Entering 10th grade
REQUIRED READING: GRAPES OF WRATH
BY: JOHN STEINBECK
REQUIRED READING: THE GIVER
BY:LOIS LOWRY
All students entering 10th grade are required to read Grapes of Wrath and The Giver
and then complete the following short answer questions on a separate sheet of paper.
All answers should be written in complete sentences and with skill level appropriate
word and sentence usage. Students should provide enough information to completely
answer the question.
Grapes of Wrath
Please write the following questions on a separate sheet of paper and answer each one.
Make sure you write your answers in complete sentences and write enough information
to answer the question completely.
1. What is the meaning of the ride Tom gets from a trucker? What about the "No
2.
3.
4.
5.
Riders" sign?
How does Casy interpret the idea of the 'Holy Spirit'? What is the significance of
his comments? Why isn't he a preacher anymore? What is the essence of his
beliefs? Is Casy a corrupt ex-preacher or an enlightened person? What did he
discover?
What is the significance of the figure of Noah? What does his name suggest? (is
this significant in the context of the torrential rains and floods of the last
chapters of the novel?). What are his main characteristics? What is his attitude
toward "things people wanted and needed"? Why is he that way? Is Noah
symbolic in some way? Of what? What possibilities (utopian perhaps) does he
represent?
What is the effect of the songs of the guitar player? Is this situation a symbol? Is
it in any way related to the storytelling craft of the Steinbeck? What is the
purpose of art?
How does Steinbeck define the danger of machines? What makes technology a
threat to humanity? What are the "paradoxes of industry" that Steinbeck refers
to? What do they result in?
The Giver
1. Describe your own utopian society. (How would people be organized? into
family units? How would people get their jobs? What would people eat? etc.)
2. What is Jonas’ Assignment? What is his reaction? What is the audience’s
reaction?
3. What do you see as the positive and negative aspects of the Community Jonas
lives in?
4. Why do you think members of this society must do volunteer work while they
are young? Do you think this is a good or idea or a bad idea? Defend your
answer.
5. Look again at Chapters 1 and 2. Mostly, the things in the chapter are perfectly
normal and like our world. But not quite. Make a list of all the things that are
mentioned, or terms that are used, that identify the setting as different from our
world.