The Giver Discussion Questions
These are the discussion questions I wrote for my book club. You can use them to your discretion, adapt them to different books, contemplate them after reading the book yourself, or just pretend they don't exist (that works, too).
1. You could start off with a sharing of feelings, like in the book. Simply, how did this book make you feel? Why do you think it made you feel this way?
2. What are your thoughts on Jonas as a character? What are some of his strengths and weaknesses? Were you able to identify with him, or not so much? Did you find yourself caring about what happened to him, or not so much? Why?
3. Probably one of the biggest reasons that the dystopian genre is so popular is that these fictional futures tend to reflect our very real present in some form. What are some similarities you notice between Jonas’s community and ours? How does this add to your understanding of both the book and the real world?
4. When Jonas is given a new list of rules for his training to be the Receiver, he ends up considering a disturbing paradox. “What if others—adults—had, upon becoming Twelves, received in their instructions the same terrifying sentence? What if they had all been instructed, You may lie? … Now, empowered to ask questions of utmost rudeness—and promised answers—he could, conceivably … ask someone, some adult, his father perhaps: ‘Do you lie?’ But he would have no way of knowing if the answer he received were true” (Lowry 90). How does this idea seem to affect Jonas’s perception of authority and the adults in his life? What are your personal thoughts on this conundrum?
5. Examine the growing distance between Jonas and his friends and family, as his training with The Giver provides him with new perspective on life in the community. Why do you think that Jonas was able to transmit memories to Gabe, but could not help Asher to see the color red or explain true emotion to his family? When have you felt that no one truly understands your feelings or thoughts?
6. Conformity is a major theme throughout The Giver. Time and time again, we are reminded that uniqueness is generally either ignored or frowned upon in Jonas’s community; additionally, even the uniqueness of the citizens’ surroundings has been taken away with, for example, the elimination of color and climate. Considering that there are many instances in the book of things being portrayed as both positive and negative—memory, emotion, freedom of choice—what do you think the author is trying to say about so-called “Sameness”? What are some other themes you see throughout the book, and how are they portrayed?
7. Do you see symbolism in any of the characters or objects throughout the book? What ideas might they represent?
8. How does the lack of conclusiveness in the book’s ending add to your view of the story? How does considering each possibility (i.e. whether Jonas and Gabe made it to safety or froze to death) change your perspective on the events leading up to this conclusion?
1. You could start off with a sharing of feelings, like in the book. Simply, how did this book make you feel? Why do you think it made you feel this way?
2. What are your thoughts on Jonas as a character? What are some of his strengths and weaknesses? Were you able to identify with him, or not so much? Did you find yourself caring about what happened to him, or not so much? Why?
3. Probably one of the biggest reasons that the dystopian genre is so popular is that these fictional futures tend to reflect our very real present in some form. What are some similarities you notice between Jonas’s community and ours? How does this add to your understanding of both the book and the real world?
4. When Jonas is given a new list of rules for his training to be the Receiver, he ends up considering a disturbing paradox. “What if others—adults—had, upon becoming Twelves, received in their instructions the same terrifying sentence? What if they had all been instructed, You may lie? … Now, empowered to ask questions of utmost rudeness—and promised answers—he could, conceivably … ask someone, some adult, his father perhaps: ‘Do you lie?’ But he would have no way of knowing if the answer he received were true” (Lowry 90). How does this idea seem to affect Jonas’s perception of authority and the adults in his life? What are your personal thoughts on this conundrum?
5. Examine the growing distance between Jonas and his friends and family, as his training with The Giver provides him with new perspective on life in the community. Why do you think that Jonas was able to transmit memories to Gabe, but could not help Asher to see the color red or explain true emotion to his family? When have you felt that no one truly understands your feelings or thoughts?
6. Conformity is a major theme throughout The Giver. Time and time again, we are reminded that uniqueness is generally either ignored or frowned upon in Jonas’s community; additionally, even the uniqueness of the citizens’ surroundings has been taken away with, for example, the elimination of color and climate. Considering that there are many instances in the book of things being portrayed as both positive and negative—memory, emotion, freedom of choice—what do you think the author is trying to say about so-called “Sameness”? What are some other themes you see throughout the book, and how are they portrayed?
7. Do you see symbolism in any of the characters or objects throughout the book? What ideas might they represent?
8. How does the lack of conclusiveness in the book’s ending add to your view of the story? How does considering each possibility (i.e. whether Jonas and Gabe made it to safety or froze to death) change your perspective on the events leading up to this conclusion?
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