In the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, Jonas the main character was born into a society where everyone and everything is structured to be equal. By equal, that means that their is no such thing as race, because no one in this utopia that Lowry has created is able to see color. Jonas on the other hand stands out from the rest because he has, “the Capacity to See Beyond” ( Lowry 79) his light eyes allow him to see color, only few with this uniqueness are selected to be the Receiver of Memory. No one in this society is allowed to have memories of the past, one person is forced to carry all the memories in order for their to be no conflict. The Receiver of Memory is forced to carry these memories throughout their lifetime, although he or she will
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In the beginning of the novel Jonas was unconcerned about the life he lived. He changes throughout the course of the novel because of the new experiences he has been exposed to. The only reason he was able to notice the corruption in his community is because of the memories he has accumulated over a year of training. Lowry explains that the earlier Receiver-in-training, Rosemary, asked for release because she no longer could tolerate the pain. Memories of starvation and warfare made Jonas feel an excruciating amount of pain as if he actually was living within these memories. The issue is that the receiver is rarely sought out by the committee of elders, they need his wisdom about previous occurrences so that they can solve a similar conflict they are in. One of the conflicts in the community was that family units wanted to add more children to their dwellings. The community wanted to make a change in the rule book but first the elders had to go to the receiver, “And the strongest memory came was hunger. It came from generations back. Centuries back. The population had got gotten so big that hunger was everywhere. Excruciating hunger and starvation. It was followed by warfare” by keeping a minimum of two children within a home the elders believe they have found the solution to starvation and homelessness (Lowry 140-141). This was one of the times that the committee of elders had went to the receiver for advice but for the most part the receiver is not bothered by anyone. Everyday the receiver feels a great amount of pain because he carries memories of devastating past times. The only way Jonas can rid himself of all this pain is if he shares it with the rest of society. Jonas has to travel outside of his community so that the memories can be released and people will regain their
In the beginning of the novel Jonas was unconcerned about the life he lived. He changes throughout the course of the novel because of the new experiences he has been exposed to. The only reason he was able to notice the corruption in his community is because of the memories he has accumulated over a year of training. Lowry explains that the earlier Receiver-in-training, Rosemary, asked for release because she no longer could tolerate the pain. Memories of starvation and warfare made Jonas feel an excruciating amount of pain as if he actually was living within these memories. The issue is that the receiver is rarely sought out by the committee of elders, they need his wisdom about previous occurrences so that they can solve a similar conflict they are in. One of the conflicts in the community was that family units wanted to add more children to their dwellings. The community wanted to make a change in the rule book but first the elders had to go to the receiver, “And the strongest memory came was hunger. It came from generations back. Centuries back. The population had got gotten so big that hunger was everywhere. Excruciating hunger and starvation. It was followed by warfare” by keeping a minimum of two children within a home the elders believe they have found the solution to starvation and homelessness (Lowry 140-141). This was one of the times that the committee of elders had went to the receiver for advice but for the most part the receiver is not bothered by anyone. Everyday the receiver feels a great amount of pain because he carries memories of devastating past times. The only way Jonas can rid himself of all this pain is if he shares it with the rest of society. Jonas has to travel outside of his community so that the memories can be released and people will regain their