The Giver
by Lois Lowry
Mrs. Pine
Language Arts
7th Grade
Name: ______
Period: ______
The Giver
Directions: We are going to begin a final project based on The Giver. This is your chance to be creative and show off what you know! Read over the descriptions of the projects below and select one. Notice that different projects involve different amounts of people. You can have no more or less than each project requires.
Due: ______
1) TALK SHOW (2 – 5 people)
v Guests should be characters from The Giver.
v NO Jerry Springer type shows. It should be more like Ellen or Oprah, where actual questions are asked or answered.
v Be creative in how you present your talk show.
v Specific issues should be discussed that were important to our study of The Giver.
v The talk show must be at least 5 minutes long and no longer than 15 minutes.
v You must come to some sort of resolution at the end of the talk show. Some point of understanding should be made.
2) BOARD GAME (2 – 3 people)
v Design a board game to be played based on The Giver and Jonas’ journey through the novel. It should be created on posterboard or cardboard. Minimum size 12 x 18.
v The object of the game is to get Jonas and Gabe safely out of the Community to Elsewhere.
v Be sure to include directions for the game and all playing pieces necessary to play.
3) THE COMMUNITY CHRONICLE (1 – 2 people)
v Write an article for The Community Chronicle. An illustration (photo, graphic, or drawing) should accompany your story.
v The newspaper should contain the characters, setting, and plot of the novel.
v Write as a reporter would – including the who, what, why, when, where, and how. Include some “man on the street” interviews and get the public’s reaction to the event.
v It should be at least two pages, typed, double-spaced.
4) WRITE A DIALOGUE (1 person)
v Write a dialogue between Jonas and the first person he meets from Elsewhere.
v Your dialogue should be about 3 – 4 pages, typed, and double-spaced.
5) GRAPHIC NOVEL (1 – 2 people)
v Must focus on at least two significant scenes from The Giver.
v The graphic novel should look like a graphic novel (with cover, panels, and balloons). Also, please color the pictures.
v You must introduce the graphic novel with a short narration. At the end, you should have an “author’s note” explaining why you have chosen the given section of text to create your graphic novel.
6) TRAVEL BROCHURE (1 – 2 people)
v Create a travel brochure on Microsoft Publisher for “Elsewhere” with the goal being to convince others from Jonas’ community to leave for your Elsewhere.
v Your brochure must demonstrate a strong knowledge of Jonas’ community and a comparison to another real or imagined community.
v You must include descriptions of each of the following and address why Elsewhere is better than The Community.
A. Economy
B. Family
C. Transportation
D. Law and Order
E. Environment
F. Education
G. Recreation
v Your brochure must be neat, colorful, and creative.
7) WRITE A DIARY (1 person)
v Invent a diary that might be written by Jonas or the Giver in the book.
v Include thoughts and incidents that took place in the life of that character.
v Write a minimum of 5 days of entries.
v Design it to look like an actual diary.
v Must be typed. Minimum of 2 pages double spaced.
Lois Lowry
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Born: March20, 1937, Honolulu, Hawaii
Current Home: Cambridge, Massachusetts
From the time I was eight or nine, I wanted to be a writer. Writing was what I liked best in school; it was what I did best in school.
I was a solitary child, born the middle of three, who lived in the world of books and my own imagination. There are some children, and I was this kind of child, who are introverts and love to read — who prefer to curl up with a book than to hang out with friends or play at the ball field. Children like that begin to develop a feeling for language and for story. And that was true for me — that's how I became a writer.
My books have varied in content and in style. Yet it seems to me that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, is a fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells of the same things: the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.
The Giver takes place against the background of yet another very different culture and time. Though broader in scope than my earlier books, it nonetheless speaks to the same concern: the vital need for humans to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment.
I use the Anastasia books to make myself laugh and to lighten up between serious books. But I also use them to deal with serious topics in a different way, disguised by humor.
I think it is my own children, all of them grown now, who have caused me to expand my view. One of my sons was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force; as a mother during the Gulf War, I was newly stunned into fear for the world and a heightened awareness of the necessity to find a way to end conflict. One of my daughters has become disabled as a result of the disease of the central nervous system; through her, I have a new and passionate awareness of the importance of human connections that transcend physical differences.
And I have grandchildren now. For them, I feel a greater urgency to do what I can to convey the knowledge that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future as human beings depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another.
The Giver
genre: modern science fiction
Synopsis:
The giver is written from the point of view of Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy living in a futuristic society that has eliminated all pain, fear, war, poverty, pollution, disease, and hatred. There is no prejudice, since everyone looks and acts basically the same, and there is very little competition. Everyone is unfailingly polite. The society controls all aspects of life: jobs, children, family, age, rules, consequences, future goals, etc. Everything is planned and organized so that life is as convenient and pleasant as possible. However, it is a world that is devoid of choice.
The novel covers many themes, including:
· Importance of making connections
· Choices
· Freedom versus security
· Sameness versus diversity
· Individuality
· Honesty
· Family
· Importance of having memories
· Rules and order
· Pain and pleasure
· Old age
The Giver Name: ______Period: _____
Directions: Answer TRUE or FALSE to these statements:
1. ______An ideal community would not have any hunger or starvation.
