Learning Focus:
Applying the Archetype to Text
Many of the fairy tales you read, watched, or heard about when you younger often included the rags-to- riches story, the
misunderstood character whose value or power is revealed later, or the journey of a character to get something in which
trials must be overcome. This was an archetype, used specifically by an author or screenwriter for specific purposes.
Archetype comes from the Greek arkhetupos, with arkhe- meaning “original” and tupos meaning “a model”. An archetype is
an original model or pattern that copies are made from.
Archetypes can be found in many literary elements such as the following:
 Archetypal setting – has some common aspect that most people associate with a particular experience.
Example: a desert setting is associated with a spiritual journey in which the character has some divine
vision. Other examples are the ocean, the underground and the wilderness.
 Archetypal characters exemplify a common experience too. For example: the temptress character
intentionally attracts men to tragedy through her beauty. Others include the damsel in distress, the witch,
the visionary, and the mentor.
Archetypes can be applied to gain a deeper understanding of the plot. The journey of the hero – in all its different forms- is
the basis for many plots. Analysis of some of these archetypal elements can help you connect the plot to the author’s
message or theme:
 Search for identity
 Journey in search of knowledge
 Pursuit of vengeance
 Quest for love
 Mission to save one’s people
You have already been introduced to the archetype of the hero’s journey earlier in this unit. Now you apply that archetype to
analyze print and nonprint texts.
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1.15
Utopia
Thomas More’s Utopia was published in 1516. It tells the story of a fictional island called Utopia. Raphael, the character who
describes the customs, politics, and beliefs, thinks the Utopians’ way of life is the perfect life. He discusses many of the
challenges of society and explains how the Utopians handle the challenges.
We will read an excerpt from Utopia. This text may seem difficult, but your teacher will read aloud and model the process of
a think aloud to show you how to make meaning from difficult texts. After reading, answer these questions:
1. Does this excerpt match the dictionary definition of utopia? Explain.
2. What challenges/problems do you think existed in More’s society that he is attempting to address in his Utopia?
How does he resolve those challenges in his Utopia?
3. Quickwrite: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of More’s utopian society. Use separate paper.
4. What would a perfect society look like today?
Word Connections:
Utopia has the Greek prefix ou- (spelled u here), which means “not, “ and the Greek root –top- , which means “place.”
The root –top- is also found in topography, topiary, and topic.
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About the Author
Thomas More (1478-1535) was a politician and writer in the court of Henry VIII of England. When he refused to accept the king as the head of the
new English Church, he was tried and executed. The title of his book Utopia, written in 1516, has come to refer to any supposedly perfect society.
From
Utopia
By Thomas More
OF THEIR TRADES, AND MANNER OF LIFE
AGRICULTURE is that which is so universally understood among them that no person, either
man or woman, is ignorant of it; they are instructed in it from their childhood, partly by what they
learn at school and partly by practice; they being led out often into the fields, about the town,
where they not only see others at work, but are likewise exercised in it themselves. Besides
agriculture, which is so common to them all, every man has some peculiar trade to which he
applies himself, such as the manufacture of wool, or flax, masonry, smith's work, or carpenter's
work; for there is no sort of trade that is not in great esteem among them. Throughout the island
they wear the same sort of clothes without any other distinction, except what is necessary to
distinguish the two sexes, and the married and unmarried. The fashion never alters; and as it is
neither disagreeable nor uneasy, so it is suited to the climate, and calculated both for their
summers and winters. Every family makes their own clothes; but all among them, women as well
as men, learn one or other of the trades formerly mentioned. Women, for the most part, deal in
wool and flax, which suit best with their weakness, leaving the ruder trades to the men. The same
trade generally passes down from father to son, inclinations often following descent; but if any
man's genius lies another way, he is by adoption translated into a family that deals in the trade to
which he is inclined: and when that is to be done, care is taken not only by his father, but by the
magistrate, that he may be put to a discreet and good man. And if after a person has learned one
trade, he desires to acquire another, that is also allowed, and is managed in the same manner as
the former. When he has learned both, he follows that which he likes best, unless the public has
more occasion for the other.
GRAMMAR USAGE
A double negative is the nonstandard use of two negatives in the same sentence so that they cancel each
other and create a positive. In Thomas More’s day, double negatives were used for emphasis, but today they
are considered a grammar mistake.
Example: “…for there is no sort of trade that is not in great esteem among them.”
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1.16
Novel
Precise Words
Using the correct word or most precise word is important to convey a specific meaning.
Precise contains the Latin prefix prae- (spelled pre-), meaning “before” or “in front of,” and the Latin root –cis-, with
the meaning of “cut.” The Latin form praecis- means “cut short.”
The root -cis- is found in other words with the meaning of “cut,” such as scissors, incisor, concise, decisive.
Your teacher will read two situations to you. You are provided with some words that might describe your feelings about each
situation. In the charts, arrange the words in order from the least precise to the most precise:
Situation A
mad, annoyed, livid, angry, upset, furious
Situation B
happy, pleased, exultant, glad, content, delighted
1
2
3
4
5
6
Why is it important to use precise diction?
Think of a time when an imprecise word was used. What was the impact? Did it cause any confusion? Explain.
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1.17
Reading the Opening
Film Terminology
Framing
 Shot: A single piece of film, uninterrupted by cuts.
