The Giver Literary Analysis

Imagine remembering all the amazing and different memories of love, happiness, pain, etc. you’ve ever had, but then you forgot them all. Well in the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas, and his Utopian community have no memories from the “outside world”. When Jonas is getting ready for the ceremony of "twelves" he is getting “apprehensive”. When the ceremony of "twelves" is all set to go, Jonas waiting for his turn for his job gets skipped by the Chief Elder, but, later on, she pulls him aside explaining that Jonas has been "selected" to serve as The Receiver. Through all his learning with The Giver, Jonas has realized that the community needs memories for a meaningful life.

In the novel, memories are needed to live a meaningful life. Jonas

goes into the Annex room to receive memories from The Giver. “Then he shivered. He realized that the touch of the hands felt, suddenly, cold” (page 101). This is the first memory Jonas receives from The Giver and feels surprised from the astonishing snow he has ever felt or seen. He realizes now that his community does not have weather, and now he realizes through memories, that this is something they have all been missing out on. Another quote from the book that shows memories are needed for a meaningful life in The Giver is on page 154. “There were cries of delight. They hugged one another. The small child went and sat on the lap of the old woman, and she rocked him and rubbed her cheek against his.” However, this clearly shows that memories are needed for a meaningful life because the feeling of love we can experience through our memories is necessary for a meaningful life.
To have a successful life you need memories to hold your stories, secrets, and feelings.

In addition, Jonas knows and wants to make sure that everyone in the community should get memories back to actually live a happy or caring life. “Water trickled into the imploring mouth and down the grimy chin. The boy sighed. His head fell back, his lower jaw dropping as if he had been surprised by something. A dull blankness slid slowly across his eyes. He was silent” (page 151). Clearly this example shows that if the community doesn’t have memories then how are they going to care for others and grieve when it’s time to grieve, but, of course, they don’t have memories to experience this. Likewise, in the novel of The Giver there is another example that shows memories are needed for a significant life on page 187-188. “He pushed the plunger very slowly, injecting the liquid into the scalp vein until the syringe was empty. All done. That wasn’t so bad was it?... He killed it! My father killed it! Jonas said to himself, stunned at what he was realizing.” Memories are important, but they can hurt too. How would you feel if you didn’t have memories at all? Jonas felt someone stabbed him in the heart. Life is hard to deal with some memories, but memories are

important.
Life with memories is a meaningful life. As Bob Dylan said, “Take care of all your memories. For you cannot relive them.” That’s what Jonas and his community need to try to do, they have to keep the memories if not then they can never remember or relive them.