The Giver Movie And Book Differences

This book “The Giver” by Lois Lowry is a great book. This book was the only book in about a year that actually stayed interesting throughout the whole book. The reason why I want to write this essay is because I love to write about books but the problem is that most books that I read don't keep me interested throughout the whole book. After reading this book I really wanted to watch the movie because it seemed really interesting throughout the whole book. The movie was very similar to the book but still had some differences. In this essay I will talk about the characters, the similarities between the book and the movie, the differences between the book and the movie, the movie review, the book review and which I enjoyed more the movie or the book. Now I will explain my reasons.

Firstly, the characters in the movie and the book were very much the same. The main characters of

the book and movie were Jonas, Giver, Jonas’s mother and father, Fiona, Asher, Gabriel and the Chief Elder. Jonas was the main character in the book and the movie we saw the movie in his perspective and read the book in his perspective too. Jonas was selected to be the new receiver. The job of the receiver is the most honored job of all. This job grants the receiver all permissions and access to everything. The receiver is supposed to know the past of the world and everything to help the community with things from the past so they don’t make the same mistakes that were made in the past. In the book and the movie, Jonas is a kind, responsible and smart young man. This is why he was selected to become the receiver. When Jonas starts receiving from the Giver, he is given pleasant memories at first for like four to five months then the giver started to give Jonas memories of pain loss and hunger. By about ten to twelve months into training, the giver started to give Jonas memories of war. The memories of war were unlike any other memories they were filled with loss and pain. I think that the point of having a receiver was to prevent war, loss, and pain. By the end of the book and the movie, Jonas started to understand that the way that the community has been living for the past has been the wrong way to live. Jonas wanted to stop the way the community lived and go back to the way people lived before sameness. The next main character was the giver. The giver was the receiver before Jonas he was the one that gave Jonas all those memories. He was a kind and generous old man. His life was filled with pain and suffering since he had to bare all the memories of war and pain by himself. When Jonas was selected to become the new receiver the giver wanted to show Jonas everything he taught of Jonas as a son. He is the one who came up with the plan to escape in the book and told Jonas the best way to return things back to normal. In the book when Jonas ran away, he was supposed to help the people of his community handle all of the memories like he did with Jonas. The next main characters were Jonas mother and father. They were the parents of Jonas’s family unit. They took care of Jonas and Lily ( Jonas’s sister). Jonas’s mother was a lawyer and Jonas’s father was a nurturer. A nurturer is someone who takes care of the newborn children till they are one year old then gives them to a family unit at the ceremony on December. In the movie, Jonas’s mother was the one who was supposed to take care of most of the people who made mistakes. Fiona and Asher were also main characters in the movie. They were Jonas’s best friends. In the book, Fiona was assigned to be a caretaker of the old but in the movie, she was assigned to be a nurturer. In the book, Asher was assigned to be an assistant director of recreation but in the movie, he was assigned to be a pilot. Fiona and Asher were both kind happy and smart young people. In the movie when Jonas ran away, he wanted Fiona to come with him but she said that she couldn’t leave. In the movie, Asher was told by the Chief Elder to find Jonas and then kill him but Asher let Jonas live while making it seem that he is dead. The Chief Elder was an important character in the movie but not in the book. She was the leader of the community and was respected by everyone in the community. She was the one that gave orders to everyone in the community, she told Asher to go and kill Jonas. She seemed like a person that would do anything to maintain the so-called peace that she lives in. Gabriel was another main character. He was the newborn that Jonas’s father brought home since he was too loud at night at the nurturing center. When he was with Jonas, Jonas would give Gabriel good memories to help him sleep peacefully at night. When Jonas heard that Gabe was going to be released the next day he decided to run away with Gabe. Gabe promoted Jonas to run away before he was supposed to. These were all of the main characters in the movie and the book. Next are the similarities between the movie and the book.

Secondly, the similarities between the book and the movie. In the book and the movie, Jonas was given the role of the receiver. In the book and the movie Fiona and Asher were Jonas’s best friends. Jonas started to see the color red first out of all the colors in the book and the movie. These were the similarities between the book and the movie and there are many more. Next, I will talk about the differences between the book and the movie.

Thirdly, the differences between the book and the movie. In the book, many things that happened were not in the movie. One thing like that was Asher’s job. In the book, Asher was given the job of assistant director of recreation but in the movie, he was given the job of pilot. This difference is an important one because the Chief Elder told Asher to kill Jonas. Since Asher’s job was a pilot he was able to find Jonas but since Asher is Jonas’s best friend he didn’t kill Jonas he only made it seem that Jonas was dead. If Asher was the assistant director of recreation the Chief Elder would have chosen someone else to go and kill Jonas and they would have killed Jonas because they didn’t have a special connection with him. Another difference was the Chief Elder. In the book the Chief Elder did not appear much or have much of a part in it. She only announced the jobs to the children in the book but in the movie she had many parts. For example; she showed up many times talking to the people of the community and Jonas, she was the one who told the pilots to find and kill Jonas, and she sent people to get the Giver. One last difference can be that in the movie when Jonas was leaving the community, some people saw him and then caused trouble for him but in the book no one noticed Jonas leaving. I think that this difference is necessary because for a book it would seem exciting enough to read and picture but when watching a movie people would not be excited by watching a guy ride his bike away with no one chasing him or doing anything and that would decrease the rating of the movie. These were the differences between the book and the movie. Now I will talk about the movie review.
Fourthly, the movie review from Rotten Tomatoes and IMBD.

The review for The Giver on Rotten Tomatoes is 5.3 out of 10. The review for The Giver on IMBD was 6.5 out of 10. I think that the people voted this because they did not understand what the movie was about. I think that the movie was made to show us that having peace is a good thing but too much peace removes the worth of rights, beliefs, and love. My way of explaining this can be like build a sand castle, when you build a sand castle you first make the outside and the main body but then you would want to decorate it but when you decorate it too much it starts to fall and it will begin to disassemble. What I mean by this is when you find peace don’t think about completely vanishing hate because where there is love there is hate and where there is hate there is love. These two things can’t be there without it’s opposite. I chose these two websites to see the results for the book because these are the websites most commonly used and more people vote on these websites for movies than any other. Now I will talk about the book

review.
Fifthly, the book review from Common Sense Media and Goodreads. The review from Common Sense Media was five out of five. The review from Goodreads was 4.12 out of 5. I think that these people voted good results because the book may seem much easier for them to understand. I have noticed that most of the people that watch movies don’t care to read the actual book which the movie is based on but the people that read the books also watch the movie based on the book. So the people who watched the movie and did not like it probably won’t like the book much because the meaning is mostly the same. Now I will talk about what I thought of the movie and the book.
Sixthly, my thought of the book and the movie “The Giver”. I enjoyed the movie more than I enjoyed the book. I enjoyed the movie more because I am a visual learner. I learn better by seeing the things happen. I also don’t read much at home or at school (I am trying to get rid of this bad habit, though). I usually watch a lot of shows and movies and when I read the book for some of them I kind of got a bit confused at what happened. When I was reading this book I did understand it but when I watched the movie I began to understand it better and realized what the author was trying to tell us in a much more clear way. I would rate the book about 3 out of 5 and I would rate the movie about 9 out of 10.
In conclusion, bow you know about the characters, the similarities between the book and the movie, the differences between the book and the movie, the movie review, the book review and which I enjoyed more the movie or the book. I believe that the movie seemed better than the book but you may conclude with a different answer than what I had.