 Long shot (LS): A shot from some distance (also called a full shot). A long shot of a person shows the full body. It may
suggest the isolation or vulnerability of the character.
 Medium shot (MS): The most common shot. The camera seems to be a medium distance from the object being filmed. A
medium shot shows a person from the waist up.
 Close-up shot (CU): The image being shot takes up at least 80 percent of the frame.
 Extreme close-up shot (ECU): The image being shot is a part of a whole, such as an eye or a hand.
Camera Angles
 Eye level: A shot taken from a normal height, that is, the character’s eye level; 90 to 95 percent of the shots seen are eye
level because it is the most natural angle.
 High angle: The camera is above the subject. This angle usually has the effect of making the subject look smaller than
normal, giving him or her the appearance of being weak, powerless, or trapped.
 Low angle: The camera shoots the subject from below. This angle usually has the effect of making the subject look larger
than normal, and therefore, strong, powerful, or threatening.
Lighting
 High key: The scene is flooded with light, creating a bright and open-looking scene.
 Low key: The scene is flooded with shadows and darkness, creating suspense or suspicion.
 Neutral: Neither high key nor low key – even lighting in the shot.
Film Terminology Template
Directors use different kinds of framing to achieve different effects. Make drawings with different kinds of framing using the information
from the Film Terminology sheet. Think about the effect each might achieve.
Long Shot
Why might a director use a long shot?
Close-Up
Why might a director use a close-up?
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Medium Shot
Why might a director use a medium shot?
Extreme Close-Up
Why might a director use an extreme close-up?
1.17 con’t….
Reading the Opening
As your teacher shows you the opening sequence of a film, take notes on your chart.
Framing
What framing is used to film the alien?
(LS, MS, CU, ECU)
Why do you think the director chose this framing?
What framing is used to film the humans?
(LS, MS, CU, ECU)
Why do you think the director chose this framing?
Angles
What angles are used to film the aliens?
(eye level, high angle, low angle)
Why do you think the director chose these angles?
What angles are used to film the humans?
(eye level, high angle, low angle)
Why do you think the director chose these angles?
Lighting
What kind of lighting is used?
(high key, low key, neutral)
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Why do you think the director used this kind of
lighting?
1.17 con’t….
Reading the Opening
Academic Vocabulary:
Nonprint text includes fiction and nonfiction films, videos, audio, and other visual media.
Tone is the speaker’s, author’s, or director’s attitude toward the subject. It is communicated in nonprint as well as in print
text. Brainstorm words that describe attitude and that might help you answer the questions that follow. See activity 1.3 for
examples of tone words.
Tone for E.T.
Tone for Your Novel
1. What is the tone of the opening sequence of E.T.?
2. Choose one of the film techniques (it does not have to be the one that you were the expert for) and explain how it
helps to set the tone of the opening sequence.
Spielberg’s use of _________ helps to set a _____________ tone for the opening sequence of E.T. by….
3. Does the opening sequence of E.T. make you want to watch the rest of the film? Explain.
4. Now visualize the opening of your novel. What is the tone?
5. What words, phrases, and images set this tone?
6. Imagine that you are the director of a film version of your novel. How would you use film techniques to set the same
tone? (Or if a movie has been made – what techniques did the director use to set the tone?)
Framing
Character(s) or Object(s) Being
Filmed
What kind of framing would you
use?
Why?
Camera Angles
Character(s) or Object(s) Being
Filmed
What camera angles would you
use?
Why?
Lighting
What kind of lighting would you use?
Why?
7. What about the opening of your novel makes you want to read the rest of the novel? Explain.
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1.18
Societies
You’ve discovered information about the society in your novel. Look through the chapters for information about the customs
and record them in the left column. Directly across from each piece of information, list the customs with which you are
familiar. Be sure that the information you document in the right column directly corresponds with the idea or concept in the
left column. These are called parallel differences.
Custom #1
Society in novel
Our Society
List at least 3
Custom #2
Society in novel
Our Society
List at least 3
You can see that the two societies have similarities and differences.
Write a paragraph comparing or contrasting either custom 1 or custom 2 with our society.
Think about how to organize a compare/contrast paragraph. Two ways to organize the
points of comparison are by subject and by feature.
Subject by subject: discuss the customs of one society first and then discuss the
customs of the other society. Example: birthday customs.
Society #1
Birthday customs
Birthday customs
Birthday customs
Our society
Birthday customs
Birthday customs
Birthday customs
GRAMMAR USAGE:
When using quoted material as
textual evidence, you must cite
the page number of the quoted
material in parentheses
following the quote. This is
called parenthetical citation.
When this citation comes at the
end of the sentence, place the
page number in parentheses
after the end quotation marks,
and directly before the period
or end mark.
Feature by feature: Go back and forth in your discussion of the two societies, comparing and contrasting each custom.
Birthday custom
Society #1
Our society
Birthday custom
Society #1
Our society
Birthday custom
Society #1
Our society
Remember to use transition words to help your reader follow your ideas. A few transition words for comparison are:
also
in the same way
likewise
similarly
furthermore
A few transition words for contrast are:
yet
however
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in contrast
but
instead
1.19
Characterization
Define characterization:
You will review specific chapters of your novel. Then complete the characterization graphic organizer. Use textual evidence
to support each element of characterization.
