Gist and Theme of The Giver - Essay Example

s The Giver is one of the most exhilarating reading experiences for middle aged children around the world. Written by Loius Lowry, The Giver offers an imaginative utopian world which cloaks many dystopian values as explained by the journey of a 12 years old Jonas. However, when the book was transformed into a movie adaptation, The Giver directed by Phillip Noyce managed to retain some of the aspects touched upon in the book while transforming other major aspects. Though the central theme and the story or the plot of both the movie and the book remain the same, there are significant differences in the technicalities involved. For instance, to add a love angle to the movie, the age of Jonas is elated to 18 years instead to 12 which transform the lens through which the society is viewed. Furthermore, there are significant contrasts in the ending of both the book and the novel, which accrued enough criticism. However, these are the apparent contrasts while many other inherent contrasts will be revealed in the paper. Therefore, the paper aims at exploring how the gist and theme of the books and its movie adaptation have been kept intact whilst adding various contrasts to both. The first contrast which changes the entire outlook of movie from what the movie had predicted is that the movie leaves out the essence of the Jonas character by readily jumping to the part where he is being prepared to receive the memory. In the book, there are chapters (around nine) dedicated to breathe in the look and feel of the utopian community where the rules and laws are explained over how deeply they impact Jonas. However, the movie simplifies this aspect by stating that rules and customs in the utopian community are somewhat strict. Therefore, the book tends to explicate the principles regarding classless society, government control, respect for elders, and conformity to values with more intensity. In instances where Jonas seems to deviate by the rules, the sense of shame can be sensed by the readers, an element missing in the movie. Furthermore, the movie also deviates from the essence of what comprises a perfect or an imperfect society, since the movie puts the entire burden of imperfection with respect to the sameness of the community on the elders. In other words, the movie merely leaves an impact where the audience tends to view the elders as the villains of the story i.e. the reasons behind the utopian community being flawed. However, in the book, one can feel the impact of belief systems and the inherent values where the joys and pains of the real world experienced by Jonas are exhilarating. In the movie, Jonas` decision to leave the community seems hasty and inspired by the attitude of elders, while in the book, one can relate to the insights and deep thoughts and beliefs experienced by Jonas. Furthermore, reading the book, the text-to-self mode is at play since Lowry had added such magnificent dialogues and quotes that one can`t help but relate oneself to the characters. For instance, how stuffed animals have acquired names in the books like an elephant is referred to as hippo, this small instance reveals volumes about the culture. Also, how in the book, Jonas has extraordinary eyes, and one can relate to such people in their lives. Similarly, the book has strong elements in context to text-to-world where the debate on democracy and principles of communism revolve in discussions more often than not; the book offers conclusions about how such a society would be like where everything would be same. We often study various government structures where essence of democracy and evils of capitalism have been critiqued. However, the book and also the movie to some extent reflect on how an equitable and a smooth society without competition for resources and ownership would be like. However, the movie may be analyzed with respect to text-to-text since the high tech drones and robotic elements may be related to other movies of similar nature. Moreover, elements like the significance of memory, significance of individuals and also how pain and pleasure both play an exceedingly important role in our lives is very well elaborated in the book. When Jonas received memory, one can feel how his outlook on life changes and how he inhales experiences of pain and pleasures, both of which he abhor as well as appreciates at a same time, creating a complexity all readers can relate to with reference to their own experiences in life. However, in the movie, the principle of sameness takes a different level where humans are so advanced that they can control their lives via dosages of injections. Coupled with appropriate colors and a love angle, the movie tends to take the story at a different emotive level where visual elements are strong enough to see how Jonas is struggling and challenging the way of live undertaken by the elders. Furthermore, the addition of music and age variables deviating from that of the book adds support to the movie which otherwise lacks the emotive value as strong as that reflected in the book. Most importantly, the ending of the book was ambiguous where space was left to predict future of Jonas while it is pretty clear in the movie where the details were laid out in detail and nothing had been left to the imagination of the viewers. Conclusively, the movie adaptation though reveals many contrasts, yet managed to keep the essence alive. However, if I were assigned the task of direction of the movie, I would have kept things simplified in terms of quality of life. That is, in the movie, the overwhelming addition of technology and gadgets de-humanize the story and the characters, which is why the effect of the book has been reversed. I would have used the technology to a bare minimum while focusing more on community building, customs, love, emotions, pains, belief system and other similar aspects. Yet, the movie The Giver in itself can`t be critiques in terms of quality since it qualifies aspect which the director had in mind. Works Cited: Lowry, L. (2014). The giver movie tie-in edition. Boston, Mass: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Read More