12 year-old Jonas is given a huge responsibility in Lois Lowry's "The Giver." He will be the one person who remembers the past in a society committed only to the present and to the lack of emotional depth, a plan they call Sameness. As you read Lois Lowry's "The Giver," learn this word list that focuses on feelings.
Occasionally, when supplies were delivered by cargo planes to the landing field across the river, the children rode their bicycles to the riverbank and watched,
intrigued, the unloading and then the takeoff directed to the west, always away from the community.
The children would also be scolded for showing any feelings of contempt or derision (synonyms that mean "open disrespect for a person or thing"). In this community that relies on cooperation, cheering happens more often than jeering.
Even the children were scolded if they used the term lightly at play,
jeering at a teammate who missed a catch or stumbled in a race.
Here, Asher is using the wrong word to describe his feeling, since he wasn't upset but distracted with salmon-watching. This sentence would be more fitting if it had been Jonas describing his feeling in watching an airplane streak twice above the community; it could also foreshadow a later scene involving Jonas and airplanes.
The family could smile at Lily's defiant gesture because she is only a Seven whose clenched fist is not opposing but supporting the community, since it is directed at a visiting Seven who didn't obey the rules. Even so, the family helps Lily to resolve her anger, and she apologizes for making the fist. This scene can be contrasted with Jonas's later acts of defiance, which increasingly require more boldness.
She held up a clenched fist and the rest of the family smiled at her small
"Resolve" also means "reach a conclusion after a discussion or deliberation"--both definitions fit the purpose of the "evening telling of feelings" ritual; this sounds like a healthy way for families to bond, but as Jonas is discovering, it is also uncomfortably forced, since feelings can be too complicated or private to resolve in an after-dinner discussion.
Lily’s feelings were always straightforward, fairly simple, usually easy to
"Humiliation" also means "state of disgrace or loss of self-respect"--both definitions fit because Jonas knew he'd done something wrong, everyone had known he'd done something wrong, and the public announcement called attention to the fact that he'd done something wrong.
Everyone had known, he remembered with
humiliation, that the announcement attention, this is a reminder TO MALE ELEVENS THAT OBJECTS ARE NOT TO BE REMOVED FROM THE RECREATION AREA AND THAT SNACKS are TO BE eaten, not hoarded had been specifically directed at him, the day last month that he had taken an apple home.
a feeling of deep regret (usually for some misdeed)
The role the apple plays here could be compared to the fruit in the story of Eve in the Garden of Eden: both knew the rule, yet were tempted to break it by the possibility of a strange knowledge; both experienced feelings of shame and disgrace. Unlike Jonas, no amount of remorse or apologizing could help Eve regain her place; unlike Eve, Jonas soon discovers that his place is not paradise.
No one had mentioned it, not even his parents, because the public announcement had been sufficient to produce the appropriate