Characterization of your main character
Analysis
Textual Evidence
His/her actions
His/her appearance
His/her thoughts
His/her words
What others say about him/her
How others treat him/her
What challenges does your main character face?
Look back at your main character’s actions. Would you describe any of his/her actions as heroic? Explain.
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1.20 Circle of Life/Work/Hunger/Poverty/Oppression/Etc….
All cultures have their own way of finding a mate, welcoming babies, mourning deaths, making a living, dealing with hunger,
poverty, etc…. Compare the way it is handled in the novel to the way our society handles them. Remember to identify
parallel differences.
Society in the Novel
Our Society
1.
2
3
Comparing
Now that you have examined the way the two societies handle different aspects, brainstorm the pros and cons of each
Society in Novel
Pros Cons
Our Society
Pros Cons
1.
2.
3.
Writing Prompt: Write two well developed paragraphs arguing that one society, ours or the one in your novel, handles the
circle of life/work/etc… better. Support your argument with textual evidence. Use correct compare/contrast structure and
transitions in your writing.
When you have completed your draft, exchange with a partner and determine whether your partner’s organization is
consistent. Then, highlight one sentence from each paragraph that could benefit from more detail or commentary
(explanation). Return papers and revise the highlighted areas.
1.21 Essential Attributes
The main character must have specific attributes if they are to be successful in their challenge.
What attributes are essential for the character to be successful?
List the textual evidence that supports that the main character possesses these attributes.
Quickwrite: How do you think the attributes you listed above will assist the main character in their challenge? Explain.
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1.22
Rules in Society
Discussion Questions:
1. Are all rules and/or laws necessary? Why or why not?
2. Are all rules and/or laws fair to all people? Why or why not?
3. What happens to people who do not follow rules and/or laws? Explain.
4. Are all consequences fair? Why or why not?
5. Can rules and/or laws be changed? Why or why not?
1.23
Coming to Your Senses
Postcard
About the Author:
Carl Nelson (1898-1988) was a noted artist and
teacher. His photo appears on most editions of The
Giver. At 71, he bought a piece of land and settled in
a house on Great Cranberry Island in Maine. That
year he sent this Christmas postcard to his friends.
The Heartiest of Season’s Greetings
by Carl Nelson
In May, after close to half a century of teaching, I retired and moved
from Boston to this island of unique design located just off the coast
of Mt. Desert Island, Maine, where I have purchased a house and eight
acres of woodland and meadow reaching to the shore, though the house
itself is situated on the main road and easy of access at all seasons. The
island’s name is Cranberry, one of a group of five, and well-earned, since
even my own meadow provides me with delicious highland cranberries.
With a garden, studio and wood stove, I shall lack neither pleasure nor
occupation, and books and music will round out the day. A wood lot
will provide firewood and muscle tone, and the garden flowers and
vegetables for my table. To watch the day progress from morning till
darkness takes over, and to follow the seasons as they change from the
lush flowering of wild pear in May to the opulence of summer and then
move on to yellow tamarack and wild rose hedges of burnt orange and
finally take rest in a cover of pure white under dark evergreens will
surely be a cycle of full measure. The deer pay almost daily visits and the
voracious appetites of the chickadees know no bounds. They are both
good neighbors. I shall be cutting my own Christmas tree for the first
time. In excellent health I am looking forward to retirement as a very
exciting adventure. Please note my new address—and please use it:
Carl Nelson, Tosh Park, Cranberry Isles, Maine 04625.
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Notes
Sight
Sound
Taste
Smell
Touch
1.23 con’t….
ACADEMIC VOCABULARY
Imagery refers to descriptive or figurative language used to create word pictures. Imagery is created by details
that appeal to one or more of the five senses.
1. Using sensory details from “the Heartiest of Season’s Greetings,” illustrate Nelson’s imagery in a visual
representation of life on Cranberry Island. Use color, and label your visual details with Nelson’s words from the
text. Do this on a separate sheet of paper.
2. Choose your favorite sensory images to create a found poem. As you write your poem, pay attention to and use
poetic techniques, figurative language, and poetic structure (line breaks and stanzas). Be deliberate about the
graphic elements (such as line indents, word position, capitalization, and punctuation) you use to display your
poem.
Definition: Found poems take existing texts and refashion them, reorder them, and present them as poems. The literary equivalent of a collage,
found poetry is often made from newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems.
Example of a Found Poem
Passage from Novel:
There was a change in the weather. For the worse. The air became unbearably humid. Stanley was drenched in sweat. Beads of
moisture ran down the handle of his shovel. It was almost as if the temperature had gotten so hot that the air itself was sweating. A
loud book of thunder echoed across the empty lake. A storm was way off to the west, beyond the mountains. Stanley could count more
than thirty seconds between The flash of lightning and the clap of thunder. That was how far away the storm was. Sound travels a great
distance across a barren wasteland.
Found Poem:
There was a change
For the worse.
The air became humid
Beads of moisture ran down
The handle of his shovel
It was almost as if
The air itself was sweating
Thunder echoed across the empty lake
A storm beyond the mountains.
Thirty seconds between the flash
And the thunder
Sound travels a great distance
Across a barren wasteland
Writing Prompt: Write a reflective paragraph explaining your choices of color and detail within your visualization. Analyze
how Carl Nelson conveys a particular tone through his use of sensory details. How did you convey this same tone in your
visualization?
