Why Is Memory Important In The Giver

How can one change what they know is wrong? In the short story Harrison Bergeron, Harrison’ community makes sure that no one has any advantages. They create mental and physical disabilities to do so. Jonas, from The Giver by Lois Lowry, gets assigned as the receiver of memory, the most important job. He ends up leaving the community, releasing all of the memories that have been taken away to create sameness. Harrison and Jonas are the only people that feel differently about their society only because of their braveness, Intelligence, and willingness to rebel. These two characters try to find ways to better their communities through their own personal expeditions.

Today 's society and Jonas’s have some similarities. Such as, in both children are given comfort objects to help them through rough times. Well just like in The Giver all children go to school in our country too. Another similarity is in The Giver people are punished from chimes just like us today. In The Giver memories last forever they do today to, but people hold onto them not two people. “If you were lost in the river Jonas, your memories would not be lost with you memories are

Different feelings and emotion are not known in the community within the people.The Giver and Jonas are the only true people that know how to feel the different emotions. Every night at the conclusion of their evening meal one of the rituals is the evening telling of feelings. In the very first Chapter Jonas talks about how it was almost December and Jonas was beginning to be frightened. But then thought that was the wrong word to use. Frightened ment that deep, sickening feeling of something terrible about to happen. Now that it was almost upon Jonas he wasn't frightened but he was eager he decided. He was eager and excited. But then their was a little shudder of nervousness when he thought about what might happen at the ceremony of twelve. Apprehensive, Jonas decided. That's what I feel like. (chapter 1)

“You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose and to do it courageously.” This quote by Dr. Steve Maraboli states that life has a purpose that you have to reach out to. The objects in life are growth and the discovery of new things, and that can’t happen unless you push your limitations. The main character, Jonas, in Lois Lowry’s The Giver goes through a similar encounter when he is specially selected as the Receiver of Memories for his community. With his assignment as the Receiver, Jonas begins to see his community differently and its absence in color, feeling, and choices. In order to live your life, you have to uncover new things, and when that happens, it will open a door for more things to discover.

At first The Giver warns Jonas that this process of receiving memories “will be painful”(Lowery 85). This pain comes in the form of both the joyful and the terrifying memories. The positive memories that he receives cause him pain because they make him see how much happier the people in his community could be. “Jonas’s realizations about the constraints of this rigidly organized life come gradually", but they begin to weigh on him (Chamberlain). Everytime he learns something new about the past he is overcome by the will to share all of his mental experiences with the rest of the population, but he knows he is not able to do this. His awareness about what could be versus what is cause him more and more heartache every moment. On top of this The Giver begins to transfer “the painful memories” to Jonas where he learns “physical and emotional pain experienced through injury, loss, grief, rage, and cruelty” (Zirkle). He goes through “suffering” and “even Violence” when he receives a memory of a dying soldier on a battlefield (Chamberlain). The effect that this particular memory has on Jonas is portrayed through this sentence “overwhelmed by pain, he laid there in the fearsome stench for hours, listened to the men and

I have read the dystopian novel “The Giver” (1993) which is written by the beloved American author Lois Lowry. “The Giver” is about a twelve-year-old boy with the name Jonas. Jonas lives a similar life as all the others in the community, until the Ceremony of Twelve when he got assigned the task as the Receiver of Memory. As The Receiver of Memory it is Jonas’ task to keep all the memories of the past so not everyone needs to keep this burden. Although Jonas received beautiful memories with a lot of colors and happiness he also felt grief, pain and anger. The Giver and Jonas were tired of being the only ones who have to keep the memories and feel the pain. Therefore, does Jonas leave the community so the memories will bit by bit, come back to the citizens of the community.

Imagine a world where everything seems perfect but truly it is not as pleasant as it appears. In The Giver by Lois Lowry shows us a community in the future with no feelings at all. Jonas a twelve year old boy knows his life as it is and one evening he learns the truth about the community. Jonas set’s off into a adventure to change it all. Character,conflict,and symbolism makes the reader see thru the eyes of a twelve year old in a place of slavery disguised without anyone knowing it.

