The Giver, Chapter 17 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. What unusual event occurs at the beginning of Chapter 17?

   • A Ceremony of Twelve is announced ahead of schedule
   • Correct answer: An unscheduled holiday is declared for the community
   • The Giver cancels Jonas's training for the day
   • A new child is unexpectedly assigned to Jonas's family

   The chapter opens with the community loudspeaker announcing an unscheduled holiday, giving everyone an unexpected day off from school and work.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Why have Jonas's Stirrings returned?

   • The community changed the medication formula recently
   • The Giver transmitted a memory that triggered them permanently
   • Jonas has reached a new stage of biological development
   • Correct answer: Jonas has stopped taking the daily pills he was told to take

   Jonas stopped taking the pills that suppress Stirrings. Without the medication, his natural feelings and desires have returned.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What game are Jonas's friends playing when he finds them?

   • Correct answer: A game of war where they pretend to shoot each other
   • A ball game organized by the recreation committee
   • A catching and throwing game on the path near the river
   • A race on bicycles along the path beside the river

   Asher, Fiona, and other children are playing a game of war, pretending to shoot one another and falling down dramatically as if wounded or killed.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Why does the war game horrify Jonas?

   • He is worried that the children will accidentally injure each other
   • He remembers being punished for playing rough games as a child
   • Correct answer: He carries the real memory of a battlefield with dying soldiers
   • The Giver specifically told him that all games are forbidden

   The Giver transmitted to Jonas the authentic memory of warfare, complete with wounded and dying soldiers in terrible agony. The children's lighthearted imitation of this horror is unbearable for him.

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5. 5

   Question 5. How does Asher react when Jonas asks the children to stop playing the war game?

   • Correct answer: He gets angry and says that games are not Jonas's area
   • He ignores Jonas completely and continues playing silently
   • He agrees at once and promises never to play war again
   • He becomes frightened and asks Jonas what is wrong

   Asher is irritated ("You ruined it") and angrily points out that he is the one training for Assistant Recreation Director, so games are not Jonas's area. He mumbles an apology but cannot understand why Jonas is so disturbed.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What important realization does Jonas have about his friends in Chapter 17?

   • He realizes they have been secretly receiving memories of their own
   • He realizes they are deliberately ignoring how much he is suffering
   • Correct answer: He realizes he loves them but they can never truly love him back
   • He realizes they will soon be assigned different life roles

   Jonas understands that he genuinely loves Asher and Fiona, but because they lack the capacity for deep emotion that comes with real memory, they can never reciprocate that love in a meaningful way.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What ability has Jonas now fully developed as a result of the transmitted memories?

   • The ability to read other people's private thoughts
   • The ability to predict future events before they occur
   • The ability to hear music that others cannot detect
   • Correct answer: The ability to see colors fully in a colorless world

   Through receiving memories from The Giver, Jonas has developed the full ability to see colors, perceiving the world with a richness that his family and friends cannot see.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does Father say he will do when the identical twins are born tomorrow?

   • Send both twins Elsewhere, where another community will raise them
   • Correct answer: Weigh them, give the larger to a Nurturer, and release the smaller
   • Let the Chief Elder decide which of the two twins will stay here
   • Keep both twins together and place them with one family unit

   Father explains that he weighs the twins, hands the larger one to a Nurturer who is waiting, and performs "a small Ceremony of Release" for the smaller one. Lily sums it up in a chant: "One for here, one for Elsewhere."

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9. 9

   Question 9. What literary device is most prominent in the war game scene?

   • Metaphor, comparing the game to a dance performance
   • Correct answer: Dramatic irony, since Jonas and the reader understand what the children do not
   • Flashback, showing Jonas's memories of his own childhood games
   • Personification, giving human qualities to the weapons in the game

   Dramatic irony is central to the scene: both Jonas and the reader understand the terrible reality of war that the children are innocently reenacting, while the children themselves have no concept of real violence or death.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What theme does Chapter 17 primarily explore?

    • The benefits of Sameness in preventing conflict among citizens
    • The power of friendship to overcome any obstacle or barrier
    • The importance of following community rules and traditions
    • Correct answer: The cost of awareness and the isolation that knowledge brings

    Chapter 17 centers on the cost of awareness: Jonas's knowledge and emotional depth have enriched his life but have also made him profoundly isolated from everyone around him.

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11. 11

    Question 11. How does the unscheduled holiday function in the chapter's narrative?

    • It gives the community a chance to prepare for an upcoming Ceremony
    • It provides a setting for Jonas to practice transmitting memories alone
    • Correct answer: It creates a carefree atmosphere that contrasts with Jonas's inner anguish
    • It allows Jonas to visit The Giver for an extra training session

    The holiday creates a joyful, carefree atmosphere that stands in sharp contrast to Jonas's inner turmoil, highlighting through juxtaposition how separated he has become from the community's simple pleasures.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does Chapter 17 suggest about the relationship between memory and morality?

    • Correct answer: Moral understanding depends on experiencing or knowing about real suffering
    • People are naturally moral regardless of what memories they hold
    • Only the Elders need memories to make ethical decisions for everyone
    • Memories are dangerous and should be suppressed to keep people safe

    The chapter demonstrates that without the memory of real suffering, the community's children cannot recognize the cruelty they are reenacting, suggesting that moral understanding requires knowledge of pain and consequence.

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