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1.24
Marking the Text
1. As you read, create at least two or three annotations on each page you are assigned. You will write your
annotations on sticky notes. In your annotations, reflect on things that you feel strongly about or that you are
confused about at this point.
Below are suggestions for annotations:
Question the text
 Ask questions to clarify: “What does this mean?” or “Why does (character) do this?”
 Ask questions to analyze or interpret the text (Level 2 questions).
 Ask questions to explore universal, thematic ideas presented in the text (Level 3 questions).
Form personal responses to the text.
 “I can tell that…”
 “This reminds me of…”
 “This makes me feel…”
Interpret the text.
 Explain a character’s motivation for saying or doing something.
 Explain the importance of the setting to the action in the story.
 Comment on the significance of a character’s action or words.
2. How did this process of marking/annotating affect the way you read? Did you have to read any part more than
once?
WORD CONNECTIONS
The order of words in an analogy is important. If the descriptor comes first in one pair, the descriptor should come
first in the second pair. The descriptors should be parallel. Which of these analogies is parallel?
a. gentle : Fiona ::
Asher : playful
b. gentle: Fiona ::
playful : Asher
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1.25
Evolution of a Hero
Review your Characterization graphic organizer from Activity 1.19.
Based on your reading of the novel so far, complete the characterization graphic organizer below, using textual evidence to
support your analysis. Use precise words. You may want to refer to a thesaurus.
Characterization of your main character
Analysis
Textual Evidence
His/her actions
His/her appearance
His/her thoughts
His/her words
What others say about him/her
How others treat him/her
Look back at your main character’s actions. Would you describe any of his/her actions as heroic? Explain.
Writing Prompt: Write a well-developed paragraph comparing and contrasting the main character from the beginning of the
novel until now. Be sure to support your argument with textual evidence, and use comparison organization and appropriate
transitions. Once you have drafted a paragraph, exchange your draft with a partner. Evaluate whether your partner’s
organization is consistent. Highlight one sentence that could benefit from more detail or explanation. Return papers and
revise the highlighted area.
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1.26
Epilogue
People interpret endings of novels in different ways. Use your imagination and invent an epilogue to the novel that reveals
what happens next.
1. All narratives include a beginning, middle, and end. Plot the events of your chapter on separate paper.
2. You have spent some time analyzing the main character’s character, but what about the people he/she meets.
Describe them by recreating the graphic organizers you completed about your main character when you
brainstormed methods of characterization.
3. The author uses sensory details to describe. Follow his/her example, and create sensory details to allow your
reader to experience the place in your epilogue.
4. Now use these notes and other prewriting that you choose to draft an epilogue.
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1.27
Author’s Purpose Lowry’s Newbery Acceptance Speech
Speech
About the author:
As the child of a military officer, Lois Lowry (b. 1937) grew up in a number of places. Her work – in a variety of styles and on a variety of subjects
from humorous to very serious – always deals with human connections. She has written more than 30 books for young readers, including the popular
Anastasia Krupnik novels. Lowry has won the Newbery Medal twice – for Number the Stars in 1990 and for The Giver in 1994.
Newbery Acceptance Speech
By Lois Lowry
The Newbery Medal is awarded to the author of the most distinguished contribution to literature for children published in the
U.S. during the preceding year. The Giver won the Newbery Medal in 1994. In her acceptance speech, author Lois Lowry explains how
her own memories inspired ideas for her book.
“How do you know where to start?” a child asked me once, in a schoolroom, where I’d been speaking to her class about the
writing of books. I shrugged and smiled and told her that I just start wherever it feels right.
This evening it feels right to start by quoting a passage from The Giver, a scene set during the days in which the boy, Jonas, is
beginning to look more deeply into the life that has been very superficial, beginning to see that his own past goes back farther than he
had ever known and has greater implications than he had ever suspected.
“…now he saw the familiar wide river beside the path differently. He saw all of the light and color and history it contained and
carried in its slow-moving water; and he knew that there was an Elsewhere from which it came, and an Elsewhere to which it was
going.”
Every author is asked again and again the question we probably each have come to dread the most: HOW DID YOU GET
THIS IDEA? We give glib, quick answers because there are other hands raised, other kids in the audience waiting.
I’d like, tonight, to dispense with my usual flippancy and glibness and try to tell you the origins of this book. It is a little like
Jonas looking into the river and realizing that it carries with it everything that has come from an Elsewhere. A spring, perhaps, at the
beginning, bubbling up from the earth; then a trickle from a glacier; a mountain stream entering farther along; and each tributary
bringing with it the collected bits and pieces from the past, from the distant, from the countless Elsewheres: all of it moving, mingled, in
the current.
For me, the tributaries are memories, and I’ve selected only a few. I’ll tell them to you chronologically. I have to go way back.
I’m starting 46 years ago.
In 1948, I am eleven years old. I have gone with my mother, sister, and brother to join my father, who has been in Tokyo for
two years and will be there for several more.
We live there, in the center of that huge Japanese city, in a small American enclave with a very American name: Washington
Heights. We live in an American style house, with American neighbors, and our little community has its own movie theater, which
shows American movies; and a small church, a tiny library, and an elementary school, and in many ways it is an odd replica of a United
States village.
