Isabel Helm
Period 3
5/7/16
The Book Prevails
There have been many bestselling books that have been turned into films, such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Godfather, and many, many more. In 2014 The Giver movie was released, based off of Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver. The movie was good, but I say that the book was definitely better. Here are three reasons why the book was no doubt better than the film.
In the movie the setting of the Community was fairly similar but had more technology. Also Jonas had a mark to distinguish that he could “see beyond” instead of the pale eyes. There were many very subtle changes throughout the movies that didn’t really affect the plot. The more drastic changes occurred within the characters.
To start off, the role Fiona played in the book was very different in the movie. In the book she was Jonas’s childhood friend along with Asher. In the book Jonas had a “stirring” dream with Fiona in it. In the movie there is an added level of romance between Jonas and Fiona. At the start of the movie it is clear Jonas likes Fiona. As the movie progresses he begins to try to share the feeling of love and happiness with her through the memories. I could see why this would be added to the movie, simply to add more entertainment to the film, but I found it a
bit unnecessary. I think it also distracted the viewers from the main point to the story. I think the story and message could have gotten across to the audience without this romance between Jonas and Fiona.
The next major change that didn’t help the film was how the chief elder was portrayed. In the novel all she does is announce various things at the ceremony. In the movie she is basically turned into the antagonist of the story. She is the first to notice Jonas acting “strange”. For example, she began by warning his mother about his odd behavior. As the story goes on she begins to detect him as a threat to their delicate and balanced community. Towards the very end she sends a crew to stop him from leaving. She even directs Asher to “lose” him. All of this may be very exciting, but I found this distracting and unnecessary. The one thing I loved about the book was how it is very in depth yet simple at times. All of the action took away from that wonderful aspect of the Giver story.
The last bad change that was made in the movie was the ending. In the book it is unclear what the resolution is because the end of the book is the climax. In the movie the Giver and Fiona are arrested, and Fiona is almost released. Also the Giver gives this whole speech to the chief elder on why they need to change things. This drama is added to have more entertainment, but they real change to the ending was with Jonas. In the book it is clear he is going down the hill on his sled with Gabe, but what is after that is up for interpretation. Some even say he died and others were flat out confused. In the movie’s ending Jonas and Gabe cross the boundary restoring the memories back to the community. The ending was clear in the movie, but one of the things that made the Giver so unique was its uncertain ending. These three compelling reasons proved that the book was by far better than the film.
