Chapter 1 of The Giver

To start the book, Jonas is riding home from school on his bicycle . He is thinking about his feelings for that day. He finally decides that he is feeling apprehensive for something that was happening in December, but from the way Lois Lowry writes, we didn't know what was going to happen in December. What did you except was going to happen to Jonas in December? In the first chapter we also learn that the children were taught to be careful with the way they use the word "release". We don't learn why they have to be careful with this word until the very end of the book. What did you think the word "release" meant? At first, I thought it meant to be killed, but, then when I read what they were telling Jonas, I thought it meant that someone was released from the community and let into the "Real World". Towards the end of Chapter 1, Jonas's family does the daily "sharing of feelings". I thought that was kind of corny and dumb, but it showed us their community's way of life. If you had to share your feelings for today, what would you say?