(In later, adult years I was to ask my mother why we had lived there instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to live
within the Japanese community and to learn and experience a different way of life. But she seemed surprised by my question. She said
that we lived where we did because it was comfortable. It was familiar. It was safe.)
At eleven years old I am not a particularly adventurous child, nor am I a rebellious one. But I have always been curious.
I have a bicycle. Again and again – countless times without my parents’ knowledge – I ride my bicycle out the back gate of the
fence that surrounds our comfortable, familiar, safe American community. I ride down a hill because I am curious and I enter, riding
down that hill, an unfamiliar, slightly uncomfortable, perhaps even unsafe … though I never feel it to be … area of Tokyo that throbs
with life.
It is a district called Shibuya. It is crowded with shops and people and theaters and street vendors and the day-to- day bustle
of Japanese life.
I remember, still, after all these years, the smells: fish and fertilizer and charcoal; the sounds: music and shouting and the
clatter of wooden shoes and wooden sticks and wooden wheels; and the colors: I remember the babies and toddlers dressed in bright
pink and orange and red, most of all, but I remember, too, the dark blue uniforms of the school children: the strangers who are my own
age.
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I wander through Shibuya day after day during those years when I am 11, 12 and 13. I love the feel of it, the vigor and the
garish brightness and the noise; all of such a contrast to my own life.
But I never talk to anyone. I am not frightened of the people, who are so different from me, but I am shy. I watch the children
shouting and playing around a school, and they are children my age, and they watch me in return; but we never speak to one another.
One afternoon I am standing on a street corner when a woman near me reaches out, touches my hair, and says something. I
back away, startled, because my knowledge of the language is poor and I misunderstand her words. I think she has said, “Kirai des’”
meaning that she dislikes me; and I am embarrassed, and confused wondering what I have done wrong; how I have disgraced myself.
Then, after a moment, I realize my mistake. She has said, actually, “Kirei-des’.” She has called me pretty. And I look for her, in
the crowd, at least to smile, perhaps to say thank you if I can overcome my shyness enough to speak. But she is gone.
I remember this moment – this instant of communication gone awry – again and again over the years. Perhaps this is where
the river starts.
In 1954 and 1955 I am a college freshman, living in a very small dormitory, actually a converted private home, with a group of
perhaps fourteen other girls. We are very much alike: we wear the same sort of clothes: cashmere sweaters and plaid wool skirts, knee
socks, and loafers. We all smoke Marlboro cigarettes and we knit – usually argyle socks for our boyfriends – and play bridge.
Sometimes we study; and we get good grades because we are all the cream of the crop, the valedictorians and class presidents from
our high schools all over the United States. One of the girls in our dorm is not like the rest of us. She doesn’t wear our uniform. She
wears blue jeans instead of skirts, and she doesn’t curl her hair or knit or play bridge. She doesn’t date or go to fraternity parties and
dances.
She’s a smart girl, a good student, a pleasant enough person, but she is different, somehow alien, and that makes us
uncomfortable. We react with a kind of mindless cruelty. We don’t tease or torment her, but we do something worse; we ignore her. We
pretend that she doesn’t exist. In a small house of fourteen young women, we make one invisible.
Somehow, by shutting her out, we make ourselves feel comfortable, familiar, safe.
I think of her now and then as the years pass. Those thoughts – fleeting, but profoundly remorseful – enter the current of the
river.
In the summer of 1979, I am sent by a magazine I am working for to an island off the coast of Maine to write an article about a
painter who lives there alone. I spend a good deal of time with this man, and we talk a lot about color. It is clear to me that although I
am a highly visual person – a person who sees and appreciates form and composition and color – this man’s capacity for seeing color
goes far beyond mine.
I photograph him while I am there, and I keep a copy of his photograph for myself because there is something about his face –
his eyes – which haunts me.
Later, I hear that he has become blind.
I think about him – his name is Carl Nelson – from time to time. His photograph hangs over my desk. I wonder what it was like
for him to lose the colors about which he was so impassioned.
Now and then I wish, in a whimsical way, that he could have somehow magically given me the capacity to see the way he did.
A little bubble begins, a little spurt, which will trickle into the river. In 1989 I go to a small village in Germany to attend the
wedding of one of my sons. In an ancient church, he marries his Margret in a ceremony conducted in a language I do not speak and
cannot understand.
But one section of the service is in English. A woman stands in the balcony of that old stone church and sings the words from
the Bible: where you go, I will go. Your people will be my people.
How small the world has become, I think, looking around the church at the many people who sit there wishing happiness to my
son and his new wife – wishing it in their own language as I am wishing it in mine. We are all each other’s people now, I find myself
thinking. Can you feel that this memory, too, is a stream that is now entering the river?
Another fragment, my father, nearing 90, is in a nursing home. My brother and I have hung family pictures on the walls of his
room. During a visit, he and I are talking about the people in the pictures. One is my sister, my parents’ first child, who died young of
cancer. My father smiles, looking at her picture. “That’s your sister,” he says happily. “That’s Helen.”
Then he comments, a little puzzled, but not at all sad, “I can’t remember exactly what happened to her.”
We can forget pain, I think. And it is comfortable to do so.
But I also wonder briefly: is it safe to do that, to forget? That uncertainty pours itself into the river of thought which will become
the book.
