Memory In Lois Lowry's The Giver

Memory plays a central role in Lois Lowry’s The Giver, it may even be the central theme in the book since it plays an important part in the main character’s development and his change of paradigms throughout the novel. We can make the case that the author borrows a lot of thought on memory from contemporary philosophy. The idea in the book that memory is the true form of wisdom but that the former brings pain and unpleasantness is very based on demanding a sacrifice of one’s self for that knowledge. This idea has its roots in Lowry’s knack for making stories involving her own painful and controlling memories. In The Giver, the characters have a very peculiar dislike for war and conflict, it is the main thing they want to avoid so they create

The givers memories even though a form of wisdom, weigh heavily over him, for example in the book it states: “He rested for a moment, breathing deeply. "I am so weighted with them," he said.”
The power of memory to liberate comes from the fact that even though the characters have lost those things that make them human like personality and past memory they have also eliminated dehumanizing actions such as genocide and cruelty. Even though the actions that are committed in the giver like control of population is euthanizing people and the control of memory is basically manipulation of the mases they are made in the way where it is not cruel nor cold murder. These actions are thought out processes that involve medical care and not making the patient of subject suffer in any possible way, suffering is nonexistent in the giver because of the power and wisdom of memories involving pain, genocide, hatred and war which led to the current status of the giver fantasy Dystopian world. The