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Engage in a pre-reading activity and learn about the author and genre of Lois Lowry's novel, The Giver, to prepare for a thought-provoking exploration of a utopic or dystopic society.
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Pre-reading activity Get out a sheet of notebook paper. Tear it into five pieces of about equal size. Give each piece of paper a number, 1-5. Use a marker or dark pen.
Statement #1 Rules and laws in society should be decided by a select few, such as judges and elected officials.
Statement #2 Everyone in a society has a right to question the rules.
Statement #3 The study of history is more important to society than the study of science.
Statement #5 It is impossible for humans to live in a completely peaceful community.
Statement #6 Not everyone should be allowed to have children.
Statement #7 Obedience to the law is essential to a peaceful and just society.
Statement #8 Exaggerating is the same thing as lying.
Statement #9 Parents and teachers should have a say in determining their child’s/student’s fate (classes, university choice, career choice, choice of spouse, etc.)
Statement #10 I would sacrifice certain freedoms (freedom of choice, freedom of expression, etc.) in order to live in a world without physical or emotional pain.
Create your ideal world On the handout given to you, list two major problems you see in the world that, if solved, would create an “ideal world,” or something close to it. Then, describe how you would go about solving those problems.
Background to The Giver Lois Lowry was born in 1937 in Honolulu, Hawaii. She has also written Number the Stars, Anastasia Krupnik, and Gathering Blue, among other stories. Most of her stories are written specifically for a teenage audience. She says that she writes to “help adolescents answer their own questions about life, identity, and human relationships.”
Genre of The Giver The Giver is a novel and a work of fiction, which means we must pay special attention to point of view, setting, plot, characterization, and theme, always asking ourselves how the writer creates her intended effect on us, the readers, and what she might want us to think or feel in response to her words. The Giver can be viewed as either a utopicordystopicnovel.
Genre, cont. Utopia: a place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and conditions; a “perfect world” Dystopia: A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control.
You decide… As you read, pay special attention to the society in which Jonas lives. Think about the characteristics that might make it seem perfect, as well as those that make it seem like something is very wrong.
