Thank you for participating in Summer Reading 2011. Our discussion forums, which ran from June 17-August 20, have closed. If you've finished your assignments and would like to take a quick, five question survey about this year's summer reading experience, please click here.
Questions to consider and discuss
  • cathylincathylin May 2011
    by Lois Lowry
  • dparrydparry June 2011
    Readers of The Giver

    In English next year, we will be reading works about individuals and their conflicts with society. As you read this novel, look at how Jonas’ relationship and responsibility to his community change, and how these changes affect him.

    Here is a place to make observations, ask questions, and respond to others. You, as a class, will be responsible for developing and directing the discussion.

    I will be checking in regularly to monitor your participation in the conversation and to help where I can. The effort , courtesy, and maturity you demonstrate here online will go a long way in establishing your voice in the class and the impression you choose to make.

    Remember to keep your remarks aimed at a discussion of the book, not directed at other respondants. Always exercise civility and respect for others' points of views.

    To get you started, I have a few questions here to stimulate your thinking.

    What is "Sameness"? How is it both a good thing and a bad thing?

    What is the setting of the story? Where and when do you think it takes place? What details can you find to support your claim?

    How is the family designed in this community? How would you define "family" yourself? Does it have more than one possible meaning?

    Look up the meaning of "euphemism." What does the euphemism "Release" really mean? How does our own society use euphemisms to obscure unpleasant realities like death? What other examples of euphemisms do we use and why?

    What is the role of The Giver? Why is he or she called The Giver, do you think? What other title might be more accurate?

    The ending of the novel is ambiguous. What do you think happens? What evidence can you point to?


  • nick_bass July 2011
    I thought the "sameness" was a mass "brainwashing" of sorts in which the government decided that people were too dangerous to make decisions for themselves. The government decided that the best way to go about fixing peoples' rash decision making was to condition their brains to feel less emotion, to not see color, and for people to feel that this was natural and therefore be more obedient. Eliminating people's differences would help resolve problems such as war, social hierarchy, and political unrest.
  • dparrydparry July 2011
    Well stated, Nick. You see how uniformity is desirable in creating a sense of order within the community. How does this exist at MJS in any way? Is there a cost for this sense of order? What is it?
  • nick_bass July 2011
    Well, at MJS we wear uniforms and follow behavioral guidelines but we are still encouraged to have unique and independent thoughts. The only thing we give up is free dress. This forum is an example of a way for people to express their different thoughts and ideas about the Giver in a public manner.
  • School+LibrarianSchool Librarian July 2011
    Your comments are thoughtful and demonstrate a deeper understanding of the themes of the book. Your reflection on uniformity was also spot-on and positive. Way to go, Nick! :)

