In Chapter 18 of The Giver, what do you think the Giver meant when he said "Memories are forever"?

This part of chapter 18 comes when the Giver and Jonas are
talking about what would happen if anything happened to Jonas and what happened when the previous
giver, Rosemary, elected to be released. The Giver points towards the permanence of memories and
how they cannot simply disappear with a Giver. If a Giver dies, those memories are set free in a
way and are visited on all of the community:

readability="12">

"I think I mentioned to you once," the Giver reminded
him, "that when she was gone, the memories came back to the people. If you were to be lost
in the river, Jonas, your memories would not be lost with you. Memories are
forever."

The
Giver thus points towards the way memories are handled and dealt with in this community, and the
dangers that would exist if a Giver, like Rosemary, should die without being able to transfer
those memories on to a different Giver and therefore protect the community from those
memories.