The Giver Memory Analysis

In the book The Giver, by Lois Lowry, everyone who Jonas knows lives in the community, and nowhere else. The community is an organized society with brainwashed people. Virtually all of the people that live in the community know nothing about the past or anything else, beside the rules and the occupations in the community that they have been following for generations. Only the Giver and the Receiver of Memory know of the past and emotions and the secrets. Jonas is the Receiver in Training, and he acquires these memories and emotions from the Give. These memories are the memories that the people in the community don’t have, the memories that have been rid of and kept in the Receiver of Memory for generations. The Giver also reveals that the

Jonas goes through a lot while receiving the memories from The Giver. He first gets happy memories such as the sled, but then The Giver has to give him painful memories. He first receives the memory of physical pain from sunburn (Lowry 86). The pain is minimal compared to the memory of a broken leg (Lowry 109) and an injured arm during a war. During the war memory, he sees death (Lowry 119, 121). He experiences grief when he receives the memory the shot elephant (Lowry 100). Most haunting of all are the memories of the release of old and the part his father plays in the release of new born (Lowry 150). These trials at first horrify Jonas but he learns to deal with the

“’Memories are forever”’ (Lowry). People make new memories every day without even realizing it. Some good some bad, that’s just the way of life, but in The Giver nobody knows what happened before them. People barley remember what their childhood was like, they don’t understand the importance of memory and that memories are forever. Aspects of life, rules, and prosperities between our world and Jonas’ world are very different yet have some similarities. Things that are crucial to the characters in The Giver are not as meaningful to the people in our world.

Imagine a world with no feelings, no color, no choice; a world where individuality and freedom are exchanged for security and sameness. This type of world is a reality for Jonas, the protagonist in Lois Lowry’s The Giver. After being assigned the next Receiver of Memories in the community, where he has the capacity to see beyond. As he begins his works, he gains wisdom and through that wisdom, learned that protecting the community from the memories, their lives lacked understanding and feelings. Jonas goes on an archetypal hero’s journey and chooses to risk everything to restore memories and wisdom to everyone in the community. Throughout this novel, Jonas is represented as a hero considering he demonstrates integrity despite living in a

In the novel “The Giver,” written by Lois Lowry, Jonas is a boy who follows the rules, spends time with friends and family, goes to school, and at the Twelves Ceremony is given the job as the Receiver of Memory. At the end of the novel, Jonas learns information that makes him leave the community to save the people he loves. As Jonas becomes older, he acknowledges that he is different from his family and the people surrounded by him. Once Jonas got his assignment as the Receiver of Memory, his maturity became inconsistent throughout the novel.

If the citizens in the community were to hold their own memories, it would make The Giver and Jonas receive less stress. They would not have to worry about keeping the pain, joy, melancholy, memories that they get to experience each day a secret. The Giver and Jonas would be able to share what they learn and they would be able to teach others as well. “ The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.” (p.193). The Giver and Jonas would not be the only ones who get to see color and feel love and emotions. They would be able to talk to people about what they discovered or what had happened in their memories. The Giver and Jonas would not be alone.

The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is a dystopian narrative about a boy who lives in a “utopia” where there is order and, everything is controlled. He alone must contain memories of the past. Unfortunately, many of these memories are traumatic and disturbing. Jonas can do nothing beyond withstanding the pain. Because that is how it had always been in the community. As often paraphrased by the Giver, who is the one giving Jonas the memories, "And back and back and back.”(62) This quote shows how there is nothing that The Giver or Jonas can do apart from accept tradition.

The Giver is a story about a city that is cut off from all memories from the past and is strictly controlled by the government or the so-called “Elders”. There is only one person in the community called the “Receiver of Memory” who has the role of holding all the memories of the past and giving advice to the government when they need it. When Jonas gets chosen for the Receiver of Memory position, he realizes that there is and was much more to this world than the people in the community know about. Jonas soon starts to see colors(which only the person who had the memories could see) and comes to the conclusion that the other people need to know about and have the memories. He goes to the Giver(the person who gives Jonas the memories) and asked him for a way he could return all the memories to the citizens. The Giver said he was proud of the courage that Jonas had; that he was proud he had the courage to rebel against the government to get what he thinks is right. The Giver gives Jonas more memories of courage so that he will be able to survive through the harsh conditions outside the city. Jonas goes to the outside of the city and is faced by many harsh conditions and also troops from the government. But he doesn’t give up. He has the courage to get what he wants. In the end, Jonas makes it to the Boundary of Memory and releases all the memories to every citizen in the city. Therefore, courage can be

Memories can be very valuable. Whatever happens, the memories will never be forgotten. “Memories are forever.” - The Giver. In this science fiction novel, Giver, Lois Lowry demonstrates that even though Jonas world was perfect, he knew something was missing. Everyone in the story was polite to Jonas. Once the Giver gave him lots of memories of love, happiness, and kindness, he knew how to bring back memories to the people. In the beginning of Giver, Jonas had a sickening feeling that something terrible is gonna happen. This perspective changed Jonas during the novel. The message of the novel, The Giver, is memories can bring you back to the old days. Memories can be unique in different types of ways.