    -Mrs. Guyer
  • katherinet July 2011
    I think that "The Giver" takes place in a sheltered community. I think this because they have things like "Climate Control," when they can control the temperature. The time period I think that "The Giver" takes place in is the future because the Giver and Jonas talk about things that take place in our community today as things that took place generations and generations ago. An example of this is on page 111 when the Giver says to Jonas, "And the strongest memory that came back was hunger. It came from many generations back. Centuries back. The population had gotten so big that hunger was everywhere." This seems like it is describing some of the things that are happening today, though to them it is centuries back. I think the way the characters earn responsibilities, like a bike, as they grow older is cool and I'm wondering what other people think.
    Katherine T.
  • pmhotchkis July 2011
    Yes Katherine, I entirely agree with your thoughts about when the book takes place. I think that this book takes place in the future because when Jonas began to see color the Giver tells Jonas, " There was a time, actually- you'll see this in memories later- when flesh was many different colors. That was before we went to Sameness." This is talking about different races, who exist today, such as African Americans, who have different skin tones then people from America. I also agree with Mr. Parry when he said that this community is not technologically sophisticated even though it is in the future. I believe that that is because if there was technology then the people of sameness would begin to be diverse. Technology would intrigue people to learn more and would educate them about a world beyond.
  • dparrydparry July 2011
    Good citation, katherinet. I think you will find other references representing past human history. And yet this is not a technologically sophisticated world in many respects, is it? In fact, it seems adherent to some old-fashioned modes of simplicity, reminding me of an Amish culture, basic and insular. What do others think?
  • sarahj July 2011
    At the end of the book, I think that Jonas and Gabe have reached their happy place, whether it is either Heaven or a safe village that they will reach where their minds can wander around every color and memory. The evidence that could prove my idea happens when they lose the coldness in their bodies after being in the snow for so long and they hear the music. To me I imagine the snow, the sledding, and the music as Jonas' Heaven. Or I think that Jonas and Gabe would be lead to a safe home because the scenario at the end of the book reminds me of when you walk into your house and you suddenly feel warm and comfortable and you are happy being home.
    Sarah J.
  • dparrydparry July 2011
    Is it a memory, a dream, or real?
  • alexandermalexanderm July 2011
    i believe that jonas is dying and this memory that is his favorite is the thing that is moving him into heaven. I believe this because of how he says that he found the sled that he knew would be there. I also think that that the story takes place in the future where a utilitarian society takes over and causes this sameness to stop things like global warming and war.
  • alexandermalexanderm July 2011
    i find samness to be a completly barabric idea that forces people to be nothing but what they are forced to be. I would find it completly terrible to live in a society where i couldnt make my own choices nor feel emotions or see color. And even the fact that they cant read books reminds me of the holocaust when they would have book burnings. this is a comletly archaic system of governing and living. I feel that this freedom of choice which america prides itself on vastly outweighs the negative aspects of war and hunger
  • dparrydparry July 2011
    Good feedback. alexanderm. P.S. You might want to see why your caps key is not working ; )
  • sarahj July 2011
    Alexander, I completely agree with you on the aspect of freedom and making your own choices, but maybe forcing the people to do things without a choice is not such a bad idea after all. In the land of "Elsewhere" there seems to never be any trouble or wars. Imagine how life would be if everyone followed the rules and there would never be any outbreaks. This is a controversial topic and you could always have freedom with the possibilities of harmful times in a lifetime, or the other option is that you would never worry about any difficulties, however all the choices are made for you. I am curious what side everyone is taking and what they think is better.
    Sarah J.
  • pmhotchkis July 2011
    The side that I am taking is the freedom and making your own choices side. I feel that that someone living in the life of sameness has not yet lived. Living in sameness does not allow adventure, intelligence, or individuality among others because there would only be one path to follow. I agree that yes, it would be a good thing to have no troubles or wars, but then again, once something truly happy happened they wouldn't be able to appreciate it as much as we would because they wouldn't be able to contrast good from bad. I also think that having freedom of choice gives us the ability to explore. It is because of freedom of thought that we invented fire, then light, and then fireworks. I believe that sameness is completely restricting. What does everyone else think about freedom vs. sameness?
  • dparrydparry July 2011
    Good topic to debate. I am glad the two of you are opening this up.
  • alexandermalexanderm July 2011
    Im just thinking of shakespears quote "It was better to love and lost then never to have loved at all," but these people dont even get the decsision to. I beleive it is good with no war no hunger but is it worth it if they cant see color or hear music?
  • sarahj July 2011
    I agree with you Alexander, but the people in "Elsewhere" do not know about color or music, so maybe having no war, hunger, color or music is not such a bad thing. What do you think?
    Sarah J.
  • alexandermalexanderm July 2011
    I mean the saying is "Ignorance is bliss." But it just troubles me that some person could decide for the rest of the community and future generations that they would live like this.
  • sarahj July 2011
    To bring up a new topic: The role of the Giver is to hold every memory, both bad and good and make the decisions based on their knowledge. This is so no citizen ever has to worry or make the wrong choice. I think this person is called the Giver because he or she gives his apprentice, Jonas in this case, the memories. Also, although the people of the community do not know it, he gives them a life without worry, grief or pain because he keeps the memories and makes the decisions. I think another good name for the Giver would be the Concealer, because the person with this job hides remembrance of anything from everyone else for their protection.
    Sarah J.
  • pmhotchkis July 2011
    In this book a family is designed of a mom, a dad, and the strict limit of two children. They refer to it as a "family unit". This is one of the many examples of sameness in this book. The community's idea of a family is much different from our idea of a family today. I believe that the word "family" has multiple meanings and could mean something different to everyone. One definition that fits for the term "family" is a group that is related by genetics, but to me a family is much more than that. A family is a group of people who love each other, have known each other for a long time, and are closer to each other than anyone else. One word that I would use to describe our incoming eighth grade class is "family".
  • pmhotchkis July 2011
    I am eager to know what everyone else thinks about the community's "family unit" in the book and what their definition of a family is.
