The Giver : Book and Movie

The Giver is a 1993 American  novel by Lois Lowry. It is set in a society which is at first presented as a utopian society and gradually appears more and more dystopian.

Jonas, a 12 years old boy, who lives in a "perfect" community where every thing is under control; no chaos, strife nor pain. The community is living by the notion of "Sameness" and eliminating the "threat" of being different. By the age of 12, every kid in the community is assigned for a particular job ( don't worry, they choose for you) however our little hero, Jonas, is selected to do an unusual job for the community which is 'The Receiver' of memories ( I know you never heard of it , an awkward work but don't forget that we are talking about a freaking Utopian society ). During the process of receiving the memories, Jonas learns the truth about his dystopian society, and you have to read the book to know what happened next!!

Imagine living in a black and white world (literally) where no love, no hate, no success, no failure, no singing , no dancing , no reading, no thinking, no creativity . Every thing is the same, When I started reading the book , I was shocked and I hated it. I thought the writer is making a kind of propaganda; encouraging the notion of Sameness, excluding individualism and emotions.She didn't even provide enough characterization to form emotional connection with the characters. Well, every thing was a mystery !!  Then , when Jonas started to get the memories and realized that "that's not fair" I felt relief and I liked the book at that moment . 

the book made me realize the importance of  being different, feeling pain and learning from the past. Different means receiving the world from your own perspective and dealing with it by making your own choices; you make the world colorful as you wish and do not accept the grey sameness. Pain is the force behind shaping people into human being with intense feelings; if you don't experience pain , you won't appreciate happiness.so we should not be protected from pain. Finally, you can't forget the past and you should learn from it and build on it.

“The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past.”

The Movie 

The movie has portrayed the story perfectly. I even think that the movie is much better than the book (I won't take it back); I felt the notion of coldness and colorless society better in the movie. I felt emotional connection with the character and I saw them develop their personalities and grow emotionally.

There was a lot of changes made in the film which they made it more plausible , for instance; they get their assignments at age 18 instead of age 12.
The movie creates a clear ending and it gives more purpose to a bigger group of community's members and it was awesome.

I highly recommend the book and the movie as well, you will love it.

you can watch the movie here and if you are interested in a PDF version of the book inbox Bookstore online