Words=Ideas?

When Jonas begins recieving memories from the Giver, he doesn't always have the words to describe what he experiences and feels.

Provide an insightful explanation to the question: Can an idea exist without the words to express it? How does their "precision of language" act as another form of oppression for the community?

Color

In The Giver, people cannot see color. When Jonas finally begins to see color he doesn't even know how to describe it, because he doesn't have the vocabulary.

Choose a color and describe it to someone who is blind, use other senses and objects to help you describe it.

Importance of Memory

The Giver seems to believe that memory is an important part of gaining wisdom and shaping the future.

Do you believe you need to know about the past in order to be wise?
Do you think knowing the past can be valuable in shaping the future?

Support your answer with examples from the book, other stories, news, history, or your personal life.

Utopia

What point was the author making about Utopian societies? How did she convey this message?

Sameness/Diversity

The Giver pictures a community in which every person and his or her experience is precisely the same. The climate is controlled, and competition has been eliminated in favor of a community in which everyone works only for the common good.

Argue the benefits of sameness? Is the loss of the diversity worth the cost?

Choice?

In the Giver, Jonas states that with color comes choice, something that the people are not allowed to have. They are told what their jobs will be, with whom they will live and provide rules to govern their lives.

Why is the community willing to sacrifice choice? What do they gain in exchange for simple freedoms?

Why suffering?

Describe the role of pain and difficulty in our lives. Why must there be suffering in the world?

Dystopic Stories

There are many books and movies that portray a utopian society gone terribly wrong. They are characterized by governmental, technological or corporate oppression of the people.

Choose one of the following: 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Minority Report, The Truman Show or I Robot and explain how it is a dystopic story. Use specific examples from the books/films.

Release?

The concept of "release" is introduced in The Giver and some have argued that it is similar to the practice of abortion and euthanasia in our society today.

Do you agree or disagree? Why?

What are Memories?

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.
~From the television show The Wonder Years

God gave us memories that we might have roses in December.
~J.M. Barrie, Courage, 1922


Memory is a child walking along a seashore. You never can tell what small pebble it will pick up and store away among its treasured things.
~Pierce Harris, Atlanta Journal

Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.
~Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest"

The past is never dead, it is not even past.
~William Faulkner

Life is a rough biography. Memories smooth out the edges.
~Dante G. Roque


Choose one of the above quotes and either agree or disagree with it. Explain your position using specific examples from life/your experience. Make sure you include the quotation to which you are writing a response.