Hello Chromaengineers! Hauf here. August 15, 2014 one of my favorite books will premiere as a motion picture starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, and a bunch of people who are not important. I should feel excited but after seeing the trailer I’ve grown a bit concerned. Spoilers Ahead!For those of you who are not in the know or did not attend English class at Fort Hamilton High School in 1995; The giver is an award winning novel by Lois Lowry. The novel is set in a society which is at first presented as a utopian society and gradually appears more and more dystopian. The novel follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth year of his life. The society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to “Sameness,” a plan that has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives.
The trailer linked above does a decent job of describing this to the viewer. However, as with most Hollywood adaptations some liberties were taken. For starters the main character Jonas is 16 years old and Fiona is his love interest. While many of you would think that is a minor detail, keep in mind that in the novel Jonas is an 12 year old boy. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of “Receiver of Memory,” the person who stores all the past memories of the time before Sameness, in case they are ever needed to aid in decisions that others lack the experience to make. Now the impact said change would have on the story is monumental. As stated Jonas learns (more like re-lives) all of human history as the receiver of memory. For example he learns of the Holocaust and the bombing of Hiroshima. Having to endure such experiences would be incredibly horrific in general but I imagine even more for a 12 year old boy. I feel that this tiny detail will change the entire feel of the story. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
