right after school and straight home after training. That leaves no hours for ball or bikes. He names those hours in the same breath as his friendships, so losing one feels like losing the other.
But he was a little dismayed that his schedule left no time, apparently, for recreation.
His mindless hours playing ball, or riding his bike along the river?
The evening. Before he opened the folder, he already felt set apart. The Chief Elder said his training would be alone, and on the way out people moved aside for him. He comes to the sheet already afraid of losing people, so that is the loss he looks for first.
He remembered what the Chief Elder had said: that his training would be alone and apart.
But his training had not yet begun and already, upon leaving the Auditorium, he felt the apartness.
A strong answer A strong response might say the schedule does it: rules 1 and 2 leave “no time, apparently, for recreation,” and Jonas names “His mindless hours playing ball, or riding his bike along the river” in the same breath as his friendships. Another might say the evening does it: the Chief Elder said his training would be “alone and apart,” and before he read a word, “he felt the apartness.” A careful answer may notice the word “apparently”: Jonas is not yet sure what the sheet takes from him, but he reads it looking for that loss first.
4. Jonas works out that a crushed finger is “unrelated to training,” so he could still get medicine for it. Why does he work it out so carefully?Character
What it asks It asks the student to watch Jonas reason his way through one rule. Rule 6 says he may not ask for medication, except for illness or injury unrelated to his training, and “The restriction of medication unnerved him.” He remembers crushing his finger in a door, and how the pain eased “Almost instantly” once the medication came. Rereading the rule, he works out that a crushed finger would not count as training, so he could still be helped. He adds that it will not happen again anyway: “he had been very careful near heavy doors since the accident!” He works out that his morning pill is safe too. Then he remembers that the Chief Elder called the pain of his training “indescribable,” and he cannot imagine it with no medication at all. Right after, he feels “no reaction” to rule 7. The student decides why Jonas works the rule out so carefully. It takes up one part of the last written question: how Jonas weighs what a rule takes from him, and whether he can talk himself out of a fear. The talk should not explain what release is or why the rules are there; the chapter does not say.
To calm himself. He makes the rule as small as he can: the finger is safe, the pill is safe, and it will not happen again anyway. He is talking himself into feeling safe, the way he told himself on the ride home that things could not change with Asher.
he had been very careful near heavy doors since the accident!
So he would continue to receive the pill.
To find out what the rule really takes. He checks each loss he can picture, one at a time, and most of them turn out safe. What is left is the one pain he cannot picture at all. The careful reading does not calm him; it brings him to the fear.
But he remembered uneasily what the Chief Elder had said about the pain that would come with his training.
But it was beyond his comprehension.
A strong answer A strong response might say he is calming himself: the finger is safe, “So he would continue to receive the pill,” and it will not happen again anyway, since “he had been very careful near heavy doors since the accident!” Another might say he is measuring what the rule takes, one loss at a time, and the careful reading brings him to the one loss he cannot measure: the Chief Elder “had called it indescribable,” and it “was beyond his comprehension.” A careful answer may notice that Jonas talks himself toward safety more than once tonight, as with “Things couldn't change, with Asher,” and that at the last rule it stops working: “No one did. Unless...”
1. Jonas's sheet says he may now be rude, and he is sure he never will be. Is he making a choice, or following a habit?
What it asks It asks the student to judge where Jonas's certainty comes from. The exemption from rudeness “startled him.” Reading it again, he sees that it does not “compel him to be rude; it simply allowed him the option.” He is “quite certain he would never take advantage of it,” because he is “so completely, so thoroughly accustomed to courtesy” that even the thought of asking someone a personal question is “unnerving.” The student decides whether that certainty is a choice he makes or a habit that makes it for him, and writes it with a reason from the chapter. It takes up one part of the last written question: how deep the town's training in polite, careful speech goes in Jonas. The card should not say what Jonas will do with the rule later in the book.
A choice. He reads the rule a second time and works out for himself what it means: it only allows. Then he decides. A rule that leaves the option open leaves the choosing to him.
Reading it again, however, he realized
He was quite certain he would never take advantage of it.
