The Giver: Dynamic Character & Theme

     The theme of “The Giver” is that the memories are important to learn from, to teach others, and to get wisdom from. In the book, the Giver was telling Jonas how it felt having all of these memories and he told Jonas,“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”(154). This quote shows how being the only person that can see theses memories gives him the feeling of loneliness because he can’t talk about them or shares them to other people in the community except to the new Receiver of Memory, which is basically one person. He also says that memories should be shared. This is true because if everyone has these memories they will learn and see how good it is to have that freedom to make choices, make mistakes, and see how having differences and not sameness is good too.   The Giver shows many examples of how memories are important to learn from, to teach others, and to get wisdom from, throughout the book. In the book, the Giver tells Jonas memories are important because, “It’s just that...without the memories it’s all meaningless.”(105). This quote shows that if these memories didn’t exist, it would just be all meaningless and there wouldn’t be anything for people to feel actual emotions. This also shows that memories are a huge deal when it comes to wisdom because if there aren’t any memories, the Elders of the community wouldn’t know what to do when a problem comes up.

     Throughout the book, Jonas changes. That makes him a dynamic character. In the beginning if the book, Jonas describes himself in one word, he says, “Apprehensive, Jonas decided. That’s what I am.(4). Apprehensive means that someone is fearful, they are always scared of what might happen in the future.  This is how Jonas was throughout the beginning of the book, but he changed further along the book.    Jonas has changed drastically from how he has felt on the beginning of the book to the end of the book. At the end of the book, Jonas is about to leave the community when “He felt, surprisingly, no fear, nor any regret at leaving the community behind.”(163). This quote shows how he now isn't apprehensive anymore since he doesn't fear in unknown that he will be facing because he is leaving the community now. He also isn't scared about the fact that he is leaving the community which is something that the Jonas from the beginning of the book might not even think about leaving the community, which is what he is now doing.