The Importance Of Memory In Lois Lowry's The Giver

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 Newberry Medal winning book The Giver tells a story about a world with no memories. With no memories, the citizens in the community will not experience the small and big things in life. The leaders of the community are called the committee of elders. The committee of elders are hypocritical.

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Do you remember learning about the Holocaust, Jim Crow Laws, or the Spanish Inquisition? For most of us, these events, and many more like them, have shaped our morals, beliefs, and way of life. Imagine having those past referrals withdrawn and no longer having navigation as to what has made us who we are. This is a reality for the citizens in the book, The Giver, as we observe many problems in their utopia from an overlying dilemma, withdrawal from the past. Living life without the knowledge of history deprives us of skill and identification, hinders our understanding of the future, and incites previous mistakes to recur.

The novel The Giver by Lois Lowry illustrates a dystopian society hi lighting the limitations of individuality and suppression of cultural memory in order to prevent any potential destruction that warrants deviation from the totalitarian state of mind with the society depends on. The dependence on the elaborately regulate system however causes the burden of beneficial and detrimental knowledge to the rest on one person's shoulders. Through sociological analysis I will analyze the effects of this reliance on the Giver’s ability to retain such crucial information on a singular causes the detrimental affect triggered not by the inability of the Giver but rather by the society’s unwillingness to change. It can be observed that dystopian societies are ambivalent in nature, situated in utopian text; however, in Lowry's novel the world is engineered where the utopia goes wrong due to its extinction of the aesthetic and personal choices. In “The Utopian the Function of memory in Lois Lowry’s the giver, the author analyzes the ambiguity between the dystopian aspect and the utopian aspect of the society created in the novel (Hanson).

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

Because this title comes with a lifetime of pain, it is seen as the most respected position in the community. Jonas begins to learn what life was like before they all turned to sameness, and he enjoys this old world. His mentor, The Giver, is the one who gives him the memories of the past world, which either pain him or bring him immense joy. This journey of self-discovery and overcoming obstacles will make any reader analyze themselves.

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared. (Lowry, Goodreads). In other words it’s saying the pain Jonas is feeling is mental and emotional but not physical. The giver is making Jonas feel these memories and they're coming back to his head. And by sharing memories it lets you get help or makes you feel good because people can help you. My Thesis is comparing and contrasting modern day to the Giver.

The setting of The Giver takes place in a fictional community known as the “Sameness”. Life here is supposed to be "perfect" because there is no pain or suffering. They don’t have to take

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.

Imagine having everything you wished for. You would live in a perfect world. But every world has imperfections and you come across to realizing...a perfect world doesn’t exist. Within time, you come from an illusion to reality. You choose your journey and it starts here. The community is a separate environment from the world and has many rules to live by. The rules can vary to be severe consequences. It includes sameness, no memories, and family unit regulations. The kids end their childhood at the age of 12 by receiving their life assignment. The main character, Jonas is chosen to be the receiver of memory. He is reliable to hold everyone's feelings, hopes, and devotions. In The Giver the author Lois Lowry uses the theme of change to reveal that growing up in “the community” is a non-stressful and organized environment but Jonas finds the real world a whole different place when he receives memories about strong feelings and hardships, intellects the word “love”, and how important it is to be an individual.

“’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.

The giver is a fictional novel authorised by Louis Lowry dedicated to informing readers about the devastating impact of extreme conformity on a community. As we progress throughout the book we start to realise and learn all these new things about the giver's community, such as creating and trying to maintain a perfect community, that comes beyond our abilities, while the givers society is having a huge impact on the individuality and individual choices on the members of the community. We learn that the inhabitants of the society had a hard time handling all the different memories, in a sudden event. All hints and evidence to these statements above are hidden and presented throughout the book.

The dystopian novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry is about a boy called Jonas becoming the new Receiver-of-Memories. Throughout the novel, the protagonist, Jonas matures as knowledge is gained, and begins to understand the deepest, and darkest secrets of the community he lives in that is seemly 'perfect'. The author has successfully analysed a variety of social issues present in today's modern world in the novel. Some issues implied are: lack of individuality which allows for easy control, the abandonment of emotions and the importance of memories.

If you were given the chance to be Receiver of Memory and be able to lie, feel emotions, and have the highest honor of the community given to you, would you take it? In the book The Giver it’s a community where everything is the same no one can be better than anyone else know this might sound like a good idea but it's not. The book is based on a kid named Jonas, he is a 11 year old boy who doesn't know what to expect as a job for the ceremony of 12. In the ceremony of 12 you are given a job, you do not get to choose a job you are given one. The chief of elders is the one who gets to decide what job you get assigned. Jonas doesn't know what he wants to be he likes most of the jobs but he feels like they don't suit him very well. So they cheif of elders decided to assign the job of Receiver of Memory for Jonas. The Receiver of Memory is the person who hold all the memories of what the world used to be like before all the sameness.