  • alexandermalexanderm July 2011
    I find the family unit in "The Giver" to be disfunctional. I feel this way because of how once the children get older the parents just leave their lives. Just because someone is an adult dosen't mean that they wont need advice from a parent or Grandparent. And also the parents don't feel love for their children like our parents do which is a key point in raising them.
  • pmhotchkis July 2011
    Alexander, I do agree with you that the family unit is not functional. I find it sad that once children get older they suddenly lose touch with their parents, but once the children of the community are older, do they really need advice from their parents if their whole life is laid out in front of them when they turn twelve. Since the community does not allow the citizens to make their own choices is their any need for advice?
  • alexandermalexanderm July 2011
    That is a really good pount Perry and I would have to agree that it would appear that it isnt neccisary but that dosent mean it shouldnt be offered
  • Andrew_Schiller July 2011
    I believe that advice from the childrens parents may not be neccesary, but when the children assigned a "job" They still receive advice from thier mentors. For example Jona still received advice from the giver before he would become the official receiver.
  • fstswmmr July 2011
    I looked up the word 'euphemism', and it came as a substitution for an expression that may be offensive or unpleasant. In "The Giver," when they use the term euphemism "Release", I believe that it means another word for death. Today in our society, we use euphemisms such as 'pass away' or 'departed' for substitutions for the word death. Other euphemisms we use everyday are 'big boned' instead of fat, 'developmentally challenged' for retarded, 'lay off' instead of fired, 'under the weather' for sick, and 'vertically challenged' for short. We sometimes use these euphemisms to soften the blow of people's disadvantages.
    Kimberly C.
  • RBrowne July 2011
    I think that this is set possibly a millennium in the future beacuse in the memories they show about our time and he said "and back and back and back" to say that all of the receivers got the smae memories. I think it is somewhere in Europe or the United States yet I don't have any evidence of it for this is how I pictured it. What do you all think?
  • Mac_MacVaugh July 2011
    To answer your question, "How is the family designed in this community? How would you define "family" yourself? Does it have more than one possible meaning?", the designed family in the community is only allowed to have two children, one male and one female, and two parents, a mom and a dad. i would describe family as not necessarily people who are blood related, but people who are there for each other and love each other, and yes family has different meanings, like how perry said before, " an eighth grade class is a family".
  • Mac_MacVaugh July 2011
    and Ryan i agree that it is in the future because it talks about "the generations before".
  • Mac_MacVaugh July 2011
    Although I don't know about it taking place in Europe.
  • MaddySewell August 2011
    I agree with your opinion, Mac.
  • Mac_MacVaugh July 2011
    "Our people made that choice, the choice to go to Sameness. Before my time, before the previous time, back and back and back. We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with difference. We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others."- chapter 12, alexander back to the discussion on "the sameness" i completely agree with you on it being barbaric, if I lived in a society where i couldn't see colors or feel emotions I don't know what i would do. Just the idea of having to share every emotion is making me feel all weird because then you would have no privacy, and if you are feeling annoyed with someone and you have to tell them what you are feeling because its "against the law" to hide emotions!
  • Mac_MacVaugh July 2011
    And Kimberley when I found Euphemism i found pretty much the same thing i found, "a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing", And i Agree thinking Released means to die because when they refer to elderly people as being, "released" it just makes me think as someone dying and Euphemisms we use are "may i be excused" for can i leave, or "dislike", for hate, and " Put to sleep", for killed.
  • Andrew_Schiller July 2011
    The story must take place in the future, because jona received a memory about hunting elephants, and they were extinct by jonas's lifetime. We still have elephants today. Althought, it could take place almost anywhere, since they have climate control.
  • CharlieBennett August 2011
    I would have to not agree with Andrew's statement because its probably not that their extinct but just not allowed in the society or simply do not live where he lives. How many times do you see and elephant hanging around Mayfield?
  • alecsahakian August 2011
    I think charlie's right because they had our same technology and in the sameness if you can't have colors or music then how can you have elephants?
    -alec
  • Mac_MacVaugh August 2011
    that is very true and he said an elephant and a bear were mythical creatures
  • Mac_MacVaugh August 2011
    and the Giver is the old Receiver, The Giver gives the Receiver the old memories, that is why he is called the giver, and I cant really think of a more accurate name, i would like to here what the others have to think
  • BreannaRyan August 2011
    I agree with Mac's description of the Giver's job: he is the old Receiver, and stores memories of the past, waiting to pass these memories on to the new Receiver. As I was reading, I wondered why the Giver was known as "the Giver" if he had no one to "give" his memories to until Jonas was assigned to be Receiver. He seemed to be known as "the Giver" even before Jonas was assigned his new position. Wouldn't he be known as "the Receiver" until a new one is assigned? Maybe his title switched from "receiver" to "giver" when the previous giver died, but as I said before, he had no one to give his memories to. Although, it would also be inadequate for him to be known as the receiver after the previous giver passed, because he was no longer receiving memories. What would a proper name for him be in this "in between" phase?
  • PatrickL August 2011
    My personal opinion (which is similar to the large portion of everyone here), Is that The Giver's setting is "post-apocolyptic." Meaning that some sort of catastrophe occurred, then the remaining persons decided to create an environment where an event of that caliber wouldn't happen again (sameness). I feel that Jonas being assigned as the receiver of memory had an extremely negative effect on him. Especially with Jonas being separated from his friends and family. Jonas must have felt extremely lonely and felt hatred and sorrow because the members of the community were so ignorant of pain and love. Kimberly, Euphemism accurately describes release, although, I feel that most of the members of the community didn't believe that release was actually death, but just the individual being "let go" from the community. I feel that Sameness definitely has its positives and negatives; For one, I believe that sameness could not have been possible if any feelings were involved. Secondly, I believe that Sameness works well because of ignorance. The members of the community had no idea what love or colors were, so they had nothing to become angry at. Breanna, that is a great point, I believe you are right in thinking that the giver is re-named "The Giver" when the next receiver of memory is chosen. I don't know what the in-between stage would be called. The ending is extremely disappointing. Honestly I think it is either for a sequel, or to imply that Jonas and Gabriel perished (euphemism)

