Jonas And The Giver Essay

Having the weight of all of the painful and positive memories of the past can overwhelm you. Jonas and The Giver feel this way. In Jonas and the Giver’s society, one person must be responsible for carrying the burden that is all of the memories, not including their own. The leaders of their society have given a burden to that person, made them lonely, and denied the rest of the citizens the gifts of true emotions and true happiness. These decisions made by the leaders should have changed a long time ago.
In The Giver, Jonas and The Giver had been selected by the Committee of Elders, to lift the burden of carrying all the memories of the past, from themselves and the rest of society. They did this so that they might not have pain or choices. “But you know, even
In this case, the life of the Receiver can be extremely lonely. One reason for this is, that if the Receiver of Memory has a spouse and a family, that life will be difficult. “There will be a whole part of your life which you won’t be able to share with a family. It’s hard, Jonas. It was hard for me,” (pg. 129). The Giver had a spouse and he said it was hard for him to have one. He couldn’t share his feelings, therefore he was more distant and lonely than the other spouses. He was required not to share the books within his home and he was not allowed to share his training with anyone other than the new Receiver. Furthermore, the Giver and Jonas are the only ones who have feelings. “Jonas, you and I are the only ones who have feelings,” (pg. 192). The Giver meant that the rest of society had feelings, but not true, deep emotions like they did. In addition, The Giver said, “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared,” (pg. 193). The Giver was lonely before Jonas came because he had no one to tell his feelings