Independent+Novel+Studies

__**THE GIVER**__

__**Journal Entry # 1 The Giver, December 2nd, pages covered: 1-26**__

6. What is the setting of the novel? Is the setting important or could the novel be happening anywhere? Why?

The setting of the novel is during a time when there is “sameness” and “climate control.” The book seems like it is set in the future, after snow and after sun, where everything has been controlled and there are rules for everything. It does not specify a place for because of the “sameness,” I doubt that there are countries; there are only communities and they live in a very strict community. The mood of the novel is kind of sad and dreary because everything is the same, there are rules for everything and breaking rules rarely happens. There is also a slight mood of hope because Jonas (the protagonist), sees some hope in becoming an adult, although he is very nervous. The setting isn’t too important in the novel because it never specifies a place and so the setting is almost incomplete anyways; although it is important to know that they live in a very strict community.

9. What new things are added to the original problem as the novel progresses?

Now that Jonas has finally resolved his problem of apprehensiveness, the Ceremony of Twelve comes along and he is not assigned a role in the community. He has no job. He was skipped and he is wondering what he has done wrong. He is panicking, and does not know what to do because he must have done something wrong if he was not assigned a role in the community. Later he finds out that he is to be the Receiver of Memory, which is a very important role that brings incredible pain and so he becomes very anxious for his role because he does not know what to expect.

10. What plot twists or unexpected events happen as the novel goes on?

An unexpected event that happens is when Jonas is not assigned a role in the community and the Chief Elder skips him. It is very surprising because this rarely happens and you think that Jonas does something wrong only to find out that he has been bestowed with a deep honor. He is the new official “Receiver of Memory.” It is also much unexpected when Jonas receives a memory through the Giver, by just his hands pressed onto his back. There are many unexpected twists in the story.

__**Journal Entry # 2 The Giver, December 9th, pages covered: 1-59**__

1. Why did you select this novel?

I selected this novel because I know a lot of people who have read this book and enjoyed it. My brother quite recently read this novel, and although he did not like it, I read the cover of the book and found it very interesting. Many of my friends have read this book for a book report, and say that they think it is a really good book, really interesting. Some say that they didn’t like the ending and I am curious as to why so I wanted to read it to find out. I was planning on reading “The Giver,” anyways and I thought that because this was on the shelf, I might as well start now.

4. What's going on as the story begins?

As the story begins, the life of Jonas (the protagonist) is described. It describes how he tries to understand what he is feeling about the coming ceremony that will make him an adult. Once he finally decided that he was apprehensive, he told his family about it after dinner at the daily “feelings” ritual. His parents then comforted him about the ceremony of twelve and he felt a little bit better. It explains a lot about their community and how someone may be released from the community if they make too many mistakes. It explains many of the rules like how there is only allowed two children to a family- a boy and a girl. The book begins explaining in a subtle way, everything you need to know to understand what is going on with Jonas.

7. What is the initial or first problem faced by the main character?

The first problem faced by the main character is how he is apprehensive or nervous about the Ceremony of Twelve that is to come. He struggles to find out what he is feeling about the ceremony. First, he thinks he is scared and then soon he figures he is apprehensive because after the ceremony of twelve, there will be no more play time and he will become an adult which is a very scary thing. He knows that there is nothing to worry about because his parents have gone through the ceremony but with the ceremony fast approaching, he feels very apprehensive. Jonas’ first problem is his feeling of apprehension about the Ceremony of Twelve.

__** Journal Entry # 3 The Giver, December 15th, pages covered: 1-88 **__

5. Who is telling the story? How does this person’s perspective effect the way the story is told?

The story is told in first person and by Jonas. Jonas is the protagonist and so we listen to the events from his perspective, which is helpful because we can understand all his life’s events from his point of view, so we can understand his feelings better. Reading form Jonas’ perspective effects how the story is told, because if one of his family members was telling the story if his life so far, then they would not be able to capture his exact feelings and thoughts. With Jonas narrating the story, the events that take place over this period of time are accurately told.

8. How does the author get you to read on or hold your interest?

The author uses many “cliff hangers” to end most of the chapters. A cliff hanger is when there is suspense and it ends so that you’re wondering what will happen next. The author uses a lot of suspense to end each chapter that you are wondering what will happen next. He also uses euphemisms that are hard to understand like when someone in the community is “released,” they are actually being killed. You don’t understand what the term means until you read further and as you wish to understand, you do read further.

11. Comment on the style of the novel. Is it easy or hard to follow the events?

The style of the novel is a very simple and basic way to write a story but if it were more complicated, then it would be quite difficult to understand. I really like the way the novel is written because it makes you want to keep reading and although it isn’t the style of novel I would usually read, I like this style too. It is easy to follow the events in the story because it is written very well and even though there are talks of the past in which you might not understand, everything is explained later, in conversations with people in the community. Everything I have read so far, is easy to follow.

__**Journal Entry # 4 The Giver, Januar**__ **__y 6th, pages covered: 1-138__**

13. To what age group is the novel aimed? Support your answer with evidence.

The novel “The Giver” is aimed towards almost all people because the book has many scenes where it would be inappropriate for children under the age of eight, but people older than that could find it interesting without being too offended. Some memories form the past in which the Giver gives to Jonas (the Receiver) are so dark and horrible and mangled that it could be quite frightening for small children. This book paints pictures that are clear in your mind and, they gave me a sense of dread so I think that memories of war and people dying around him, or when he breaks his leg and vomits blood, would be inappropriate for children.

