The Giver 12
Study Guide Questions for Chapter Twelve
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Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)
Home, Desire, Ignorance, Beauty
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
What information did Jonas hold back from his mother and father?
Of what kinds of classes did Jonas’ school day consist?
What did Jonas realize he could never explain to his friends?
What did Fiona inform Jonas that they did with “the Old, the same as for small children?”
In what way did Jonas experience “seeing beyond” while with Fiona?
What did the Giver say to Jonas when Jonas said he would like to ask him a question?
What did the Giver help Jonas to realize he was experiencing when he saw the apple, his friend Fiona’s hair, and the sled?
According to the Giver, “why did colors disappear?”
What conclusion did Jonas come to quickly which took the Giver “many years” to conclude?
What memory did the Giver pass to Jonas at the end of the chapter?
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
What do you think the “something” might be which Jonas felt was just “the place where the thickness of the snow brought the sled to a stop?”
Why might the kinds of subjects which children study (as well as the ones which they do not) at school in the Community be significant?
What is implied about “the Old” based upon what Fiona says they use with them “the same as for small children?” Why is this significant to the story?
Jonas was “frustrated by his inability to grasp and describe exactly what had occurred” when he saw beyond with Fiona. Why is it that Jonas lacked the ability to properly describe or explain his experience?
The Giver said that everyone had “one generation memories.” How might it be possible to gain memories further back than one’s own generation?
Why might the Community have chosen to pursue “sameness” at the expense of things like color?
Why might Jonas have so quickly come to the conclusion that the community should not have let go of the experience of color and other such things?
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
Jonas experienced a strong desire to reach what was beyond the place the sled stopped in his dream. What is it that creates desire in us? Why do we sometimes long for a place we have never been, or for an experience we have never had? In what ways might our desires lead us to pursue truth, goodness, and beauty? In what ways might our desires lead us astray towards what is false, evil, and ugly? How do we determine if our desires are just desires versus warped and evil?
Jonas realized that, even if it were allowed, he had no way of communicating what he had experienced in the Annex with his friends. How does our ability to conceive an idea work? Would you describe the human imagination as limited or unlimited and why? Why would it not be possible for Jonas’ friends to understand what a hill, or sled or snow is? Is it possible to imagine something which we have never seen before? If so, how? If not, why?
Jonas desired the pleasure of experiencing color more than he desired wisdom. Which is greater to pursue, wisdom or pleasure? Define your terms and make an argument for your position.
In deciding to pursue sameness the Community decided to let go of color and many other good things not just for themselves but for all who came after them. How do our decisions in the present exercise a kind of power over those who come after us? How ought this to affect our thinking about the decisions we make in our life, knowing that our decisions affect more than just ourselves and our own time?
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
Read 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. How might we relate what the apostle Paul says here with Jonas’ experience of desire concerning what lay beyond the place where the sled stopped?
Read Genesis 9:1-17. What purpose does the rainbow serve according to Scripture?