The Giver Ch. 4-5

          Chapter four begins with Jonas going to do some volunteer hours at the House of the Old.  He is going with his friends Asher and Fiona to help take care of the old people.  When he gets there, the attendant says that she is happy to have helpers, because they celebrated a release that morning.  When they celebrate a release, it usually makes everything else a little late.

       Jonas and Fiona go to help wash the old people.  Jonas helps an old woman get into a bathtub, and he begins to wash her.  He likes this job, because the woman enjoys it, and Jonas doesn't understand why people have wear clothes all the time.  He thinks the woman seems relaxed, trusting, and free.  While Jonas washes the woman, she tells him about the celebration of release that happened in the morning.  Her friend, Roberto, got released.  Before he got released, his life story had been told, and everyone cheered because his life was very wonderful.  Then, he went to the release room, and he was very happy to be released.  Jonas asks the woman, "Where exactly did Roberto go?"  But the woman doesn't know.


          Chapter five begins the next morning, with the morning ritual.  At this ritual, the family member tell their dreams.  Usually, Jonas doesn't dream, but this morning he has a dream to tell.  He begins to tell his family about the strange dream.

          In the dream, Jonas was in the bathing room at the House of the Old.  But there was only one bathtub, and the only people there were Jonas and Fiona.  Jonas was a little angry, because he wanted Fiona to take off her clothes and get into the tub.  He wanted to bathe her.  He felt a very strong feeling of wanting, but he didn't understand this feeling.

        Jonas' mother and father tell Lily to go to school, but they tell Jonas to wait so they can talk to him.  When Lily is gone, Jonas' mother tells him that his feeling of wanting is called "Stirrings", and those feelings are normal for boys his age.  Jonas knows that when people have "Stirrings" they need to have treatment, so he is unhappy.  He asks his mother what will happen.  She gives him a pill.  She says he needs to take medicine every day for the rest of his life, until he is old.  This medicine takes away all the feelings of wanting that Jonas had from the "Stirrings."

Vocabulary words:  relaxed, trusting, free, treatment, pill, medicine
Words with special meaning for this book: celebration of release, wanting, Stirrings

Comprehension Questions:
1.  What did Jonas do for his volunteer hours?
2.  How did the old people feel about release?
3.  What happened at the celebration of release?
4.  What did Jonas dream about?
5.  What did Jonas have to do to take care of his "Stirrings"?

* THINK- What are "Stirrings"?  Do you think people ever have sex in Jonas' Community?  How do you feel about this?