The Giver, Chapter 5 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. What daily ritual does Jonas's family perform at the beginning of Chapter 5?

   • They review their assignments and schedules for the day
   • They share their feelings about the previous day's events
   • Correct answer: They share their dreams from the previous night
   • They recite the community rules together as a family

   Chapter 5 opens with the morning dream-telling ritual, in which each family member shares the dreams they had the previous night. The evening feeling-sharing ritual was introduced in an earlier chapter.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Where does Jonas's dream take place?

   • Correct answer: In the bathing room at the House of the Old
   • In the school playground during recreation time
   • In the Nurturing Center where his father works
   • In the Auditorium during a community ceremony

   Jonas dreams he is in the bathing room at the House of the Old, a location he is familiar with from his volunteer hours helping to bathe the elderly.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Who is the other person in Jonas's dream?

   • Asher, his closest friend from school
   • Correct answer: Fiona, his friend who was there yesterday
   • His sister Lily, who is playing nearby
   • Gabe, the newchild his family is caring for

   Jonas dreams about his friend Fiona. In the dream, he wants to bathe her at the House of the Old, and she laughs and refuses.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What word does Jonas use to describe the dominant feeling in his dream?

   • Peaceful — a calm, restful sense of safety and comfort
   • Lonely — a sad feeling of being apart from everyone
   • Frightened — a sense of deep fear and anxiety
   • Correct answer: Wanting — a strong, pleasurable feeling of desire

   Jonas describes the central feeling as 'wanting' — a pleasurable sensation of desire that he had never experienced before, which his mother identifies as the Stirrings.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What are the Stirrings?

   • Correct answer: The community's term for the onset of sexual desire and attraction
   • A medical condition that only affects a small number of citizens
   • A stage of advanced training required before the Ceremony of Twelve
   • A form of punishment assigned to rule-breakers in the community

   The Stirrings are the community's euphemism for the natural onset of sexual desire and attraction during puberty. They are treated as a condition requiring immediate pharmaceutical suppression.

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6. 6

   Question 6. How does the community treat the Stirrings?

   • With reassignment to a different family unit for closer monitoring
   • With a public ceremony marking the move from childhood to adolescence
   • With group counseling sessions led by trained community mentors
   • Correct answer: With a daily pill that suppresses feelings of desire and attraction

   The community treats the Stirrings with a daily pill that suppresses desire. Jonas's mother prescribes the pill immediately after identifying his dream as the first occurrence of the Stirrings.

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7. 7

   Question 7. How long do community members continue taking the Stirrings pill?

   • Only during adolescence, stopping at the Ceremony of Twelve
   • For exactly one year after the Stirrings first appear
   • Correct answer: Until they enter the House of the Old in their elderly years
   • For the rest of their lives without any stopping point

   Community members take the pill from the onset of the Stirrings until they enter the House of the Old, meaning they are medicated for most of their adult lives.

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8. 8

   Question 8. How does Jonas's mother react when he describes his dream?

   • She becomes visibly upset and scolds Jonas for having such thoughts
   • Correct answer: She responds calmly and kindly, treating it as a routine matter
   • She is surprised because the Stirrings rarely happen at his age
   • She refuses to discuss it and tells Jonas to speak with the Elders

   Jonas's mother responds calmly and kindly, treating the Stirrings as a routine matter. She smiles, laughs in a reassuring, affectionate way, explains that the Stirrings happen to everyone, and gives him his first pill.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What happens to Jonas's feelings after he takes the pill?

   • He feels a surge of anger and resentment toward his mother
   • Nothing changes, and he keeps feeling the wanting all day
   • The feelings intensify and become more difficult to manage
   • Correct answer: The pleasurable feelings from the dream quickly fade and disappear

   After Jonas takes the pill, the pleasurable feelings from the dream quickly fade away. The pill's immediate effectiveness demonstrates how efficiently the community's pharmaceutical control operates.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What literary device is used when readers understand the significance of the Stirrings but Jonas does not?

    • Correct answer: Dramatic irony — the reader grasps what Jonas does not
    • Personification — giving human qualities to the community's rules
    • Alliteration — repeating consonant sounds for rhythmic effect
    • Metaphor — comparing the Stirrings to a physical illness

    Dramatic irony occurs because the reader understands that the community is suppressing fundamental human sexuality, while Jonas innocently accepts the Stirrings treatment as perfectly normal and routine.

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11. 11

    Question 11. Why is the dream-telling ritual significant to the community's system of control?

    • It allows citizens to process trauma in a healthy, supportive setting
    • Correct answer: It functions as surveillance, helping detect emotions that need suppression
    • It serves as entertainment, giving families something to talk about each morning
    • It strengthens family bonds through genuine and lasting emotional connection

    The dream-telling ritual functions as a form of surveillance. By requiring citizens to share their dreams, the community can detect emerging emotions — like the Stirrings — and intervene with suppressive measures immediately.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does Jonas's obedient acceptance of the pill reveal about his character at this point in the novel?

    • He is beginning to rebel against the community's authority and control
    • He is too afraid of punishment to question any rules or procedures
    • Correct answer: He trusts the community's rules and feels proud to follow them
    • He understands the pill's purpose and agrees it is genuinely beneficial

    Jonas accepts the pill without question and even feels "oddly proud to have joined those who took the pills." At this point he trusts the community's rules and does what his mother tells him.

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13. 13

    Question 13. Which theme is MOST directly explored in Chapter 5?

    • The value of volunteer work in caring for the community's elderly members
    • The importance of precise language in avoiding hurt feelings and rudeness
    • The excitement and worry of waiting for the coming Ceremony of Twelve
    • Correct answer: The suppression of natural emotions and desires to maintain social control

    Chapter 5 centers on the suppression of natural emotions and desires. The Stirrings and the pills show the community's systematic effort to remove attraction and keep its citizens calm, orderly and alike.

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