3C Symbols The Giver

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 3

Symbols

Part One

Introducing symbols in general

Welcome back!

Jackets outside

Phones in the wall bag

Bag on the floor

Put your hand up to speak

Listen to Learn

Today...

Plan:

Check homework - diary conventions

Symbols in The Giver

Goal:

Find and understand the symbols in the book. 

Let's Kahoot and check what we remember from last time

https://create.kahoot.it/share/teach-with-slides/66df4160-01a8-4374-bded-06e9535619d7

In your groups:

Discuss the following symbols and what they represent.

Think of 5 more that are familiar to you. 

Make a sketch of them and ask your neighbour to identify them. 

Symbols are everywhere

Watch the video

In your journal - 

Take notes on:

how to recognise a symbol and what it might represent

i.e what deeper meaning does it have?

What do symbols do?

In pairs: What do these emojis mean?

Symbols 

Part Two

Introducing and analysing the symbols in The Giver

Each group takes 1 symbol

Discuss what the symbol means and find where it occurs in the book. 

Present your findings to the class.

Remember the themes of the book - 

they're connected!

blue eyes

Jonas, The Giver, and Gabriel all stand out in the community because of their pale (we discover later) blue eyes.

This difference shows the impossibility of the community's efforts to control nature completely, no matter how hard it tries. In addition, the fact that only the characters with blue eyes are able to see colour (the rest of the community sees only in black and white) and to receive memories and feel true, deep emotion suggests that it is only those who are different who are able to notice the differences in others.

snow covered hills

The hill, for Jonas, represents a gateway to Elsewhere.

It signifies his realization that outside his community there is a world not dominated by Sameness.

Later, Jonas dreams of the hill and feels the need "to reach the something that waited in the distance," something "good…welcoming… [and] significant." Yet, through memories of the hill, Jonas learns the precarious relationship between joy and pain; without one, the other cannot exist.

Jonas's first experience with real pain is falling off the same sled that thrilled him only days earlier.

the river

The river forms a border of the community before continuing on to Elsewhere. As a border, the river comes to symbolize escape—crossing the river means leaving the community.

 Because it takes the life of the four-year-old Caleb, the river also symbolizes the danger inherent in that escape.

baby Gabriel

For Jonas, the newchild Gabriel is a symbol of hope and of starting over.

 Babies frequently figure as symbols of hope and regeneration in literature, and in The Giver this makes perfect sense: Gabriel is too young to have absorbed the customs and rules of the community, so he is still receptive to the powerful memories that Jonas transmits to him.

Jonas takes Gabriel with him to save Gabriel’s life, but his gesture is also symbolic of his resolve to change things, to start a new life Elsewhere.

the sled

The sled, the first memory Jonas receives from the Giver, symbolizes the journey Jonas takes during his training and the discoveries he makes. ... When, at the end of the novel, Jonas finds a real sled, it symbolizes his entry into a world where colour, sensation, and emotion exist in reality, not just in memory.

use of colour

Imagine a world without colour

How would that feel?

What meaning do different colours have? 

Do you know what the symbols are in The Giver and what they represent?

YES

NO

I'm not sure.