This is shown in my first quote which is when Jonas says, “ The worst part of holding memories isn’t the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared” ( Lowry, The Giver, pg 154). In response the Giver says there might be a way to share the memories. After seeing a baby be released, Jonas decides he want s to flee the city with Gabriel.

The book The Giver had many significant meanings and symbols that make a person evaluate how precious life really is. One would like to erase a particularly unpleasant memory, but if one could accomplish that then life would have no meaning. If a person only had pleasant memories and did not know what an unpleasant situation feels like, it would be living with no significance. Like in the book, The Giver, people live in an isolated community with no choices, no pain or true happiness. The protagonist, Jonas, becomes the receiver and realizes that there is more Elsewhere, and does not understand how the community can live with no true feelings. Memories are extremely significant in an individual’s life because it gives a person feeling and emotions of happiness, excitement, fear, and many other mindsets that will allow a person to know who they really are deep inside. The community in The Giver does not have true emotions and feelings; furthermore, their life is precisely robotic where people are not aware of many important things in life. In The Giver, Lois Lowry designs a vague setting in a community of people that have no pain or feelings to make a statement that life today would be boring and with no meaning without memories; in addition, Lowry contains many symbols in the book to show why memories are important in a person 's life.

“If you were to be lost in the river, Jonas, your memories would not be lost with you. Memories are forever.” (144) This is a quote that the Giver said to Jonas and it means that whatever happens a person has they will never lose your memories no matter how sad they are they will always stick. Because people know that the memories they hold are very precious to you. Memories are very important because they make a person who they are. And losing those memories and without them people wouldn’t know who they are. And people can also look back when a person is older to all of those happy moments that they have had and they also teach them lessons like mistakes they have had in the past. With everyone knowing that they have memories they will most likely live a happy life but they aren’t all happy ones there may be sad, infuriating moments and those memories may make them a bad person sometimes like getting revenge on someone else. And Jonas community doesn’t have those happy memories about the happy life of the

A boy is in a society. Not just any society, but a dystopian society. One day, he has a dream about something pleasant, and one day it is horrific. He doesn't know what to do. He wakes up from a terrible dream, wondering when the memories will die down. Day after day new memories appear, and he waits to see what will come next. Lois Lowry uses memories to describe a motif and an overall theme in The Giver. Lois Lowry uses pleasant as well as horrific memories as a motif to emphasize Jonas’s journey. Sometimes, the author will use both good and bad memories to show one idea.

Lowry, herself even says “she didn't think of “The Giver” as futuristic or dystopian or science fiction or fantasy, it was just a story about a kid making sense of a complicated world” (Ulaby). In his own way, Jonas served as his own protagonist as his mind attacks him with questions and uncertainty. Community elders also pose as a sort of enemy, keeping people away from the truth. Moreover, Lowry also included other characters to contrast Jonas. Firstly, his friends, Asher and Fiona show up as foils. When Jonas learns the reality of release and war, he looks at his friend in horror. Even the Giver reinstates “Fiona is already being trained in the fine art of release” (153). Giver tries to comfort Jonas by saying “listen to me Jonas they can’t help it. they know nothing... it’s the life that was created form them, it’s the same life that you would have, if you had not been chosen as my successor” (153). This shows how Jonas remains set apart because he was selected as the successor. Rosemary, the previous “Receiver of Memory” shows up as another foil. Although Jonas never met her, everyone, even the elders, compare him to Rosemary. They hope they did the make the same mistake again and watch him closely. All of Lowry’s characters are created to support Jonas’ role in the

The Giver is a morally driven and thought-provoking story about a young boy called Jonas who lives in a society free of crime, sadness, pain, death, music, color and love. The story follows Jonas as he receives the memories of the past, good and bad, from the current Receiver, who is called the Giver. The Giver transfers memories by placing his hands on Jonas 's forearms. The first memory he receives is of a thrilling sled ride, which he will remake in the end of the movie. Jonas discovers the dangerous truths of his community 's secret past. Armed with the power of knowledge, which he knew about from memories (Ways of Knowledge), Jonas realizes that he must release all the memories to the community to allow them to feel