From novel to Screen: The Utopian Delusion
By: Katlyn Fitzpatrick “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.” - Lois Lowry, The Giver. The much loved novel, The Giver, written by Lois Lowry was turned into a movie by Phillip Noyce. Authors and movie producers often have different ideas about how to portray a subject, in this case, the beloved story of The Giver. When you compare the two versions of The Giver, the novel and the movie, you will find very apparent and important differences not only in the plot, but in the characters and setting as well.
When reading a novel, you visualize the perfect setting, trying to recreate that perfect setting as a director can be a strenuous and difficult task. To begin, the members of the community, both in the novel and movie,
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One of those differences being, that Jonas does not have pale, blue eyes, instead he has brown eyes like everyone else. In the novel, Jonas having different eyes played a major role in the plot. Likewise, in the movie Jonas and Fiona have a love relationship unlike the novel where they were just friends. “He felt such love for for Fiona. But she could not feel it back, without the memories.” - The Giver, Lois Lowry. In the movie their relationship is much more intimate than it was portrayed in the novel, this majorly affects the plot. Despite the differences, a similarity between the novel and the book is that the main characters are the same. The movie included characters such as Asher, Jonas, Fiona, Gabe, Mom, Dad, Lilly, The Giver and The chief elder. Without these characters the storyline would be nothing like that of the novel. Although there are many similarities and differences in the characters, there are also many in the plot of the novel and the
Have you ever read a book and watched its movie and thought that the movie was nothing like the book? The Giver’s story was not adapted well onto the big screen. There were many changes that were made, some of which completely altered the whole course of the storyline. For example, Fiona working at the Nurturing Center instead the House of the Old and the characters taking injections instead of pills also changed the way Jonas acted especially towards Fiona throughout the entire movie Some of the many trivial changes that were made did not affect the movie as much.
There are few similarities between the book and the movie. Usually most movies are similar to
The characters make a big difference in the movie and the book. One thing they both have in common is that Otis Amber and Berthe Erica Crow get married. And that Edgar Jennings Plum and Angela Wexler get engaged instead of Doctor Denton Deere. Also Jake Wexler is a gambler instead of being a bookie.
There are many differences in the movie that were not in the book. In the movie there is a new character in the movie that was not in the book. This character was David Isay.
While watching the movie, I could see that the main characters in the book, both their names and traits, were the same in both the movie and book. However, aside from that there were many different as...
The Giver and Matched are both futuristic societies with a lot of rules. In The Giver the Elders choose their match as well as their children. Jonas starts loving Fiona but isn’t allowed and stops taking the pill. In Matched the officials choose their match but they can have their own children. Cassia is matched with Xander but also loves Ky and doesn't know what to do. In both story they all get jobs for the rest of their lives but in Matched they just call it vocations. Jonas gets the Receiver of memory and Cassia is supposed to be the sorter.
The author Lois Lowry grew up all around the world when she was a child due to her dad being in the U.S. Army. Since father was a dentist in the army and traveled the world she had gone to many countries which inspired her writing. At one point she had lived in Tokyo where she went to an American school on the base during her junior high years. One of her literary works later in her life is, The Giver, which had won a Newbery Award. In The Giver, the setting is a utopian society where the characters have no feelings, no memories, and no choices that they are able to make on their own. The names of the characters also have hidden meanings and relations behind them using allusion to recreate a religous matter along with how the novel percives morals. Lowry uses the literary elements allusion and setting to express the theme that memories and choice are worth the pain they might sometimes bring.
There are many differences between the book and the movie of The Giver. The first main difference was Asher and Fiona's Assignments. This was an important difference because when changing their assignments, they were able to help Jonas in the movie. The second main difference was a similarity between all receivers.
Throughout the history of the world, there has been many societies. All these societies had similar structures and ideas, but they all are different by their own special traditions and ways of life. Similarly, both our society and the society in The Giver share similar ideas, but they are different in certain areas. For example, they both celebrate birthdays and have family units, but they have their own way of doing so. Based on the celebration of birthdays and the formation of family units, our society is better than the society in The Giver by Lois Lowry.
Controversy over the novel by Lois Lowry began early in the school year when a couple parents of fifth grade students approached the librarian and suggested removing The Giver from the list of required readings. With little dissent, the librarian agree...
Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury contains many similarities and contrasts to the movie The Giver directed by Phillip Noyce on the themes of dystopia, future and loneliness, revealed through settings, characterization, point of view, and plot
One other distinct, but sad difference between the novel The Giver and our modern society is that people aren’t able to feel or have a love for something or someone in The Giver. For instance, Jonas enjoyed the feeling of love in a memory he was given, however “It wouldn’t work very well. It was a dangerous way to live” (Lowry 126). This shows
Memories that are passed down are things that are normal to us. Memories of sun, snow, pain, and sorrow. The ending of the book is highly controversial and extremely maddening to most people. Lois Lowry has said in an interview that the question of the book is why there even has to be a Giver, and why people have to remember the past, even if it was just one person. She said that creating the Giver was just part of the story and needed some suspense.
The Giver can be a dystopia world or it can be an utopia world. The fact that nobody has the memory of anything except for the Giver is sad. The people haven’t seen color, animals, feeling feelings and weather changes. Is there a reason why only the Giver or the Receiver knows what the real world is? What is everyone scared about? Why do they think that everyone needs the same? This book has a lot of questions to ask yourself, but no one really know what the answer is. That is why this book is unique and different than any other book I have read. This is why nothing is perfect if it is the same.
Director Phillip Noyce done a marvelous job when adapting Lois Lowry The Giver I like how Jonas was able to possess the memories good and bad ones from all the different generations of people of the community and how the life was once before it changed and how they were transferred from the the giver to jonas just by the touch of the givers hand. the movie was a very interesting film. i also like that there was a lot of action, everything seemed to be the same from the novel including the theme. another major part of the movie that i liked was when jonas ran from his family unit and went to the infantry to save gabe and escape to elsewhere.