Chapter thirty-six: The Giver

The Giver is about a future dystopian society, and is based off of Lois Lowry's award-winning book of the same title. In a world of uniformity and non-individuality, three teenagers, Jonas, Fiona, and Asher, (Brenton Thwaites, Odeya Rush, and Cameron Monaghan) are coming of age, while awaiting their high school graduation and entrance into the real world. It is at graduation that their leader, Chief Elder, (Meryl) will assign their future careers and destinies. It is under her power that these children, and all other people, have essentially been brainwashed from birth. For example: the idea of families have been replaced with "parental units." "Precision of language"is also of vital importance, as strong emotions like love, and inventive ways of thinking, cannot be expressed and are shunned upon. To regulate society, everyone in the community is expected to take a sort of "medicine" before the start of each day that is meant to "protect them from themselves." The "medicine" keeps the members of the community from asking questions about the world around them.

Generally speaking, the setting of this movie is purposefully dull in order to get the message across. The film is literally shot in black and white, with scientifically futuristic machines, and everyone speaks with a monotone, nearly robotic voice. Chief Elder in particular, does not let her emotions overcome her, but instead, gives off a cold presence when her rules are later not followed by these daring teens. For the time being, she monitors her society through a screen, making sure everything is formal and orderly as it is supposed to be.

Finally at graduation, the anticipation is over. While other peers of his have been given job titles like mother, mechanic, scientist, teacher, businessmen, and so forth, Jonas has been given the highest honor of careers that there is. He is The Giver and will be proceeding the current one (Jeff Bridges) on account of his elderly age. The Giver's job is to offer Chief Elder wisdom through his memories of what society used to be like. The very next day, Jonas meets with The Giver where he is telepathically exposed to things that we take for granted every day, such as books and colors, but that are brand new to him. Jonas is flabbergasted, and as the movie progresses, he is shown more intense, meaningful visions of the past like war and musical melodies.

As time passes, Jonas' discoveries impact him so forcefully that he decides to stop taking his daily injections just to see what happens. He starts to see the things that The Giver has referenced. (Ex. Jonas sees the color red for the first time, has his first dream, and starts to care deeply for Fiona.) He then motivates Fiona to stop taking her injections and her viewpoint is enhanced because of it.

Yet, perhaps Jonas' biggest motivation is his younger brother who was born premature. By societal laws, if a child does not meet the growth requirements, he is to be killed. (Though, they don't phrase it like that.) Jonas uses this law as a reason to show others that this isn't the way life is supposed to be. Against the wishes of Chief Elder, The Giver and Jonas design a plan for him to travel to the end of the community's boundary, thus destroying Chief Elder's reign and restoring variety and individualism. Chief Elder bears down into attack mode, but her efforts are futile compared to Jonas' agility. By the movie's end, Jonas has accomplished his overall goal as he breaks through Chief Elder's bubble that was once considered impermeable. He later finds himself sliding down a hidden mountaintop and is exposed to Christmas, while, back home, life is given back its color.

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I like this movie a whole lot. Personally, it was the first time that I saw Meryl's character as the villainess and couldn't find a reason to defend her actions, which made me somewhat impulsive, but was fun to watch unfold like any movie. The message of this story, I believe, is obviously that memory is important if we wish to preserve what is important to us. For me, now that I take time to think about it, the story shares similarities to a book I read for school just last year called Fahrenheit 451 - the narratives share that same kind of dystopian idea I suppose. I always find it captivating how authors or directors, but ordinary people as well, will wonder, have different interpretations of, and even worry about a dystopian society. That's why there's voting. Also, happy belated Halloween! :)

As always, thank you for the entertainment, Meryl.