Kristine Dang: Week 13: The Importance of Memories
http://www.danielnashillustration.com/the-giver-sci-fi-now-magazine
The topic of memories immediately reminds me of the dystopian society of The Giver. As I’m sure most of us have read this novel in middle school, I thought it would be appropriate to reintroduce this novel since it is extremely relevant to our topic. The Giver, a fictional novel, focuses on the importance of memories and how a perfect society would be more harmful than beneficial. In this society, everyone except for a select few has no feelings or memories apart from the ones that are “given” to them. These memories are generated and provided for every individual any other memories they have are erased. However, once the “chosen one,” Jonas, receives these memories to become the next “Giver,” or holder of all memories, he feels that everyone in society was not truly happy without being able to feel both positive and negative feelings. For this reason, Jonas sets out on a journey to try to unlock these memories for everyone to experience.
Because the individuals who control this society aspire to remove pain, sadness, hatred, and competition from their civilians, they set strict rules for them to live pleasant, simple lives that included much repetition in their daily activities. However, anyone who did not fit into this society would be “released.” The members of this society are told that those who are “released'' would be brought to another community where they would be more comfortable and fit in. Later, Jonas realizes that those who are “released” are actually put to death to protect the stability of their “perfect society.”
Hey Kristine, the relationship between memories and emotions really is important once you think about it. This crucial relationship can be proven by just simply trying to describe an emotion. For example, happiness is described to be a state of "pleasure or contentment" by a simple Google search. However, the question then becomes, what is pleasure or contentment? To describe those, you might give a generic example, like winning a competition or receiving a good score on a project. Although this would perfectly explain what pleasure and contentment is, it ultimately requires one concept: memories. If you have no memories of winning a competition or receiving a good score, it will then be impossible for you to relate to such concepts of pleasure and contentment. Because so, memories really is important to emotions: one cannot exist without the other.
ReplyDeleteHey Kristine! It certainly is depressing to think about how being happy is often at someone else’s expense, and a state of true equilibrium in terms of contentment can never be achieved. While I have never read the book you talk about, it seems correct that such a society would not only have many dissenters but also those who would do anything to keep things as they were. It seems like it would be an interesting treatise into how much we are affected by the things around us and how the meaning of happiness is different: for some it's about safety, while for some it's about freedom. The intertwining of memories into this is also interesting because it seems correct that if you had memory of course it would lead to conflict since you’d remember slights and such.
ReplyDeleteHey Kristine, this system implemented in the dystopian society to prevent negative feelings from arising seems ideal in concept, but I agree that it is more harmful. As emotions and memories are strongly interrelated with one another, like Jonas, I believe that society won’t be able to achieve genuine happiness. Without memories, people would never be able to reflect and look back on the past or be able to plan ahead for the future. They would constantly live in the present, with no real meaning to their life, demonstrating how important memories are. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteKristine, this blog post definitely unlocked a core memory for me. What I find so funny about the timing of this post is that my sister, who is in 7th grade, just started reading the Giver, so her talking to me about it yesterday and now, reading your post about it is very weird, in a good way. The Giver definitely conveys to us the power of memories and the impact they have on societies and the world. Our social, economical, and political systems are all, in reality, built on memories. Using the advice of past experts, studying history, and understanding the impacts of past events allows us to increase productivity and knowledge as the years go on. The Giver shows us the consequences of erasing memories and relates to how, sometimes, that is what people in power want to do, but we need to stop these people and remind everyone that memories good and bad need to be shared and remembered if we are to become better people.
ReplyDeleteHi Kristene, I absolutely loved The Giver; I read it twice, and read the other three books in the quartet as well. I found the themes in this book super interesting and deep, and it really shows a lot about human nature. Memory is such an important part of humanity. Although it might cause pain and suffering, it is also a core part of who we are and it cannot be taken away. The leaders of the community in the Giver were trying to create a utopian society, but they took away many things such as seeing color or having memories of life before this society was created.
ReplyDeleteHi Kristine! The Giver popped up in my head as soon as I read this quarter’s blog topic as well. I vividly remember reading the novel in middle school and feeling completely in awe of the possibility of a world where memories and emotions are regulated. I think an important takeaway from the novel is that memories are a large part of our identity and that the benefits of happy emotions outweigh the burden of sad ones. I definitely can not imagine living in a world where my memories are controlled and erased from my brain since I have so many good memories that I hold dear to my heart. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Kristine! I thought that Giver was one of the most interesting books we read in middle school. One thing that really stood out to me from the book, in addition to the fact that most people in the society did not feel any emotions or have memories, was the fact that Jonas and the Giver are the only citizens to be able to see color. I remember that Jonas only began to see colors when he received his first memories. I think that message is really profound. Without the memories that distinguish us from each other and allow us to truly perceive the world, we do not feel any emotions or see any color in the world. Memories and emotions truly coexist with each other, and it is because we have both that we have meaning to our life. This was a really interesting topic to reflect on!
ReplyDeleteHey Kristine! The Giver had to have been one of my favorite novels and series in seventh grade English! The entire series explored the concepts of time and memory and was truly eye-opening in the sense that it highlighted the importance of emotion in society and daily life. The dystopian novel taught me many lessons as a seventh grader and was definitely enjoyable in a middle school reading environment. Thank you for sharing!
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