GUIA PARA LITERATURE

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The Giver – Study Guide Questions - ANSWERS
Chapter One:
1. Define the following:
 Utopia:a perfect place
 Distraught: to be mentally overwhelmed; to have a lot of things on your mind
 Apprehensive: to be nervous or uneasy
2. How does the author get the reader into the book?The author gets the reader
into the book by telling us about this major event that has everyone af raid only
to realize it is just a plane. But the pilot has broken the rules of this community and
caused everyone to be alarmed.
3. Describe the evening ritual.
The evening ritual is where everyone has to share out their feelings with the
family.
4. What does Lily mean when she says the visitors acted like animals?
The community does not have animals, but they heard that animals use to be
wild. So she means the children were acting wild.
5. What is Jonas’ father occupation? Nurturer – He takes care of the physical and
emotional needs of the newchildren.
6. What is a family unit?A family unit is composed of 1 father, 1 mother, 1 sister, and
1 brother. The families are assigned by the Elders, which is how mom and dad
received Lily.
7. From whose point of view is the story told?The narrator is telling the story in a 3rd
person “limited” point of view. But, she or he is telling the story through Jonas’
thoughts only.
8. What have you learned about the society?The society tries to be perfect by
having many rules.
9. How is Jonas’ family like your family and different from your family? (Use a T-Chart,
Compare and Contrast Essay Organizer, or a Venn Diagram) – answers
will depend upon the student.
10. What do you know about “release” in the book’s society? What is your feeling
about release?

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So far, release means to let someone go f rom the society. You can be released if
you are a criminal, a newchild that is not developing, or an elder.
11. How is the care of children different in Jonas’ w orld from your w orld?
Answers will vary by student.
Chapter Two:
1. How many new children were in the group presented at the yearly December
ceremonies?50
2. What is the private conversation his parents have in Chapter 2 with Jonas?The
parents tell Jonas about the assignment process, or how the Ceremony of
Twelve is conducted. Each of the Twelves will receive an assignment based on
their skills and interest, where they volunteered, and what the Elders have
observed f rom them.
3. Identify the following items from the book:
a. Ceremony of One – It is the ceremony where all of the 50newchildren turn
one, receive their families, and receive their names.
b. Naming – The newchildren receive their names at the Ceremony of Ones.
Before then, they go by numbers.
c. Bicycles – Everyone in the community rides bicycles. There are no cars or
public transportation (NO POLLUTION IN THIS PERFECT SOCIETY).
d. Ceremony of Nine – At the ceremony of nines, all the nines receive their
bikes. All of the girl nines can take out their hair ribbons.
e. Comfort Object – Each child is given a stuf fed animal to comfort it. At 8, you
have to give up your comfort object.
4. What rule has Jonas’s father broken?He looked at the naming list to find
Gabriel’s name if he makes it to the Ceremony of Ones.
5. What was one of the few rules that was not taken very seriously and was almost
always broken in the community?Children cannot ride bikes until they are nine.
6. Explain how Lily had come into Jonas’s family.
They received her at the Ceremony of Ones af ter they had given their
application to the elders for a girl.

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7. How were rules changed in the community?The Committee of Elders had to
change them, but it was really hard to change a rule.
8. Why was the Ceremony of Twelve the most important of all Ceremonies? The
Twelves got their assignments (jobs) at the their ceremony.
9. Explain w hy Jonas’s father had expected to be giv en the Assignment as Nurturer
at his own Ceremony of Twelve.Jonas’ father loved working with the
newchildren. He spent all of his volunteer hours at the Nurturing Center, and the
Elders had observed that f rom him.
10. How did life change for Elevens after the Ceremony of Twelve?They had to
become more mature. They had assignments (or jobs) now in society. They
would make f riends who had their same assignments, and would see less of their
childhood friends.
11. What w as Lily’s comfort object and w hen did she get it?Lily received her comfort
object as a newchild, and her comfort object was an elephant.
12. Though Jonas’s parents had reassured him about the ev ent, why was the boy’s
mind still on the December Ceremony?He did not know what his assignment
would be based on his life.
13. How do the people receive their Assignment?The Elders assigned the assignment
to you based on their observations and your skills and interest.
14. Define these vocabulary words from chapters 1-2. Vocabulary Words = rasping,
palpable, distraught, distracted, wheedle, nurturer, disposition, transgression,
apprehensive and aptitude)
a. Rasping – p. 2 (adjective) harsh or grating; the rasping voice = the harsh,
grating voice
b. palpable- p. 3 (adjective) easy to see, touch, or feel
c. distraught – p.4 (adjective) having a lot on your mind; mentally conflicted, or
overwhelmed
d. distracted – p.4 (adjective) - to have lost focus; not paying attention
wheedle – p.5 (verb) – to flatter; to sneak into by getting on someone’s good side
e. nurturer – someone who cares for someone else
f. disposition – p.7 (noun) - one’s mood, demeanor, temperament, or personality.
i.e. Ms. Westbrook’s disposition is loving, but serious.
g. transgression – p. 9 a crime; a violation (mess-up) of a law or rule; a sin
h. apprehensive – p.4 and p.8 (adjective) nervous or uneasy
i. aptitude–p. 15 (noun) – natural ability; something that comes easy to you.
I.e. Precious, Khari, and Reginald have an aptitude for drawing.

