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The Giver has won the Newbery Medal and has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and is one of my all time favorite novels, so I can't wait to share it with my students and begin discussing messages that it conveys. One of the most important themes in The Giver is the significance of memory to human life. At some point in the past the community in The Giver decided to eliminate all pain from their lives. To do so, they had to give up the memories of their society’s collective experiences. Not only did this allow them to forget all of the pain that had been suffered throughout human history, it also prevented members of the society from wanting to engage in activities and relationships that could result in conflict and suffering, and eliminated any nostalgia for the things the community gave up in order to live in total peace and harmony. According to the novel, however, memory is essential. The Committee of Elders does recognize the practical applications of memory—if you do not remember your errors, you may repeat them—so it designates a Receiver to remember history for the community. But as Jonas undergoes his training, he learns that just as there is no pain without memory, there is also no true happiness. I hope that reading this book will allow my class to appreciate the importance of individuality and freedom, as well as provoke them to think deeper about concepts of family, relationships, remembering the past, and the expectations of others.
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