Topic: In both The Giver and The Chrysalids, the communities strive to create utopias in their own ways. Discuss how memories are forgotten and/or emphasized to achieve this.

In the novels The Chrysalids by John Wyndham and The Giver by Lois Lowry, both authors illustrate how, when communities emphasize or forget memories from the past, it will result in a dystopia. Further, it will also affect our future generations and the way people choose to live.

In the Waknuk community of The Chrysalids, memories are recalled, emphasized, and then used to threaten and control the society. The leaders rule the community using fear as a weapon, forcing the people to believe what they want them to believe. The Waknuk community’s idea of a utopia is to have the people obey the rules, and to live under the will of God. A citizen of another community criticized the Old People, “If they had not brought down Tribulation which all but destroyed them” (Wyndham 157). The memory of Tribulation is constantly discussed, repeated and emphasized throughout the novel. The community believes that if they break the laws and rules of The Bible and Nicholson’s Repentances, their two only and sacred books, they will be faced with consequences like how the “Old People” of the past did. Tribulation is believed to be a period of time where the people of earth made too many mistakes, broke too many rules, that angered God, causing Him to destroy all of earth to give people a chance to start a new life. Another time is when David’s father, a very strict man with a strong sense of righteousness said about the Fringes land (an unfamiliar and unknown land), “The Devil struts his wide estates, and the laws of God are mocked.” (Wyndham 20). The people of the Waknuk community are so fixated and obsessed with the rules, that they lose their own sense of righteousness. They will point out anything they find that may go against their beliefs, thinking they are right. It seems as if the citizens are brainwashed into only thinking in the way that the leaders think is right, only relying on the uncertain memories of previous events. Thus, in The Chrysalids’ society, horrifying memories of the past are emphasized to the citizens, causing them to be so frightened by them that the leaders take advantage over controlling the society the way they want - to live under the rule of God, striving to become a perfect society.

In The Giver's community, the Elders took away memories from the community, so that the citizens will not have to be burdened or pained, and have to face the many tragedies that happened in the past, striving to create a utopia of their own. Jonas complained about the pain that The Giver and himself were forced to bear. The Giver replied, "You're right, but then everyone would be burdened and pained. They don't want that. And that's the real reason The Receiver is so vital to them, and so honored. They selected me - and you - to lift that burden from themselves” (Lowry 112-113). “They” are the Elders, who don’t want everyone to be burdened or pain, free from feelings. They only selected two honoured people, The Receiver and The Giver to bear all this pain for the community. A community without feelings will live a happier life, with less to complain about. No memories also mean no comparison with past events; the people won’t have anything to compare their community with, thus there will be no thought of rebellion, causing disruptions in the community. Everything will be orderly mannered and peaceful. The Giver talked to Jonas about memories, “There’s all that goes beyond - all that is Elsewhere - and all that goes back, and back, and back. I received all of those, when I was selected... I re-experience them again and again. It is how wisdom comes. And how we shape our future” (Lowry 78). Like how The Giver explained, memories contain important events from the very faraway past, and gives him wisdom. Just like how in every memory, you can learn something from it. The wisdom that The Giver receives is advised to the Elders, to shape the community’s future. It also contributes to the perfect society that the Elders strive to achieve, as the Giver is there to advise them to make the right decisions.

Without memories, the citizens of this community are free from feelings, emotions and also restricted knowledge. This way, they are unable to rebel, as they have nothing to compare it with, such as memories from the past of societies that provide things they aren’t. They are stuck in one place, with one set of rules. This, though, keeps the community in peace, and moving forward.

Comparing The Chrysalids and The Giver, we can see that memories are extremely important to our lives and relating them to our every action is inevitable. Looking at the Waknuk community, the leaders emphasized memories of Tribulation, the consequences of breaking the laws and how the Old People were destroyed from doing so. The more citizens reminding themselves about it, the more fear is passed on, allowing the leaders to keep the community together and orderly in a strict but effective way. In The Giver, though, it’s the complete opposite. Memories were meant to be forgotten by the society, relieving pain, emotion and feelings from the citizens. Even so, memories are essential for wisdom. Since The Receiver gains wisdom through the received memories, they are able to offer advice to the Elders when they are making decisions, striving to become “perfect”. Both communities strive to create a utopia, through the different usages of memories.

Through these two novels, both authors taught us how memories are an essential part of our lives, that when they are emphasized and forgotten, will not only affect our values, but our human nature, as well as the way we see the different aspects of life. In the novels’ communities, the leaders each had rules and goals for their people, according to what they thought was “right”, that caused them to result in a dystopia. The only question now is: What is right?