Theme Of The Giver

1. Importance of Memory: The most important theme in The Giver is the importance of memory. In the past the community decided to get rid of all the pain in their lives. By doing this they had do give up all their memories and experiences. This allowed them to forget all of the pain and suffering that the human race had experienced which will prevent the community from wanting to be part of activities and relationships because of the conflict and suffering that comes with it. However, even in the book memories are important. The Committee of Elders made sure not to get rid of the memories because if you don’t remember the errors they may repeat themselves. This theme is connected with Jonas because when Jonas goes through his training he realizes there’s no pain without memory but there is also no happiness without memory either. This runs throughout the entire book. It really comes to light when Jonas starts to see differently and realises that the whole community is blind to all the amazing things that have happened and will never truly understand till they are able to see these memories for themselves.

2.
The Individual: The author points out that when people don’t experience pain they are no different then anyone else. Pain shapes us into who we are and without pain everyone is almost the same. The community is uncomplicated, they are simple, almost all the same, one dimensional characters but Jonas is different, he is a dynamic character. The story follows and connects to Jonas becoming an individual, breaking off from the community and becoming his own person. This can also connect the The Giver himself because all the memories that he has received was putting him in pain which shaped him to who he was and to help and believe in Jonas when they came up with the plan of running away. The book can be seen as the story of the black sheep, everyone is following the same path and Jonas rejects this kind of society. This