1991. I am in an auditorium somewhere. I have spoken at length about my book, Number the Stars, which has been honored
with the 1990 Newbery Medal. A woman raises her hand. When the turn for her question comes, she sighs very loudly and says, “Why
do we have to tell this Holocaust thing over and over? Is it really necessary?” I answer her as well as I can – quoting, in fact, my
German daughter-in law, who has said to me, “No one knows better than we Germans that we must tell this again and again.”
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But I think about her question – and my answer – a great deal. Wouldn’t it, I think, playing Devil’s Advocate to myself, make for
a more comfortable world to forget the Holocaust? And I remember once again how comfortable, familiar and safe my parents had
sought to make my childhood by shielding me from ELSEWHERE. But I remember, too, that my response had been to open the gate
again and again. My instinct had been a child’s attempt to see for myself what lay beyond the wall.
The thinking becomes another tributary into the river of thought that will create The Giver.
Here’s another memory. I am sitting in a booth with my daughter in a little Beacon Hill pub where she and I often have lunch
together. The television is on in the background, behind the bar, as it always is. She and I are talking. Suddenly I gesture to her. I say,
“Shhhh” because I have heard a fragment of the news and I am startled, anxious, and want to hear the rest. Someone has walked into
a fast-food place with an automatic weapon and randomly killed a number of people. My daughter stops talking and waits while I listen
to the rest.
Then I relax. I say to her, in a relieved voice, “It’s all right. It was in Oklahoma.” (Or perhaps it was Alabama. Or Indiana.)
She stares at me in amazement that I have said such a hideous thing.
How comfortable I made myself feel for a moment, by reducing my own realm of caring to my own familiar neighborhood. How
safe I deluded myself into feeling.
I think about that, and it becomes a torrent that enters the flow of a river turbulent by now, and clogged with memories and
thoughts and ideas that begin to mesh and intertwine. The river begins to seek a place to spill over.
When Jonas meets The Giver for the first time, and tries to comprehend what lies before him, he says, in confusion “I thought
there was only us. I thought there was only now.”
In beginning to write The giver I created – as I always do, in every book – a world that existed only in my imagination – the
world of “only us, only now.” I tried to make Jonas’s world seem familiar, comfortable, and safe, and I tried to seduce the reader. I
seduced myself along the way,. It did feel good, that world. I got rid of all the things I fear and dislike; all the violence, prejudice,
poverty, and injustice, and I even threw in good manners as a way of life because I liked the idea of it.
One child has pointed out, in a letter, that the people in Jonas’s world didn’t even have to do dishes.
It was very, very tempting to leave it at that.
But I’ve never been a writer of fairy tales. And if I’ve learned anything through that river of memories, it is that we can’t live in a
walled world, in an “only us, only now” world where we are all the same and feel safe. We would have to sacrifice too much. The
richness of color and diversity would disappear and feelings for other humans would no longer be necessary. Choices would be
obsolete.
And besides, I had ridden my bike Elsewhere as a child, and liked it there, but had never been brave enough to tell anyone
about it. So it was time.
A letter that I’ve kept for a very long time is from a child who has read my book called Anastasia Krupnik. Her letter – she’s a
little girl named Paula from Louisville, Kentucky – says:
“I really like the book you wrote about Anastasia and her family because it made me laugh every time I read it. I especially
liked when it said she didn’t want to have a baby brother in the house because she had to clean up after him every time and
change his diaper when her mother and father aren’t home and she doesn’t like to give him a bath and watch him all the time
and put him to sleep every night while her mother goes to work…
Here’s the fascinating thing: Nothing that the child describes actually happens in the book The child – as we all do – has
brought her own life to a book. She has found a place, a place in the pages of a book, that shares her own frustration and feelings.
And the same thing is happening – as I hoped it would happen – with The Giver.
Those of you who hoped that I would stand here tonight and reveal the “true” ending, the “right” interpretation of the ending,
will be disappointed. There isn’t one. There’s a right one for each of us, and it depends on our own beliefs, our own hopes.
Let me tell you a few endings which are the “right” endings for a few children out of the many who have written to me.
From a sixth grader: “I think that when they were traveling they were traveling in a circle. When they came to “Elsewhere” it
was their old community, but they had accepted the memories and all the feelings that go along with it…”
From another: “…Jonas was kind of like Jesus because he took the pain for everyone else in the community so they wouldn’t
have to suffer. And, at the very end of the book, when Jonas and Gabe reached the place that they knew as Elsewhere, you described
Elsewhere as if it were heaven.”
And one more: “A lot of people I know would hate that ending, but not me. I loved it. Mainly because I got to make the book
happy. I decided they made it. They made it to the past. I decided the past was our world, and the future was their world. It was parallel
worlds.”
Finally, from one seventh grade boy: “I was really surprised that they just died at the end. That was a bummer. You could of
made them stay alive, I thought.”
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Very few find it a bummer. Most of the young readers who have written to me have perceived the magic of the circular journey.
The truth that we go out and come back, and that what we come back to is changed, and so are we. Perhaps I have been traveling in a
circle too. Things come together and become complete.