    -Patrick L

  • Mac_MacVaugh August 2011
    In the end i think that Jonas released all of the memories to the community, and Jonas and Gabriel are going to heaven, when they are sledding down the hill, i think that they died at the and are "sledding" in ti heaven because he is speaking of a place with color and music and he new he was going to die soon so i think that is what happened.
  • CharlieBennett August 2011
    I can't help but think that this story relates to the film "Logan's run", in that it is somewhat of a dictatorship of an enclosed ignorant society. It also relates in that the elderly are killed but are not exactly sure of the proportion of their fate. Babies are also born in a facility more or less and then given to a family.
  • CharlieBennett August 2011
    I think Jonas did not die and i think it is implied that he finds a loving family to care for him and Gabriel and share in that warm feeling the Giver describes.
  • CharlieBennett August 2011
    I do not think this society that Jonas lives in is "post-apocalyptic" because outside of their "realm" are houses. It is also noted that planes once flew over the enclosed society implying a world outside of this astonishingly ignorant society.
  • Andrew_Schiller August 2011
    I don't think that jonas finds a family to take care of him and gabriel, I think that he is about to die and is thinking happy thoughts. I mean, how often do you find a sled sitting on top of a hill?
  • Andrew_Schiller August 2011
    Also charlie, Jonas received a memory of elephants being hunted, a lot of species become extinct from hunting. This supports my suggestion that the elephants were extinct.
  • nick_bass August 2011
    My interpretation of the ending was that Jonas and Gabriel had broken through the boundary of the "Sameness". I'm not sure if they died or not, but I noticed how as they got farther away from the community that the landscape became less and less affected by the "Sameness". I thought that in the end the "Sameness" just stopped at a certain point and that outside the area where he "Sameness" was, there was a real world like ours.
  • camillek August 2011
    Yes Nick, thats actually really similar to what my ending to the story was. Where they found another community that was like our world now, and the people there could have emotion and see colors like he could. It might've just been that maybe his community got isolated from the others and just became so different.
  • MaddySewell August 2011
    I think that is a great thought, Camille. I agree with everything you said. And I also agree with Nick when he said that "sameness" stopped at a certain point. Although, the thought that Jonas was dying at the end of the book is controversial. I do not have a complete thought of how the story ended. It could have stopped in many different ways, like how Charlie said that Jonas may have found a loving family to care for him. All of the ideas are debatable.
This discussion has been closed.
← All Discussions

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Apply for Membership

Categories

In this Discussion

Poll

No poll attached to this discussion.