A Study of Themes in the Giver

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or grief if you cannot remember the events that hurt you. At some point in the past the community in The Giver decided to eliminate all pain from their lives. To do so, they had to give up the memories of their society’s experiences. Not only did this allow them to forget all of the pain that had been suffered throughout human history, it also prevented members of the society from wanting to engage in activities and relationships that could result in conflict and suffering, and eliminated any desire for the things the community gave up in order to live in total peace and harmony. According to the novel, however, memory is essential. The Committee of Elders does recognize the necessity of memory; if you do not remember your errors, you may repeat them. In order to control the possibility of making a mistake the community assigns a Receiver to remember history for the community. But as Jonas undergoes his training, he learns that just as there is no pain without memory, there is also ...

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