Compare and Contrast Essay Sample: The Giver Novel vs. Movie

In 2014, Phillip Noyce made a movie version of Lois Lowry’s novel “The Giver”. Both the book and the movie are set in a community and tell the story of a young boy named Jonas. In both versions, a man named ‘The Giver’ gives Jonas memories about snow, war, grandparents, and more. Throughout the movie version of The Giver, what Jonas goes through is very similar to what happens to him in Lowry’s novel. However the movie is slightly different from the book, they both have setting, plot , and characters. The movie is told mostly through Jonas' mind instead of narration, it ends in a different way from the book.

The novel The Giver has many similarities and differences between the movie. Later in the story, Jonas runs away and takes Gabriel and hides from the night guards and planes. In contrast Jonas runs away, goes to the nurture center to get Gabriel,  then gets chased out, he then goes off of the border on to another land. The other characters don’t show up very often and  don’t have many lines. For example Jonas’ friends Asher and Fiona the movie leaves out details about them such as what they do for training and how they are doing. The change of characters, changed the movie to all of Jonas and makes it more less interesting than the novel. In the novel, the reader discovers many things about their community and how they have to, can’t be outside at a certain time, have to tell them about their dreams every morning, and more. The movie is more focused on a single story line.

Another difference between the novel and movie of The Giver is the characters. Lowry wrote the novel with the characters at the age of twelve where they get their assignments. As in the movie the characters are around the age of eighteen however, they still have the ceremony where they get their assignments. For instance Asher (Jonas’ Friend) gets Recreation of Director in the novel, However in the movie Asher gets Drone Pilot.  Brenton Thwaites who plays Jonas in the movie, uses the actions to reveal Jonas’ thoughts. In addition, there are voice overs, such as when Jonas is looking and thinking about something. While these elements help the audience know about Jonas' character, Jonas’ feelings in the movie are way more clearer than the are in the book.

The ending of the movie version of The Giver is very different from the book. Although parts of the movie are left out of the movie.