2. ______An ideal community would not have any jealousy or competition.
3. ______An ideal community would not have any unemployment.
4. ______All children should have equal possessions and privileges at a certain age, regardless of the status of their families.
5. ______Families are much closer when they share their feelings.
6. ______Life would be better and easier if we did not carry bad memories in our heads.
7. ______Overpopulation is such a problem that families should not be allowed to have more than two children.
8. ______There is no real need to learn about world history.
9. ______There is no real need to learn about one’s own family’s history.
10. ______One’s job or occupation in life should be a careful match of one’s interests, talents, and skills.
Be prepared to explain your answers to the class!
Character List
As you read the novel, identify the following characters: (include role in story, job, age, etc)
JonasAsher
Father
Mother
Lily
Gabriel
The Giver
Fiona
Larissa
Rosemary
Chief Elder
Caleb
Fritz
Community “Life Schedule”
Directions: In Jonas’ community, everyone’s life is the same. Everyone follows the same “Life Schedule.” From what we learn in the novel, fill in what we know about each stage of life.
Birth / · Live with other newchildren in the Nurturing Center· Comfort object given
Ones
Threes
Fours
Sevens
Eights
Nines / · Receive bicycle
Tens
Elevens
Twelves
Full Adulthood / · Apply for spouse/matching of spouse
Childless Adult / · Go to live with other childless adults
Old Age
Ceremony of Release
Key Terms
At first, this sounds like a perfectly normal world…just a little odd, but peaceful and quiet. But the people use some unusual terms to tip you off that this is not really our world.What do these words really stand for?
Chapters 1 & 2Nurturer
Nurturing Center
Community
Naming
Receiver
Released
Animals
Assignment
Family Unit/Dwelling
Matching Spouses
Chapters 3 & 4
Newchild
Bike Port
Speaker
Rehabilitation Center
House of the Old
Volunteer Hours
Birthmother
Celebration of Release
Evening telling of feelings
Placement of Newchild
Comfort Objects
Chapters 5-6
Stirrings
Inadequate
Uncertain
Ceremony of Loss
(Mumur) Replacement Ceremony
Bicycles
Ceremony in December
Chapters 7-8
Selected
Anxiety
Chapters 9-10
Elsewhere
Annex
Memory
Books
Chapters 11-12
Climate Control
Capacity to See Beyond
Sameness
Sled/Snow
Hall of Open Records
Chapters 18-19
Name Not To Be Spoken
Hall of Closed Records
The Giver
Jonas’s Society
As you read the novel, take notes below for the following categories:
Rules of the Community:Rituals of People in Community:
Jobs of People in Community:
A message from the author, Lois Lowry:
Kids always ask what inspired me to write a particular book or how did I get an idea for a particular book, and often it's very easy to answer that because books, like the Anastasia books, come from a specific thing, some little event triggers an idea. But a book like The Giver is a much more complicated book and therefore it comes from much more complicated places--and many of them are probably things that I don't even recognize myself anymore, if I ever did. So it's not an easy question to answer.
I will say that the whole concept of memory is one that interests me a great deal. I'm not sure why that is, but I've always been fascinated by the thought of what memory is and what it does and how it works and what we learn from it. And so I think probably that interest of my own and that particular subject was the origin, one of many, of The Giver.
Why does Jonas take what he does on his journey? He doesn't have much time when he sets out. He originally plans to make the trip farther along in time and he plans to prepare for it better. But then because of circumstances, he has to set out in a very hasty fashion. So what he chooses is out of necessity.
He takes food because he needs to survive and he knows that. He takes the bicycle because he needs to hurry and the bike is faster than legs. And he takes the baby because he is going out to create a future. And babies always represent the future in the same way children represent the future to adults. And so Jonas takes the baby so the baby's life will be saved, but he takes the baby also in order to begin again with a new life.
Many kids want a more specific ending to The Giver. Some write, or ask me when they see me, to spell it out exactly. And I don't do that. And the reason is because The Giver is many things to many different people. People bring to it their own complicated sense of beliefs and hopes and dreams and fears and all of that. So I don't want to put my own feelings into it, my own beliefs, and ruin that for people who create their own endings in their minds.
I will say that I find it an optimistic ending. How could it not be an optimistic ending, a happy ending, when that house is there with its lights on and music is playing? So I'm always kind of surprised and disappointed when some people tell me that they think that the boy and the baby just die. I don't think they die. What form their new life takes is something I like people to figure out for themselves. And each person will give it a different ending.
In answer to the people who ask whether I'm going to write a sequel, they are sometimes disappointed to hear that I don't plan to do that. But in order to write a sequel, I would have to say: this is how it ended. Here they are and here's what's happening next. And that might be the wrong ending for many, many people who chose something different.
Of course there are those who could say I can't write a sequel because they die. That's true if I just said, Well, too bad, sorry, they died there in the snow, therefore that's the end, no more books. But I don't think that. I think they're out there somewhere and I think that their life has changed and their life is happy and I would like to think that's true for the people they left behind as well.
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