14. Is there a message or main theme emerging in the book? How is it shown?

The message that has come to me so far is that “choices in life are important.” It is shown to me by how Jonas is seeing memories of life or death choices, and how he thinks that love would be nice to share with grandparents which they don’t have where they are. However, Jonas also think that it would be dangerous to have love in the communities for reasons he cannot explain. The community chose sameness, long, long ago and so now there are no differences, no choices to be made and everything is decided for you. Jonas thinks that decisions should be made and he wishes he could make decisions but he also thinks that it could be dangerous. I think that “choices” is the message because of Jonas’ want for decisions.

20. Is the novel believable?

I think that the novel is believable because I think that the future could be as dry and uneventful as it is in “The Giver.” If people became scared enough that they wanted life to be simple and easy than I think that what they call “sameness” could truly happen. I’m not sure how believable the part about the Giver holding everyone’s memories from the past is, because transmitting memories through touching someone’s back with your hands doesn’t seem very likely. However, the way they describe it could make it seem real and believable with the use of language. There is almost nothing extraordinary in this novel that would make it unbelievable except for the way of transmitting memories but believing that part all depends on if you believe in magic; and I do.

__**Journal entry # 5 The Giver, January 13th, pages covered: 1-179/all**__

16. What is the climax of the novel?

The climax of the novel in “The Giver” is when Jonas is trying to run away from Sameness and from his community as the Giver had planned. Jonas has taken Gabe with him and therefore he had to change the plans because he had to leave earlier then was expected and instead of riding in a truck that delivers food to his community, he needs to use his strength to peddle a bike carrying himself and a baby. The reason he took Gabe was because he was supposed to be released but Jonas had come to think of him as a brother and he would not let them kill him. During the climax, while they are bicycling away, search-planes are sent out to find them and they can never sleep during the night because that is the only safe time for them to travel. They have quite a few close calls but they finally make it to where search-planes stop searching.

21. Why would you (or why wouldn't you) recommend this novel to a friend?

 I wouldn’t recommend this novel to a friend because most of my friends would probably not enjoy it. When I recommend a book to people I want to be sure that they will like the book because otherwise they insult what I love and then there could be arguments. I don’t think that some of my friends would enjoy it because the only area in which there is a lot of action happening is the climax and there aren’t any werewolves or vampires, in the story which at the moment seems to be the trend. It is more of a classical style of book that only people who love great literature would enjoy. I may, however, recommend this book to a parent because I think that they would enjoy Jonas’ quest as much as I did, as they have read many books in their life and would undoubtedly recognize the greatness.

22. Why did (or didn't) the novel meet your expectations?

The novel met my expectations in most ways except one; the ending was not up to my standards. In the end, there is not necessarily a happy ending which is my favorite type; there is only confusion on how the book ended. The end provides no certainty on whether Jonas and Gabe survived the snow and made it to Elsewhere or whether they died and were hallucinating just before their death. The story ends with only confusion. Although I hope that they truly made it to Elsewhere and I choose to believe that they did, there is always that question in the back of my mind. The novel did meet my expectations with the rest of plot, because it was intriguing and full of mystery although I did not like experiencing horrible memories with Jonas. The writing also met my expectations because, the writing was so good and easy to follow (until the end), that I was actually experiencing everything that Jonas was experiencing, and therefore the writing was excellent.

__**FOCUS ASSIGNMENT: **__

__#3 Your Reaction__

My reaction to “The Giver” was a good one because I enjoyed it immensely although I would not recommend it to other people that are my age unless they liked classic books. This book is not really a story that kids of my generation would appreciate as they are more into vampires and werewolves. I would not recommend this to any boys either because I don’t think that they would find enough action in this story. My brother said he detested this book because it was boring and so I have learned that not many people can appreciate stories such as “The Giver.”

The novel “The Giver,” had a theme that was quite easy to identify; I believe that the theme was about making choices and decisions because Jonas had never known a life of choice and therefore when he discovered that before ‘Sameness” there had been choice, he wishes he had the option of decision. The author was quite successful in providing what the theme was for her readers because it was quite plain to me from reading the book once; Sometimes it takes a couple of rereads before one is able to find the meaning in a story and therefore Lois Lowry did an excellent job at getting the message across.

I found that in this novel, most was easy to believe because it could exist somewhere in some point in time but there was a part that I found would be unbelievable to other readers. This was the part in which the Giver transferred memories to the Receiver; the way he transferred memories was by placing his hands on the back of the Receiver and he would simply think of the memory. Although that was the most unbelievable part, it was not the most bizarre because, the most bizarre part in the story was how they murdered people if they made three mistakes, or if there were to be twin babies; Instead of trying to help them change their ways, they simply injected some sort of venom into their system which would kill them almost instantaneously. I thought however, that it was very interesting how they divided each age group and kept many important ways of living among them in a very orderly fashion.

The author taught me many things through the novel but, mostly she taught me to be thankful for everything I have, like my will to decide. Everyone knows that decisions can be difficult and sometimes people make the wrong choice, but our right to choose helps us learn from our mistakes and life. “The Giver” also helped me to understand that it is important to stand up for what you believe in because what you believe in could be what is the right thing to do; Jonas stands up for what he believes in when he takes the baby Gabe and runs away from the Sameness and from the murdering of children and adults alike. He saves Gabe’s life because he knew that murder was not right.

I don’t think that I would read more books by Lois Lowry because although I enjoyed “The Giver,” I don’t think that her style of writing is my preferred reading. I love books with happy endings where you can understand that everything will be alright but when I read this book, there were still questions in my mind. I didn’t know whether Jonas had failed his mission and he had died and I did not know if his mission had been successfully and he truly had found “Elsewhere.” I wanted to believe that he had been successful but it was very hard to tell.

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