The Giver (Lois Lowry)

Hi all! So, I reviewed Lois Lowry's famed dystopian novel "The Giver" a while ago, but did you know that it's also a movie?

The 1993 novel "The Giver" takes place at an unspecified time in the future, in a place known simply as "The Community." In the community, there is no such thing as hardship or sadness. Everybody is equal, there are no differences to drive tension. And most importantly, everybody has a place, a job in the community assigned to them at age 12 and kept until they are too old to perform it. Jonas has had a typical life in the community, and at age 12, is assigned the position of "Receiver of Memories." This means that Jonas is tasked with inheriting the memories of the community before it was the community- that is, memories of pain and sadness but also true joy. But as Jonas receives more memories, he learns that there is much more to the community than meets the eye.

The 2014 movie "The Giver"....takes a few liberties. Similarly to in the book, we start out in "The Community" no pain, everything's the same, and so on. This part of the movie is also filmed completely in black and white, to add to the uniform and monotone aspect of the community. (Once Jonas receives his first memory, color begins to appear) However, the similarities pretty much end there. In the movie, Jonas is 16. Jonas is also shown as having a mark on his wrist that indicates him as the new receiver, and as sharing this mark with another character in the book. A huge aspect of the movie that does not appear in the book is Jonas' romantic relationship with another character. True love is one of the things most highly forbidden in the community, so while I understand the decision to feature a romantic relationship in the movie to highlight this, it just makes it so flat and one dimensional. The book is about the true complexities of human nature and the dangers of eliminating danger, while the movie makes it look like any other YA movie about two teens who's love just isn't meant to be.