In The Giver, we encounter a community that stores all its memories in the person of "the giver." The purpose of holding memories in this way is that the memories are not a burden for people anymore. Instead, they become the responsibility of a single person. However, if the person leaves the community, the memories reattach to people. In one instance, the old receiver was released, and afterwards, the community was flooded with memories and feelings that they had never experienced before.