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In The Giver by Lois Lowry, how do the memories change Jonas over the course of the story?

The memories that Jonas experiences as received by the Giver give him knowledge and wisdom. First he learns about the ability to make choices based on preferences; then he learns about the concept of love; and finally, he learns what being released really means. Jonas learns about each concept from a different memory and they teach him more about humanity than any of his friends or family could ever understand.

The first memory Jonas ever receives is in Chapter 11. Jonas gets to go sledding down a snowy slope, which gives him a great feeling of joy that he's never experienced before. Afterwards, he is told that snow, hills, and sledding don't exist anymore because they were sacrificed for Sameness--the condition that makes the community equal, safe, and secure. This is the first time that Jonas realizes that there are experiences that he has never known about and that others whom he loves will never, ever know. 


As Jonas receives more memories, his insight into seeing beyond becomes sharper. This allows him to see colors. When asked, the Giver explains, "When you receive the memories. You have the capacity to see beyond. You'll gain wisdom, then, along with colors. And lots more" (95). With this information, Jonas's brain starts putting things together and he discovers what has been taken away along with the ability to see colors--the ability to choose based on preference. For example, in Chapter 13, Jonas says the following:



"If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?" (97).



In Chapter 16, Jonas receives a memory that seems to resemble Christmas because there's a family with grandparents giving and receiving gifts. The Giver explains the concept of love through this memory. This prompts Jonas to ask his parents if they love him and the response he gets is that love is an archaic word. A better way to say it, they say, is that they enjoy Jonas, not love him. This disappoints him and sets him up for even further disappointment later when he discovers that when people are released from the community, they are really killed.


Jonas learns about death and killing in Chapter 15 when he experiences a memory about war and dying on the battlefield. But things get far worse when he witnesses his father administer a lethal injection into the head of an infant in Chapter 20. This is the breaking point. The memory of war was bad enough because he could see the horror that killing brought to humankind. It was probably a memory that would help Jonas continue on as the full-time Receiver because it would stop his community from ever experiencing war. But when he sees that killing didn't end when the community went to Sameness, there doesn't seem like much point allowing it to continue from that point on. As a result, the Giver and Jonas devise a plan to end Sameness.

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