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The Role Of Memory In The Giver

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Memories influence more than just the past. Their many roles affect the present and future in many different ways. Memories determine how you act and how you feel in the different circumstances of your life. Memory’s variety of uses makes it very significant in lives of every human being. In the article “Examining the Role of Memory in Social Cognition” R. Nathan Spreng explains the many functions of memory. He argues that memory is used to help people navigate the social world. The article states that, “we project our memories onto others in order to better understand and empathize with their experiences.” (Spreng 1). This means that people share their experiences to connect with others. People can learn from each other and even develop …show more content…

In the story Jonas is given memories by The Giver to help him gain the wisdom to be able to lead the community. Through this sharing of memories Jonas and The Giver begin to form a special connection. They begin develop empathy for each other because they are going through the same suffering. One day The Giver reveals his love for Jonas, “‘Rosemary,’ The Giver explained. ‘I loved her. I feel it for you, too.’” (Lowry 141). Both The Giver’s and Jonas’s memories have created a social bond between them that cannot be broken. The role of memories is also shown throughout the community. The people of Jonas’s community have no memories. This is because the leaders of the community decided to make everything the same in order to create a perfect society. However, this lack of memory results in many horrible occurrences throughout the community. One of which is the release, or killing, of people in the community. “He killed it! My father killed it! Jonas said to himself, stunned at what he was realizing.” (Lowry 160). The people of the community have no memories or feelings, so they don’t even realize that killing is a bad thing. They have no idea what they are doing is terrible and murderous. They have no idea how to react to anything because they have no past experiences to guide them. Memory can help people connect with others and also help guide them through their social surroundings …show more content…

People all over the globe use memory to help them navigate through their social environments. Whether it’s creating healthy relationships or responding correctly in social situations memories are crucial to human life. Because of this, I also rely on memories quite a bit. I use them especially to make friends. I know this because I find myself befriending many people with similar interests and experiences as myself. A number of my friends love sports and the beach as I do myself. These shared experiences help me to better connect with these people and therefore become better friends with them. I am very grateful for my memories because I know without them life would be very hard. I have seen these difficulties in the special ed. kids at our school. Many people find them weird or gross because they do not know how to act in social situations. I now know that this weirdness is not their fault at all. Their mental illnesses cause this behavior as they have trouble collecting and processing memory. This then results in few experiences to guide them through their social world. Now that I understand their mental situation I have begun to develop empathy for them. Although I don’t know what it feels like, I can use my past experiences to imagine their situation, which is yet another function of memory. Memory is incredibly useful for people all around the world and like many others, my life

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