Life in the Memories

Life in the Memories

Authors note: this is a 3 paragraph response about how the quote "You understand, don’t you, that this is my life? The memories?" shows that the Receiver is an important job.

When someone has an extremely important job, it probably needs to have constant attention. If that is the case, then it would require extra attention that a normal job wouldn’t. It would take time that would cut into your outside life. The same thing happens in the story The Giver by Lois Lowry, when The Giver says "You understand, don’t you, that this is my life? The memories?”

In the community that Jonas lives in, the people have never experienced any emotion ever. They have this thing called Sameness which is where the weather is always the same and there is now sunlight and no colors. They are completely numb to their surroundings and if they were to start feeling emotions, it would impact them very strongly. The Receiver’s job is to hold all of these memories so that the people are not exposed to them. When the people don’t have emotions then the committee believes that they function more efficiently and that there would be less crime.

Because everyone else cannot have the memories, Jonas and The Giver have a very heavy burden on their shoulders. If anything were to happen to them, like the previous receiver who applied for a release for herself (this released all of the memories into the community), then the people would suffer because among those memories are memories of war violence and pain. This is why the receiver’s job is so important.