A habit. The writer doubles the words, “so completely, so thoroughly,” to show how deep his manners go. Even the thought of a rude question makes him uneasy. That is a feeling, not a decision.
so completely, so thoroughly accustomed to courtesy within the community
was unnerving
A strong answer A strong response might say it is a choice: “Reading it again,” Jonas works out that the rule only “allowed him the option,” and then he is “quite certain he would never take advantage of it.” Another might say it is a habit: he is “so completely, so thoroughly accustomed to courtesy” that the thought alone “was unnerving,” which is a feeling and not a decision. A careful answer may notice that by the end of the chapter Jonas is picturing “questions of utmost rudeness” after all, though it is still “almost unimaginable,” and ask whether a choice or a habit is giving way.
2. When Jonas was a Four, he was told that “I'm starving” was a lie, since he was only hungry. Can a person lie without meaning to?
What it asks It asks the student to say what makes something a lie, using the lesson that shaped how Jonas hears the word. When Jonas was a Four, just before the midday meal, he said “I'm starving,” and “Immediately he had been taken aside for a brief private lesson in language precision.” He was hungry, not starving: “No one in the community was starving, had ever been starving, would ever be starving.” So the word was a lie, “An unintentioned lie, of course.” The lesson is there so that “unintentional lies were never uttered,” and Jonas understood. The student decides whether a person can lie without meaning to, and writes it with a reason from the chapter. It takes up one part of the last written question: what Jonas has been taught a lie is, and so how hard “You may lie” lands on him.
Yes, in Jonas's town. A lie is saying what is not true, whatever you meant. No one there starves, so the word was false. That is why he is taught exact words from his first words on: so that untrue words are never said by accident.
No one in the community was starving, had ever been starving, would ever be starving.
But the reason for precision of language was to ensure that unintentional lies were never uttered.
No. A lie means trying to make someone believe something false. Jonas was only hungry, and nobody was fooled. Even the lesson admits he did not mean it, so he made a mistake in words, not a lie.
He was not starving, it was pointed out. He was hungry.
An unintentioned lie, of course.
A strong answer A strong response might say yes, in Jonas's town: “No one in the community was starving, had ever been starving, would ever be starving,” so the word was false, and the lesson was there so that “unintentional lies were never uttered.” Another might say no: he was “hungry,” nobody was fooled, and the lesson itself calls it “An unintentioned lie, of course.” A careful answer may notice that a town that guards even against lies no one meant has now told Jonas, “You may lie,” and that a lie he chose would be a lie he meant.
3. After reading “You may lie,” Jonas can no longer be sure that any answer he gets is true. Has that rule taken something from him, or given him something?
What it asks This is the last question the student meets, and it gathers the earlier ones. Jonas puts off rereading the final rule and at last steels himself to it. He has been trained “since earliest childhood” never to lie and has never been “tempted to lie.” He names Asher, Lily, Mother and Father, and says to himself that none of them lies. “No one did. Unless...” Then comes a thought he has never had before: what if adults, when they became Twelves, were given “the same terrifying sentence”? Rule 3 lets him ask any question and promises answers, so he could ask Father, “Do you lie?” But he “would have no way of knowing if the answer he received were true.” The student decides whether the rule has taken something from Jonas or given him something, and defends it. The chapter does not say why the Receiver may lie, and it never shows any adult lying; Jonas only wonders.
Taken. Before tonight, Jonas trusted every answer he was given. Now even a promised answer from Father could be false, and he could never check. The rule takes away a trust he did not know he had until it cracked.
This new thought was frightening.
But he would have no way of knowing if the answer he received were true.
Given. The rule gives him a new thought: that trust is something to think about, not only something to have. Like the rule about rudeness, it allows and does not force, so he may still choose never to lie. And Jonas has already reached toward it once: if he dreams, he may not tell his family, and saying he had no dream would be a lie.
Now Jonas had a thought that he had never had before.
That would be a lie. Still, the final rule said ...
A strong answer A strong response takes a position and tests it. A student might argue the rule has taken something: Jonas trusted everyone, and now “This new thought was frightening,” because he “would have no way of knowing if the answer he received were true.” Another might argue it has given him something: “Now Jonas had a thought that he had never had before,” and when he worries about breakfast after a dream, he thinks, “That would be a lie. Still, the final rule said ...” Like rule 3, the rule may only allow and not force. A careful answer may notice that both can be true, and that the chapter ends on his not knowing, not on any answer.