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The importance of memory, morality and other central themes in Lois Lowry's novel The Giver
Memories in the giver
Identity formation in society
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Recommended: The importance of memory, morality and other central themes in Lois Lowry's novel The Giver
People without collective memories like sunshine or cold only know what they have experienced, which might not be an immense measure. Humans without any personal memories, like doing something for the first time, would not have much of a personality, individuality, or uniqueness. In Lois Lowry 's The Giver, the citizens in Jonas 's community do not know what snow, rain, wind, or what anything is for that matter. Humans without memories or personality are like a taco shell with nothing inside of it. This world is made up of differences, but in The Giver, sameness does not grant the diversity that citizens need to have contrasting identity, which is vital in a world full of similarity. Without memories, people would be nothing, memories that stick with everyone from the time it happened to the day they die, would never exist in people 's memories. Riding a bicycle for example, a memory that no one forgets, the first time we learn to do it with parents to when their kids are all grown up teaching their children how to ride bikes. Memories define each person, if someone’s childhood may have been …show more content…
If that pet died, these citizens might always be dark and gloomy with the memory of death, not the memory of being released. The whole community takes pills to suppress their stirrings, they would never have experienced heartbreak, they wouldn 't even know what it is to love someone and then lose them. Jonas’s parents for example, their two personalities were put into a system, analyzed, and then they were paired together. They don’t love or even have feelings for each other, they just have mutual respect for one another and share two children but that’s about it. Not knowing heartbreak, death, pain, or depression may be a good thing in a bunch of cases, but pain and sadness are how people mature through life and become more capable than when they were
The author Lois Lowry grew up all around the world when she was a child due to her dad being in the U.S. Army. Since father was a dentist in the army and traveled the world she had gone to many countries which inspired her writing. At one point she had lived in Tokyo where she went to an American school on the base during her junior high years. One of her literary works later in her life is, The Giver, which had won a Newbery Award. In The Giver, the setting is a utopian society where the characters have no feelings, no memories, and no choices that they are able to make on their own. The names of the characters also have hidden meanings and relations behind them using allusion to recreate a religous matter along with how the novel percives morals. Lowry uses the literary elements allusion and setting to express the theme that memories and choice are worth the pain they might sometimes bring.
The essential thing to overcoming adversity is the ability to cause change in yourself and others. In the book, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, Jonas is singled out after he isn’t chosen during the Ceremony of Twelve. He has to learn to overcome the pain of being The Receiver of Memory. He also has to face the truth and discover who his real allies are. This helps him to become a changemaker because he grows. He grows by using the pain to become stronger mentally and physically. Ultimately, Lowry teaches us that to make a change, you must display curiosity and determination.
Only you make the Choice to read this! In novel The Giver by Lois Lowry she explores many themes, but one theme in my opinion stands above the rest that is free will. With free will we can shape our futures.
“Ignorance is not bliss. Bliss is knowing the full meaning of what you have been given.” said David Levithan. In her dystopian novel, The Giver, Lois Lowry is able to convey the same idea as this quote. In this book, people created the Community in which the members are in a supposedly safe and happy environment. The Elders choose Jonas, the main character, to be the next Receiver of Memory and his training helps him to experience the past and see the deep flaws in the Community.
“Holding onto past memories helps humans avoid pain in the future. These experiences also help them make better decisions in the future.” (Kenny) Many people advise others to learn from the past and apply those memories so that you can effectively succeed by avoiding repeating past mistakes. On the contrary, people who get too caught up with the past are unable to move on to the future. Memories are the foundation of a person's mindset because what you make of them is entirely up to you.
Everyone has memories. Memories may be recollections as well as fragments of moments or occurrences. Be it good or be it bad, a memory can have an everlasting effect on the everyday lives of an entirety of people, or even on that of an average person; some memories may contain the power to create fears or even spark anxieties, while other memories may help to inspire or to encourage those to do things that he or she might not find themselves partake in otherwise. Here, there will be shown several ways by the means in which memories can be of both positive and negative effects when it comes to the impacts they create on the lives and actions of people who remember. Two literary works that will be used throughout this paper are Ray Bradbury’s
Set in a community with no climate, emotions, choices, or memories Lois Lowry tells the tale of Jonas in The Giver. Jonas is selected to be the receiver of memory, which means the memories of generations past, before the community was created, will all be transferred to him to hold. As Jonas receives memories his concept of the world around him drastically changes. Jonas starts out as twelve-year-old boy with perceptions different from those around him, he then begins to see the community for what it really is, and he makes a plan to change it.
