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Interpret the Text using Close Reading
ACTIVITY 2.3
continued
5 “Well . . .” Jonas had to stop and think it through. “If everything’s the same, then there aren’t any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?”
6 He looked down at himself, at the colorless fabric of his clothing. “But it’s all the same, always.”
7 Then he laughed a little. “I know it’s not important, what you wear. It doesn’t matter. But—”
8 “It’s the choosing that’s important, isn’t it?” The Giver asked him.
9 Jonas nodded. “My little brother—” he began, and then corrected himself. “No,
that’s inaccurate. He’s not my brother, not really. But this newchild that my family takes care of— his name’s Gabriel?”
10 “Yes, I know about Gabriel.”
11 “Well, he’s right at the age where he’s learning so much. He grabs toys when we
hold them in front of him— my father says he’s learning small-muscle control. And he’s really cute.”
12 The Giver nodded.
13 “But now that I can see colors, at least sometimes, I was just thinking: what if
we could hold up things that were bright red, or bright yellow, and he could choose? Instead of the Sameness.”
14 “He might make wrong choices.”
15 “Oh.” Jonas was silent for a minute. “Oh, I see what you mean. It wouldn’t
matter for a newchild’s toy. But later it does matter, doesn’t it? We don’t dare to let people make choices of their own.”
16 “Not safe?” The Giver suggested.
17 “Definitely not safe,” Jonas said with certainty. “What if they were allowed to
choose their own mate? And chose wrong?
18 “Or what if,” he went on, almost laughing at the absurdity, “they chose their
own jobs?”
19 “Frightening, isn’t it?” The Giver said.
20 Jonas chuckled . “Very frightening. I can’t even imagine it. We really have to
protect people from wrong choices.”
21 “It’s safer.”
22 “Yes,” Jonas agreed. “Much safer.”
23 But when the conversation turned to other things, Jonas was left, still, with a
feeling of frustration that he didn’t understand.
24 He found that he was often angry, now: irrationally angry at his groupmates, that they were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on. And he was angry at himself, that he could not change that
for them.
25 He tried. Without asking permission from The Giver, because he feared— or knew— that it would be denied, he tried to give his new awareness to his friends.
My Notes
Unit 2 • The Challenge of Utopia • Part 2: The Giver 67
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