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15. Why do you think the author is building up Jonas’ Ceremony of Tw elv e? What
w ill Jonas’ Assignment be?Answers will vary based on the students.
Chapter Three:
1. What did Jonas and the newchild, that his father brought home, have in common?
They both have the same light, pale, eyes.
2. What about the society is revealed by the reaction to eye color?The community has
dark eyes. If you notice something is different about someone, don’t say anything. It
is rude to expose someone’s differences.
3. What kind of transportation did Jonas’s father use?His father rides around on a
bicycle.
4. What w as the name of the new child’s comfort object?The newchild’s object was a
“hippo.”
5. What is a Birthmother?A birthmother is someone who has been assigned to have
children for three years and then they become laborers.
6. Why is Mother so appalled w hen Lilly suggest she’d like to be a Birthmother?It is not a
valued job, and it is not respected.
7. When did children in the community begin their volunteer hours?Volunteer hours
begin at age 8.
8. What w as the new child’s name?The newchild’s name was Gabriel.
9. What public announcement, specifically directed at Jonas, had been made the
month before? “Snacks are to be eaten, not hoarded.”
10. Why had the apple intrigued Jonas?He noticed that the apple had changed.
11. What had happened as Jonas watched the apple?He noticed that the apple
had changed, but did not know why.
12. What kind of clothing did Jonas wear?He wears a tunic.
13. What does the nondescript shade of the tunics and the apple tell you about the
people and society in the book?They cannot see shades of color.
14. Compare Jonas in his world to typical eleven-year olds that you may know. (You
may use a T-Chart or other graphic organizer to show your information.

Name _____________________________________
Answers may vary by the students.
15. Sort out the plusses and minuses for the facets below of the book world:
Item PLUS (+) MINUS (-)
Raising children together in age
groups
all one age that is easy to keep up
with and celebrate birthdays
together
No one feels special with their own
birthday
Birthmothers
No child has a disability because
only certain genes are passed down
from healthy mothers.
For those who cannot have children,
they do not feel any hurt or anger.
 After birthing children for 3 years,
birthmothers become laborers – hard
life.
 Mothers cannot have their own
children, but have to be assigned a
child.
Loudspeaker
Public announcements are made,
and rules are constantly being
reminded.
People become embarrassed.
Ev ening telling of feelings
Family bonding time. Emotions are repressed.
Ceremonies
celebrations Done in a group setting; no
indiv iduality.
Ceremony of Twelv e
Get an assignment Last ceremony
(students may vary).
Chapter Four:
1. Define the vocabulary:
a. Dwelling – a home.
2. What seems to be the purpose of the volunteer hours?Volunteer hours help the
Elders decide what you are good at for your assignment.
3. Why doesn’t Jonas seem to hav e a niche – “something you are really good or skilled
at”?He likes to do many things, and volunteer all over.
4. What is the nakedness rule?No one can see another person naked. Only Elders may
be seen naked to be bathed and newchildren.
5. What are the Releasing Room and the releasing ceremony? What do you think goes
on there? The life of an Elder is celebrated before they are released. The elder’s life

