Student Question
What is a key word from The Giver starting with "u"?
Quick answer:
A key word starting with "u" from The Giver is "usages," highlighting the importance of precise language in Jonas's community. Proper word use is crucial to maintain Sameness, as seen when Asher is punished for misusing a word. Another relevant "u" word is "units," used to describe family groups, emphasizing their impersonal nature. The society strives for uniformity, allowing limited individual differences, but "uniform" mainly refers to clothing in the text.
A key word that starts with the letter “u” is “usages.”
Usage, or word use, is very important to Jonas’s community. Part of Sameness is ensuring people use proper language to describe things. Precise language is considered one of the most important aspects of daily life.
Lily explains she felt uncomfortable when she met a group from another community who knew different usages than her group:
Lily frowned. "I felt strange. Because their methods were different. They were learning usages that my group hadn't learned yet, so we felt stupid" (Chapter 1).
The importance of proper word use is reinforced by the story told about Asher at the Ceremony of Twelve. He used the wrong word as a toddler and he was beaten until he used the right one.
The other Threes, including Jonas, had laughed nervously. "Snack!" they corrected. "You meant snack, Asher!" But the mistake...
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had been made. And precision of language was one of the most important tasks of small children. Asher had asked for a smack (Chapter 7).
Asher stopped talking for a time after that, but eventually did learn to use the right word. Consequences in the community are harsh, because conformity is the goal.
Precision of language is considered important to avoiding lying, or making anyone uncomfortable. For example, Jonas was once scolded for saying he was starving. They explained to him that he was just hungry, and he would never be starving. No one in the community will ever be starving.
The community still remembers words that no longer have meaning to them. For example, Jonas asks his parents if they love him after experiencing love in a memory. His parents tell him he has used a worthless and imprecise word that has no meaning.
What is an important "U" word in The Giver?
Is this question about a word that appears a lot in The Giver or about a word that would apply to the book? I will give one answer for each possibility.
If I could choose a “U” word that really applies to what this book is about, it would be “uniform” or “uniformity.” The society in this book attempts to make its people uniform in almost every way. It does allow for some individual differences in skills and aptitudes when it assigns people their jobs, but it strives for uniformity in practically every other way.
However, the word “uniform” does not show up much in the book. When it does, it refers to clothing, not to the overall society. If I had to pick a “U” word that is in the book, I would pick “units.” I would pick this word because it occurs almost every time the word “family” occurs. I believe that Lowry chooses to call the families in this book “family units” to show how they are not families as we understand them. They are not bonded by blood and not even really bonded by love. Instead, they are just units of people. This word conveys to me the impersonality of their community life.