The first issue that needs to be addressed however is what exactly is memory? “ Without memory we would be servants of the moment, with nothing but our innate reflexes to help us deal with the world. There would be no language, no art, no science, no culture. Civilization itself is the distillation of human memory” (Blakemore 1988). The simple interpretation of Blakemore’s theory on what memory is that a person’s memory is at least one of the most important things in their life and without it civilization itself could not exist.
Language is a tool to communicate with others, convey your ideas and meanings. Precise language is important because it can help you exchange ideas with others more efficiently without any chance of being misunderstood. Sometimes, different words are used to conceal the true meaning of the idea or action, such as passing away implicating death. In Lois Lowry’s “The Giver”, people living in the community are taught to use precise language to prevent any misunderstanding or misconceptions. But some words used in the community are not precise and are used to distort the true purpose of the word, in order to promote rules or ideas that the government does not want the general public to know. Three words in Lois Lowry’s “The Giver” which camouflage the true meaning of the words are release, assignment and stirrings.
Jonas hates how his society decides to keep memories a secret from everyone. Jonas says: “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared” (Lowry 154). Jonas feels that memories, whether it be good or bad, should be shared with everyone. Furthermore, memories allow the community to gain wisdom from remembering experiences of the past. As for The Giver, The Giver disagrees with how the community runs things. He believes that memories should be experienced by everyone as well, because life is meaningless without memories. The Giver says: “There are so many things I could tell them; things I wish they would change. But they don’t want change. Life here is so orderly, so predictable–so painless. It’s what they’ve chosen [...] It’s just that… without memories, it’s all meaningless. They gave that burden to me” (Lowry 103). The Giver is burdened with the responsibility to not share memories even though that is what he feels the community deserves. In addition, he believes the community lives a very monotonous life where nothing ever changes. Everything is meaningless without memories because the community does not know what it is like to be human without feelings. Overall, Jonas and The Giver’s outlooks on their “utopian” society change as they realize that without
However, as Jason’s training teaches him, this is not the case. His teacher, the Receiver of Memory, who tells Jonas to call him the Giver, transmits memories of the distant past to him. It is through these memories that Jonas discovers the meaning of snow, war, pain and love. The Giver tells him that these things existed before the people chose to go to “Sameness”. Ever since, they gave up those things in exchange for a world free of discrimination, crime and pain. However, realising the importance of wisdom gained through experience, they chose the Receiver to bear the burden of all the memories for them. Overwhelmed by all this information and being forbidden to share it with anyone, Jonas grows increasingly embittered against hi...
Remembrance is an integral part of our everyday lives. Both pleasant and unpleasant memories shape who we are as human beings. The definition of memory is two fold 1. “the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information” and 2. “Something remembered from the past; a recollection” (Google Definition). The life of memory has three stages in which it is created. An event occurs in ones life it becomes encoded and stored in the brain. Following the encoding, the brain then has full access to retrieve the memory in a response to any current activity or thought. Memories are unique to each person. There are three main types of memories that are studied. An individual memory is one that is formed by his or her personal experiences. An institutional
Jonas’ community chooses Sameness rather than valuing individual expression. Although the possibility of individual choice sometimes involves risk, it also exposes Jonas to a wide range of joyful experiences from which his community has been shut away. Sameness may not be the best thing in the community because Jonas expresses how much he feels like Sameness is not right and wants there to be more individuality. Giver leads him to understand both the advantages and the disadvantages of personal choice, and in the end, he considers the risks worth the benefits. “Memories are forever.”
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
With each passing second, our society is becoming more dystopian without our realization. One day we will wake up from our trance and realize that we do not recognize the world we live in anymore. People, especially in the United States, believe they are independent and are free to make their own decisions in life. These people are acting naïve and lying to themselves. We are all simply part of a society that either forces us to listen to its ideas or silently makes us believe we came to these ideas under our own free will.