The Importance Of Memories In 'The Giver'

Imagine living in a world with no freedom, choice, individuality, and color. Would you want to live in a world like this? Most of you would have said no, but a boy named Jonas has no choice, but to adhere to his community’s rules. In the book and the movie, “The Giver”, by Louis Lowery, Jonas finds it difficult to accept his community’s way of life. However, after he becomes the receiver of memory, he challenges the community after discovering what the world used to be like before sameness. In order to truly know what the movie or the novel did well or awful on, we must first consider the following criteria, characters, plot, and the setting.

The Giver is a novel that is set in a society that strives to be a utopia. A utopia is essentially a is “a place where no one has to make a decision, feel pain or even have a negative thought or a bad memory” (Goepfert). In The Giver their community focuses so intensely on this concept of a peace that they make many sacrifices in their pursuit to obtain it. This includes the loss of emotion, lack of individuality, deceit of the public, and a great burden on a small few. Ultimately the cost of this utopia is too high for this society.

What if we lived in a world of peace and equality? What if we lived in a world with no differences? A world with no social classes and inequality. That sounds pretty amazing doesn’t it? In Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver that is the reality. The catch? The catch is freedom. There is no room for being different, no room for spontaneity, no room for experimentation and breaking the rules. If you break the rules you will be caught and their is no room for forgiveness. Also, if you are diagnosed with a disease, or just simply sick, you must likely will be released into the “elsewhere” world.

In the book,”The Program.” by Suzanne Young, Young begins with the protagonist,a seventeen year old named Sloane Barstow, who witnesses her classmate, Kendra Phillips, being taken away by a handler during school. Kendra Phillips is terrified and barely hanging on to reality. Two years ago, Sloane's brother, named Brady, committed suicide and six weeks earlier, her friend Lacey was taken by “The Program” as well as her father because she was “sick”

In chapters 7 and 8, Jonas is assigned the job of Receiver of Memory and although the Chief Elder calls it the greatest honor,it might give him more hardship and pain than fortune. She explains that the selection is rare and his role is very important because there is only one Receiver and it takes integrity, intelligence, courage, wisdom, and the capacity to see beyond to be that person. At first he wants to tell he has no idea what she means and that he doesn’t have it until he notices a change in the crowd that was quick but he knows that he isn’t dreaming because it’s happened before but to his apple. Then he realizes

Imagine being chosen a job for a lifetime, but this job had a lot of pain, and loneliness. Well that what it was like for Jonas. Which makes Jonas being selected to be the receiver of memory is more like a punishment than an honor. Jonas has to deal with the pain that comes from the memories. He is missing out on things others can do. Jonas knows things and he can't tell anyone about them.

Memories are one of the most important parts of life, there is no true happiness without the reminiscence of pain or love. This concept is portrayed in "The Giver" by Lois Lowry. The story tells of a 12-year old Jonas, who lives in a “utopian” society, where all bad memories are destroyed to avoid the feeling of pain. Jonas becomes the receiver, someone who receives good and bad memories, and he is transmitted memories of pain and pleasure from The Giver and is taught to keep the secret to himself. The author shows one should cherish memories, whether it be good or bad, as they are all of what is left of the past, and we should learn from it as to better ourselves in the future. The characters and conflicts reinforce the idea that if you do not learn from the mistakes you have made in the past, you can repeat them.

Memories are the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information. Memories help shape and fold the way we live and experience certain things that occur in our lives. I believe that memories help people in their efforts to las from the past and succeed in the present.

Would you give up love and true happiness for a life without pain? In the dystopian novel The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, strong emotion is sacrificed for a peaceful environment. The depicted community at first appears to be a utopia, where hate and discrimination are abolished, but the emotionless society is quickly revealed to be dystopian as the story continues. They live in a world of sameness; there is no hunger, suffering, or war, but also no color, diversity, or sensuality. The protagonist, a twelve-year-old boy named Jonas, uncovers the truth about his community when he is assigned to be the Receiver of Memory, and acquires the memories from the past from an elder called the Giver. When Jonas experiences both painful and pleasurable memories, he becomes willing to accept pain and suffering in order to experience the fullness of life. He decides to leave, that he will no longer live within the constraints of his community, and that security is not worth the absence of freedom. The line between public safety and personal freedoms should be drawn where extreme harm can occur, and most freedoms are more essential than an orderly society. These freedoms include color and diversity, personal freedoms such as dress code, speech, and religion, and love and marriage.

One of the greatest commandments written in history is “Thou Shalt not lie.” From a young age we have been taught of the negative effects of lying. We are taught, as toddlers, not to cheat on tests and punished for our dishonesty when caught. But as we grow older we discover that lying is not as terrible as we were raised to believe. Sometimes lying is safer than the truth. Lying helps us to protect the well-being of family and friends. Deception and secrecy are two major themes of Lois Lowry’s The Giver. While being dishonest is against the rules in The Giver, the survival of the community is dependent on deception and secrecy. Lying is written into the daily lives of the people of the community, and used so commonly that people are not aware

Imagine a community with no color, no feelings, no choices, no love. In that community there is one boy with all of those things. Jonas sees the world, emotionless, blank. He wants to change it. The community chose Jonas to be the Receiver. The most important assignment in the community. He must receive memories from the current receiver. The chief elder made the decision to make only one person bear the burden of the memories. Everyone thinks the community is perfect, a utopia, but Jonas sees all the flaws .Jonas changes throughout The Giver and as a result, tries to change the community.

Is it a honor or a punishment to be a receiver of memory. In a world where life is perfect and everyone and everything is also perfect. What happens when a twelve year old child in an utopia like society gets chosen for his most traumatic experience of his life yet. He has has to suffer physical pain from the Giver, no more time to do anything with his life, and can not apply for a release even if he does not want to.Jonas has the receiver of memory and it is a punishment to be a receiver of memory

Is life meaningless without memories?in The Giver,By Lois Lowry, Jonas lives in a perfect society but the Giver is the only one with memories of the past.The Giver helps them to remember feeling and the past. Life is meaningless without memories because they help you remember important parts of the past. Life would be boring and there would be no real relationships.

How is the society of The Giver really that different from being a modern day society? When people try to create perfect societies, it creates mayhem! Our modern day society is far from a perfect society in the novel The Giver. While appearing perfect, Jonas’ society has many rules and laws under the surface that make it much more dangerous than modern day society.

When I was only a couple of months old my mom and I were stuck in an airport due to delayed flights. The only luggage we had was my diaper bag and a backpack full of baby toys. I was miserable and cranky the whole entire time which didn’t make my mom feel better. At the time I had no idea what was going on but now that will be stamped in my memories forever. Memories are a key aspect in life because they affect our behavior, help us recall events that have happened in life, and last help us learn.