Here is what I’ve come back to:
The daughter who was with me and looked at me in horror the day I fell victim to thinking we were “only us, only now” (and
that what happened in Oklahoma, or Alabama, or Indiana didn’t matter) was the first person to read the manuscript of The Giver. The
college classmate who was “different” lives, last I heard, very happily in New Jersey with another woman who shares her life. I can only
hope that she has forgiven those of us who were young in a more frightened and less enlightened time.
My son, and Margret, his German wife – the one who reminded me how important it is to tell our stories again and again,
painful though they often are – now have a little girl who will be the receiver of all of their memories. Their daughter had crossed the
Atlantic three times before she was six months old. Presumably my granddaughter will never be fearful of Elsewhere.
Carl Nelson, the man who lost colors but not the memory of them, is the face on the cover of this book. He died in 1989 but
left a vibrant legacy of paintings. One hangs now in my home.
And I am especially happy to stand here tonight, on this platform with Allen Say because it truly brings my journey full circle.
Allen was twelve years old when I was. He lived in Shibuya, that alien Elsewhere that I went to as a child on a bicycle. He was one of
the Other, the Different, the dark-eyed children in blue school uniforms, and I was too timid then to do more than stand at the edge of
their school yard, smile shyly, and wonder what their lives were like.
Now I can say to Allen what I wish I could have said then: Watashi-no comodachi des’. Greetings, my friend.
I have been asked whether the Newbery Medal is, actually, an odd sort of burden in terms of the greater responsibility one
feels. Whether one is paralyzed by it, fearful of being able to live up to the standards it represents.
For me the opposite has been true. I think the 1990 Newbery freed me to risk failure.
Other people took that risk with me, of course, one was my editor, Walter Lorraine, who has never to my knowledge been
afraid to take a chance. Walter cares more about what a book has to say than he does about whether he can turn it into a stuffed
animal or a calendar or a movie.
The Newbery Committee was gutsy too. There would have been safer books. More comfortable books. More familiar books.
They took a trip beyond the realm of sameness, with this one, and I think they should be very proud of that.
And all of you, as well. Let me say something to those of you here who do such dangerous work.
The man that I named The Giver passed along to the boy knowledge, history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth.
Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing.
It is very risky.
But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It
gives him freedom.
Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things.
I have been greatly honored by you now, two times. It is impossible to express my gratitude for that. Perhaps the only way,
really, is to return to Boston, to my office, to my desk, and to go back to work in hopes that whatever I do next will justify the faith in me
that this medal represents.
There are other rivers flowing.
Writing Prompt: Draft a letter to the author of your novel interpreting the ending. Pose questions about the novel that linger after your
reading. Revise and edit your letter to use a variety of complete sentences that include properly paced modifiers. Your letter should be
ready for publication (grammatically correct, punctuated properly, and free of spelling errors).
GRAMMAR USAGE:
Dashes are used to emphasize a point or to set off an explanatory comment.
Example: “I think about him – his name is Carl Nelson – from time to time.”
Sentences that contain a dependent, or subordinate, clause are complex sentences.
Some subordinate clauses function as adjectives. Adjectival clauses begin with a relative pronoun (who, whose, which, that) and, like adjectives, modify a noun or
pronoun. Lowry uses adjective clauses to add explanatory information:
One is my sister… who died young of cancer. (modifies sister)
I have spoken about my book, Number the Stars, which has been honored with the 1990 Newbery Medal. (modifies book)
One of the reasons that Lowry’s speech flows smoothly is that she uses a variety of sentence structures. Notice these examples:
Simple: One hangs now in my home.
Complex: Allen was twelve years old when I was.
Compound: There’s a right one…, and it depends on our own beliefs….
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1.28
Alien Escape
With your partner, fill in the two blocks of the Film Techniques chart that your teacher assigns. Then, you will work with
another pair of students to complete the remaining block of the chart.
Film Techniques
Framing (LS, MS, CU, ECU)
Camera Angles
Lighting
Hero’s Journey
Characteristics of the Hero’s
Journey
Evidence of Characteristics in This Film Clip
Departure
Call to Adventure
Refusal of the Call
The Beginning of the Adventure
Initiation
The Road of Trials
The Experience with
Unconditional Love
The Ultimate Boon
Return
Refusal of the Return
The Magic Flight
Rescue from Without
The Crossing or Return Threshold
Prompt: Select one step from each stage and create a visual representation that establishes the connection between the
film and the hero’s journey. Include captions with your visual representations to explain to your audience what is happening.
Use framing, angles, and color for effect in your visuals.
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1.29
Graphic Novels: Visualizing an Incident
LITERARY TERMS: A plot is the sequence of related events that make up a story or novel.
List the characteristics of graphic novels:
1. As you read a chapter from the graphic novel, revisit your list of graphic novel characteristics. Add to or revise what
you have listed.
2. What do you about the topic? Write two questions you have about the topic.
3. As directed by your teacher, conduct research to find information about your topic. After you have completed your
research, revisit the chapter. What makes sense now that previously you misunderstood? List 5 important and
relevant facts you found.
4. Look closely at the way dialogue is displayed in a graphic novel.
Notice the following aspects of dialogue balloons:
 There are no quotation marks around the dialogue
 The dialogue balloons connect to or near the character’s body to indicate who is speaking.
 Dialogue balloons are read from left to right, and from top to bottom. This pattern makes clear
the order of speakers.
