The Giver Memories

The world we live in is full of harsh and painful memories, and there is no escaping them. That is just the way it is, but what if there was a place where we did not have to keep these memories. A place where everyone did not have to know about the hardship and struggles of war, poverty, and even starvation. Lois Lowry’s novel, The Giver, is a utopian fiction where the members of the community do not have to bare bad memories, nor do they have memories at all. Just as there is no pain without memory; without memories we can not learn from our mistakes, or choose our destinies, or share memories be them good or bad. Without memories life would be pointless.

In The Giver The community had to relinquish all the member’s gathered experiences.

Whenever the Committee of Elders has a fluke in their system, or an incident that happens in the Community, or a rouge plane terrorizes the Community, or when they want to change the rules. Such as adding a third child to each family unit. In the end, Jonas learns a new respect for human life through the memories he gained. ”There’s much more. There’s all that goes beyond-all that is Elsewhere- all that goes back and back and back. I received all of those, when I was selected. And here in this room, all alone, I re-experience them again and again. It is how wisdom comes. And how we shape our future” (Lowry 78). Wisdom from the past is necessary to make decisions of the future. The Community does not have the knowledge they need to make choices, so everything stays the same. Jonas knows what he must do to greater benefit the Community at large. Meanwhile the lack of memories held by the community disables them from making choices and deciding our

“He rested for a moment, breathing deeply. I’m so weighted with them” Giver said (Lowry 78). The Giver forces Jonas to ask if the suffering is worth the knowledge. We learn from our mistakes, and we can not effectively make decisions about the future. The Give argue that memories should be shared to everyone. “The worst part of holding memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared” (Lowry 154). There is a value in the knowledge of past generations, and the way knowledge is past down. “But why can’t everyone have the memories? I think it would be a little easier if the memories were shared. You and I wouldn't have to bare as much by ourselves, if everyone took a part” (Lowry 112). When you look at this the Community is being unsettlingly corardish. As the price for this sort of action, the Community may escape pain, but also is deprived of wisdom as well. Without sharing of memories, the memories themselves are of no