Format/Style

Comments

The book is 8 ¼ inches in length and 5 1/2 inches in width. The actual text is 225 pages in length. There are an additional 25 pages dedicated to interviews with the cast of the film version of the text. In total, the book is 240 pages.

Middle

The font is 12 point, Centaur MT, black, and consistent throughout the text.

Middle

The layout of the text is very conventional. The introduction is titled as such, without fanfare. The chapters are simply numbered. Each chapter begins with a single enlarged letter (1/2 inch) of the first starting letter of the text. These do not spell out anything when organized sequentially.

The margins are equal in size, roughly ¾ inch.

Towards the end, there is a single black page with white lettering titling the cast interviews which follow.

Middle

This version of the narrative is at the lower end of quality. This particular edition was printed after the release of the film in 2014.

Low

At the start of the text, there is an introduction written by Lois Lowry, the author, celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the text. The novel contains twenty-three chapters, simply numbered without titles. There are an additional 25 pages dedicated to interviews with the cast of the film version of the book at the end of the text.

Low

There are no illustrations in the text.

Middle

The central conflict is that of an individual against society. Jonas must struggle against the ideology of his community as he becomes increasingly aware of the memories of the past.

Middle

The central conflict is that of an individual against society. Jonas must struggle against the ideology of his community as he becomes increasingly aware of the memories of the past.

Middle

There are two central conflicts with the story. The first is man vs self. This struggle is found in both the protagonist of Jonas and within the receiver. Should the community continue to function the way it has for seemingly a number of generations? Should one suffer for the greater good? What is right?

An external conflict is man vs. society. Jonas struggles against the expectations of the society to cut off emotions and memories of the past. He especially struggles against the community’s view on life, as he flees with little Gabriel at the end of the story to protect him from being released (death).

High

Since this is a large discussion in our own modern day society over human rights, students should be able to make connections.

Human right violations occur all over the world, the pairing of informational texts to accompany this novel should be fairly easy to find.

Middle

Genre

This is an young adult science-fiction novel. It incorporates many of the similar elements found in numerous texts in the same genre for this age group.

It fits well into the common core literary standards for 7th grade English.

Middle

The setting is dystopian, at some point in the future. The community seems isolated within the book with limited outside contact from other communities.

However, the Giver’s memories go far back in time. It is clear that this society is quite advance as they are able to not only control the weather, but emotions and perception of color as well.

Middle

This book has somewhat an unconventional chronology. Jonas receives memories from the communities past from the Receiver. These memories are not sequential but chosen either for the pain, lesson, or joy the memory might bring.

There a few climatic moments. One is when Jonas is given the task of Receiver. Another is when he discovers the truth of ‘release.’ The last is when he finally separates from his community to save Gabriel’s life.

The story does not cleanly resolve, as Jonas and Gabriel’s fate at the end of the story are largely unknown.

Middle

There are two main characters and well as several supporting characters. The giver and Jonas are the main characters, but Jonas is the story’s protagonist. Jonas’s family plays a large role.

Jonas’s father is a nurturer within the community, who’s lies and release of the twin especially affects Jonas. His mother works for the Department of Justice and sentences people for release for crimes. Lily is Jonas’s sister and she is four years younger than her brother. Gabriel is also a part of the family unit as the father tries to heal the baby’s failure to thrive in this cold, emotionless society.

Asher is Jonas’s friend, who struggles to adhere to the sameness but unlike Jonas is committed to do so. Fiona is also a friend but becomes more of a love interest, although only one-sided.

Jonas does grow throughout the story, but this mostly relates to his loss of innocence about his community.

Since the action of the story is set into a dystopian setting, there is less realism; however, the struggle against these flaws of society are quite similar.

Middle

The point-of-view of the story is third person, limited. The viewpoint is from the outlook of the narrative’s protagonist, Jonas. The protagonist has just come to the age of 12, which is the community’s age set for all children born within that year, not the children’s actual age.

This point-of-view does not change within the text.

Middle

The writer keeps the writing consistent. There is emphasis on word choice in the text. The society places a high expectation of the choice of words as they must choose words that have the exact meaning without any exaggeration.

Middle

The style and tone of the novel is consistent throughout.

This is a coming of age tale and it stays within that genre and most texts have the protagonist experience loss.

Middle

There are quite a number of literary devices with in text such as metaphors and similes. Any text for this age level should have a fair number of these in the writer’s descriptive writing.

There is the foreshadowing of pain by the leader during the graduation of from an 11 to a 12.

Students might struggle more with the symbolism in the text. An example of this is when Jonas first sees the color red in an apple and then again in Fiona’s skin and hair.

Students might struggle to make the connection to the biblical story of Adam and Eve who both lost their innocence too due to an apple. The apple and its color could also be linked as a symbol of life; however, this is arguably less strong.

Symbols are a much more difficult literary device for students to understand as it relates to their overall understanding and knowledge of the world and literature. Students will need additional support here.

High

Some scaffolding of utopias vs dystopias would be beneficial. Discussions about how an individual’s rights are protected in our own society, with a dive into perhaps those pertinent parts to our own constitution might also be beneficial. As this is the current topic in our own culture, students might make the connection quickly; however, students only study the U.S. constitution in 8th grade.

Students must have knowledge of ethics as well before reading.

High