 To distinguish narration from dialogue, narration is located along the top of a cell, not in a
balloon.
5. Create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the effects of telling this story as a graphic novel and in a prose
format.
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Visualizing an Event in the Hero’s Journey
Embedded Assessment 2
Assignment
Your assignment is to work with a partner to create a visual representation, in the form of a graphic novel, illustrating the
hero’s journey in relationship to the hero’s journey archetype. You will also write a reflective text analyzing how the hero’s
journey fits into the archetypal pattern of the hero’s journey and explaining the choices you made in creating the text. You
will present your text to the class.
Steps
Planning
1. Review samples of graphic novels/comic books you have read in class, that you have brought to class, or that have
been provided by your teacher. Review the structural and literary elements of this genre. You might wish to list them
in a graphic organizer.
Creating
2. Connect your hero’s journey to the hero’s journey archetype. You may or may not use all the steps in a stage of the
hero’s journey, but you should use at least two steps from each stage.
3. Create a sequence of illustrations for your hero’s journey that consists of approximately 6-8 scenes or panels (one
panel per step). Make sure that your graphics accurately represent the steps in the archetypal pattern of the hero’s
journey. Purposefully use a variety of framing and angle techniques to create variety and interest in your text, and
choose color and detail that support your purpose.
4. Create at least one dialogue balloon in each panel to further establish the connection to the hero’s journey. Include
relevant and accurate quotations from the novel that reflect insights about the journey. You may also incorporate
quotations from the novel as narrative.
5. Create a title for your story.
6. Write a reflective text to accompany your graphic novel. This reflection should explain the relationship of the hero’s
journey of the hero’s journey archetype in a way that demonstrates your thorough understanding of the concept.
You should also reflect on the color, detail, and framing and angle techniques you used to create your graphic
novel. Explain how these choices illustrate your ideas about your hero as an archetypal hero.
7. Consult the scoring guide to ensure that you have met specific criteria.
Presenting
8. Present your graphic novel to the class, using ideas from your reflective text to explain your interpretation of your
hero as an archetypal hero.
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Scoring Guide
Scoring
Scoring
Criteria
Graphic
Novel
Cr
Reflective
Text
Exemplary
Proficient
Emerging
The graphic novel vividly
demonstrates seven or more
steps in the hero’s journey.
The product contains
visually compelling panels
that incorporate skillful use
of color, detailed images
with effective framing and
angle techniques, and
dialogue balloons with at
least three direct quotations
from the novel to clearly
represent steps in the hero’s
journey.
The graphic novel
demonstrates at least six
steps in the hero’s journey.
The product contains
visually appealing panels
that incorporate thoughtful
use of color, images with
purposeful framing and/or
angle techniques, and
dialogue balloons with at
least two direct quotations
from the novel to clearly
represent steps in the hero’s
journey.
The graphic novel
demonstrates five or fewer
steps in the hero’s journey.
The visual images and
dialogue balloons are
incomplete, inaccurate,
and/or inappropriate and
may not directly represent
the steps in the hero’s
journey.
The written explanation
shows an insightful
understanding of how your hero
fits the archetypal pattern
of the hero’s journey and
provides a perceptive and
detailed explanation of the
color, detail, and framing/
angle techniques used.
The written explanation
shows a clear understanding
of how your hero fits the
archetypal pattern of the
hero’s journey and provides
an adequate explanation
of the color, detail, and
framing/angle techniques
used.
The written explanation
shows a limited
understanding of how your
hero fits the archetypal pattern
of the hero’s journey and
provides an inadequate
explanation of the color,
detail, and framing/angle
techniques used.
The oral presentation is
clear and thoughtful.
It shows evidence of
collaboration and planning
The oral presentation is
disorganized and unclear.
It lacks collaboration and
planning.
Presentation The oral presentation
.
Comments:
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is clear, engaging, and
insightful.
It shows extensive evidence
of collaboration and
planning
Reflection
An important part of growing as a learner is to reflect on where you have been, what you have accomplished, what helped
you to learn, and how you will apply that new knowledge in the future. Use the following questions to guide your thinking
and to identify evidence of your learning. Use separate notebook paper.
Thinking about concepts
1. Using specific examples from this unit, respond to the Essential Questions:
a. What defines a hero?
b. How do visual images enhance or create meaning?
2. Consider the new academic vocabulary from this unit (Diction, Archetype, Definition Essay, Nonprint Text,
Compare/Contrast, Imagery), and select 3-4 terms that you now understand better. For each term, answer the
following questions:
a. What was your understanding of the word before you completed this unit?
b. How has your understanding of the word evolved throughout the unit?
c. How will you apply your understanding in the future?
Thinking about connections
3. Review the activities and products (artifacts) you created. Choose those that most reflect your growth or increase in
understanding.
4. For each artifact that you choose, record, respond to, and reflect on your thinking and understanding, using the
following questions as a guide:
a. What skill/knowledge does this artifact reflect, and how did you learn this skill/knowledge?
b. How did your understanding of the power of language expand through your engagement with this artifact?
c. How will you apply this skill or knowledge in the future?
5. Create this reflection as Portfolio pages – one for each artifact you choose. Use the model in the box for your
headings and commentary on questions.
Thinking About Thinking
Portfolio Entry
Concept:
Description of Artifact:
Commentary on Questions:
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