The Giver (The Giver, #1)

by Lois Lowry

“But you will be faced, now,” she explained gently, “with pain of a magnitude that none of us here can comprehend because it is beyond our experience.

No voice made an explanation. The experience explained itself to him.

How could you describe a sled without describing a hill and snow; and how could you describe a hill and snow to someone who had never felt height or wind or that feathery, magical cold?

Even trained for years as they all had been in precision of language, what words could you use which would give another the experience of sunshine?

“Well . . .” Jonas had to stop and think it through. “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?”

They have never known pain, he thought. The realization made him feel desperately lonely,

“But why can’t everyone have the memories? I think it would seem a little easier if the memories were shared. You and I wouldn’t have to bear so much by ourselves, if everybody took a part.”

But he knew he couldn’t go back to the world of no feelings that he had lived in so long.

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”