Stop, think about this for a moment. You are in a community that cannot see color, has no feelings, no choices to be made on your own, and no diversity between each other. How would you feel? Jonas, a twelve year old boy and the Giver have to live in this community knowing all this. As they live in this futuristic dystopian community they share memories of the past and what is elsewhere. Choice, diversity, and feelings could change the Giver community and make it a more positive place.

“When you receive the memories, You have the capacity to see beyond.” said The Giver when he explained the job of being the receiver to Jonas, in Lois Lowry’s The Giver. In the novel The Giver, the main character Jonas lives in a bland, boring community where everyone is the same. When he receives the assignment of being the receiver he realizes how disappointing the life he is living is once he gets memories from The Giver, of how life used to be. He lives in a society that is very different from ours in many different ways. Three main differences between Jonas’s society and society today are family, rules/consequences and colors.

Imagine no color, no feelings, but knowing they exist, you just can 't have it. Well that how Jonas the receiver of memory feels, “It 's just that... without the memories it 's all meaningless.” (133) He would do anything including leave the community and possibly die, just to return the memories. Everyone in the community follows strict restricting rules and are deprived of many joys in life, but they don’t realize. These restrictions include no color, no feelings, climate control, not real family, no animals, the list goes on and on. Jonas is a determined 12, which is his age as well as his level of education, who takes on a task no one should have to bear; all the memories. This means he hold some of the most beautiful memories as well

Jonas hates how his society decides to keep memories a secret from everyone. Jonas remarks: “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared” (Lowry 154). Jonas feels that memories, whether it be good or bad, should be shared with everyone. Furthermore, memories allow the community to gain wisdom from remembering experiences of the past. Moreover, the Giver disagrees with how the community runs things. He believes that memories should be experienced by everyone as well, because life is meaningless without memories. The Giver states: “There are so many things I could tell them; things I wish they would change. But they

Memories help you remember the important parts of the past. Without memories, you forget things like war and violence. On page 125 of The Giver it says, “He could hear noises: the sharp crack of weapons. He perceived the word guns.” Without the memory of guns he would not know what a gun was and what he could do. Furthermore without memories, you can not make responsible decisions. On page 130 of The Giver explained that the Committee of Elders comes to him for advice because he has memories. Jonas asks if they ask for advice often and the Giver says, “Rarely. Only when they are faced with something they have not experienced before.” Without memories, Jonas can not make decisions because he has very little experience. Memories help you remember the past and help you make decisions.

For instance, after Jonas gained knowledge of a sunburn, he said, "It hurt a lot, but I'm glad you gave it to me. It was interesting. And now I understand better, what it meant, that there would be pain." (109). Jonas likes the memories that The Giver gives to him. This knowledge of pain changed Jonas's likes because when he was told that his training would include pain, he was not so sure that he wanted to receive memories. Now that he knows what pain is, he still wants to receive the memories that The Giver has to offer. Right after Jonas was given a memory of love, he said, "I liked the feeling of love. I wish we still had that."(158). Ths memory in particular is one that Jonas cherishes. In addition, Jonas's like of The Giver, his family, friends, and Gabriel completely changed to Jonas feeling love for them. This knowledge that was transmitted to Jonas changed the way that he felt towards certain people in his

I have read the novel, “The Giver”, written by the famous American writer Lois Lowry. This book was written under author’s impression after visiting her aging father in the hospital, who had lost his long term memory. The idea of the book is the importance of memory. The novel is set in a society which seems like utopian, in this society there is no hunger, sadness, or misery. However this utopian society is held from experiencing true emotions. This lack of emotion is causing serious problems for the main character Jonas, when he was elected to be the new guardian of memory. It was his job to make sure no one found out about the past. Since the community is build perfect, and they will not feel any kind of emotion even if it’s a good feeling like love.

Furthermore memories are the events we have experienced in life and due to these experiences they take a toll on a person’s behavior. We may perceive a person has negative or pessimistic but without knowing them we can not assume their personality.