Name _____________________________________
story is told, and then they are sent to the releasing room. The releasing room
______________________________ (answers will vary based on student).
6. Who is Fiona? Fiona is Jonas’ f riend, a f emale Eleven. She volunteers at the House of
Old. Jonas likes her.
7. What happens if someone does not finish his or her volunteer hours before the
Ceremony of Twelve?They do not participate in the ceremony of Twelves, and they
only have one month to f inish their volunteer hours.
8. Why do only committee members know about what happened after people are
released? Answers may vary.
9. Why do you think that people are released? Answers may vary.
10. What is your idea of the House of the Old?Answers may vary.
Chapter Five
1. Define: infraction, confide, dosage.
Infraction –p. 34 (noun) – to break a law
Confide – p. 38 (verb) – to tell someone in secret or in private
Dosage – p. 38 (noun) – a specific amount of medicine you have to take
2. What is the morning ritual?Every morning, the family shares their dreams.
3. What are stirrings in your opinion?Puberty has started, and the children begin to
have emotions and attractions to the opposite genders.
4. Why must Jonas start taking a pill every day?To keep him f rom being attracted to
girls and having dreams about them, Jonas must take the pills.
5. What hav e you found so far that the book’s society represses, or tries to hold
down?Emotions, they do not want anyone to have emotions.
Chapter Six
1. Define: Fidget, Dangle, Interdependence, and Emblem

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2. What v alues does the book’s society embrace and encourage?
3. When are the newborn named and given to a family unit?
4. What is interdependence? Give an example of interdependence from your
experiences.
5. What happens to people who are released from the community?
6. What is the difference in the book between loss and release? Why do you think that
the author points out the distinction? On what page is the distinction made?
7. Who is responsible for the children?
8. Why was Caleb lost?
9. Describe the ceremonies of the nines.
10. How do citizens find their matching spouses? How does the author build the interest
in Jonas’ Ceremony of Tw elv e?
11. Who makes the important decisions in the book’s society?
Chapter Seven
1. Define:exasperated, recollection, retroactive, acquisition, apprehensive
2. How does the Ceremony of Twelve start?
3. What do the numbers mean for each person?
4. Why is number Nineteen skipped in the Assignments?
5. What do you think Jonas’ Assignment w ill be?
6. What is the order in which the elevens are seated?
7. How are the children punished?
8. Why was Asher punished?
9. What was Jonas reaction when he was not called to receive his assignment?
Chapter Eight
1. Define:crescendo, humiliation, kinship, benign, anguish, meticulously.

Name _____________________________________
2. Why do Jonas and the audience not fill at ease at the start of Chapter 8
3. What is announced as Jonas’ Assignment? What is the job?
4. What qualities does the Chief Elder explain Jonas will need?
5. How w ill Jonas’ life change as he trains to be Receiver of Memory? Make some
predictions?
6. Describe the current Receiver of Memories.
7. Why was Jonas proud?
8. What are some of the requirements for the assignment of Receiver of Memories?
Chapter Nine
1. Define:exempt, accustomed, restriction, requisitioned, excruciating and reeled.
2. What is it like to feel different? Why is it a new sensation for Jonas at the start of
Chapter Nine? How do others now treat Jonas?
3. What happened to the Receiver selected that failed?
4. What are Jonas’ instructions for his Receiver training? Why are the rules particularly
puzzling?
5. What is the puzzle about lying, which Jonas ponders at the end of Chapter 9?
6. What puzzles do you expect in the rest of the book?
Supplemental Activities:
7. Look for ways to describe the society in the book. Record your information on an
attribute web.
8. List as many characters as you know at this point and describe who they are
9. Construct a short paragraph to discuss what is missing in the book?
10. The author uses this dedication at the beginning of the book: “For all the children to
whom we entrust the future.” What does this mean?
Chapter 10
1. Define: exhilarating and deftly.

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2. What does Jonas notice about the Receiv er of Memory’s dwelling?
3. What w ill Jonas’ position as a receiver of Memory involve?
4. Why is it important to save the memories?
5. Why does the Receiver have books but no one else has more than three?
6. How will the old receiver transmit the memory of snow to Jonas?
7. 1. Why were the doors locked at the Receiver of Memory?
8. Describe the old Receiver of Memory.
9. How did the Receiver obtain wisdom?
10. What is the simile that the old receiver uses to describe his job? What does it mean?
Chapter 11
1. Define: conveyance, frigid, and obsolete.
2. Once Jonas receives the snow and sledding, how does he feel?
3. What is climate control? Why does the community use it?
4. Just how does the Receiver of Memories’ training proceed?
5. How are The Giv er’s burdens lessened in w orking w ith Jonas?
6. What other memories are transmitted on this first day of trading?
7. Why did the book’s w orld eliminate sunshine and hill?
Chapter 12
1. Define: admonition, fretful, fleeting, relenquish.

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2. What is Jonas’ first lie?
3. Why doesn’t Jonas tell his friends about his training?
4. What w as Jonas’ dream about?
5. What rules of the old house does Fiona need to learn?
6. List the times when Jonas experienced seeing beyond.
7. What is Jonas beginning to recognize?
8. What is Jonas seeing in Fiona’s hair and the apple and the sled?
9. Why don’t the people in the book perceive colors?
10. What is Jonas’ opinion of giv ing up colors? How do you feel about the matter?
Chapter 13
1. Define: mutilated, sinuous, electrode.
2. What new meaning do the following words (ordinary, color and choice) have for
Jonas?
3. How would the elders react to the same three words?
4. Why is Jonas angry with his group mates and himself?
5. Name the difficulties or prohibitions that the giver had in his family life.
6. When is the giver called to advise the elders?
7. What does The Giver share of his personal family life?
8. How does the book’s society deal w ith adults w ith grown children? What does such
an arrangement lose?
Chapter 14
1. Define: skittered, acceleration, writhing, anguish, assuage, excruciating, distended,
ominous, wry, placidly.

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2. How does Jonas react when The Giver gives him the memory of breaking a leg in
sledding? How does Jonas’ understanding and grow ing wisdom increase after he
experiences that pain?
3. What wisdom does hunger provide?
4. What is the mood at the end of the talk between Jonas and The Giver on page
113? Why?
5. How does Jonas calm Gabriel?
6. Why does Jonas decide not to confess giv ing a memory away?
7. Why does Mother shake her head about the release of the tw in and Father’s
responsibility for it?
8. How does the Giver end each section?
9. Why does the Giver have all the memories instead of community?
10. Why are households only allowed to have two children?
Chapter 15
1. Define:contorted, grotesque, implore, carnage and immobilized.
2. Why do you think that this chapter is so short?
3. Why does The Giv er say, “Forgive me”?
Chapter 16
1. Define: ecstatic and obsolete.
2. How does Jonas learn of love?
3. Why are grandparents a new idea for Jonas?
4. What does the society lose without grandparents? What do they gain?
5. What prov okes Jonas’ first lie to his parents?
6. How does Jonas learn the meaning of warfare?
7. Why does Jonas not want to come back to the Giver?
8. What helps Jonas understand indiv iduality?
Chapter 17
1. Define: permeated, exasperation and expertise.

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2. How is the day in Chapter 17 a study in contrasts?
3. Why does Jonas stop taking his daily pills?
4. How is Gabe proceeding?
5. Why was Jonas so sensitive?
6. Why did Jonas dislike the war games?
7. What occupation does the mother want for Lily?
Chapter 18
1. Define:luminous, anguish, and imploringly.
2. What was the story of Rosemary?
3. What happened to the memories transferred to Rosemary? How were the training
rules changed as a result?
4. Why is the Giver prohibited from asking to be released?
5. What kind of memories does Rosemary receive?
6. Why w as Rosemary’s release a disaster for the community
7. Why does the Giver advise Jonas to stay away from the river?
Chapter 19
1. What does Jonas learn about rule 3 from his training rules in this chapter?
2. How does The Giv er feel about Rosemary’s release?
3. How does Lois Low ry describe Jonas’ feeling at the end of Chapter 19? How did
you feel reading this chapter? Why?
4. In the community, what is to be released?
5. Why does the community release one of the twins?
6. What is the selection process?
Chapter 20
1. Define: empowered and rueful.

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2. Why does Jonas refuse to go home?
3. Why does Jonas hav e difficulties accepting his father’s role as a releaser?
4. Why can the Giver escape?
5. How does The Giver comfort Jonas?
6. What is the plan Jonas and the Giver hatch?
7. How did The Giver first experience his sensing beyond?
8. What are the specifics of the escape plan? Will Jonas succeed in the escape?
9. What is the surprising revelation at the end of Chapter 20?
Chapter 21
10. Complete a vocabulary builder graphic organizer for the following vocabulary
words: meticulously, stealthily, rueful, frazzled, emphatically
11. What makes Jonas’ escape plan fall apart?
12. How does the first part of the escape proceed?
13. How has the mood changed by the end of Chapter 21?
14. I s Jonas justified in his escape?
15. What charges would Jonas receive if he were caught?
16. Why was Gabriel going to be released?
Chapter 22
1. Define: exquisite and tantalizing.
2. What new dangers does Jonas encounter in Chapter 22?
3. In what different ways does Jonas think about starvation?
4. Why do the number and frequency of the search planes diminish?
5. How is the landscaping changing?
6. Only one chapter of the book remains? How will it end?
Chapter 23
1. Define: imperceptibly, agonizingly, trudged and lethargy.

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2. What w eather conditions impede Jonas’ progress toward Elsewhere?
3. How do Jonas and Gabe finally get to safety?
4. What is the sensory image at the end of the book?

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