The Giver Compared to Silent Running

A similarity of the two that is not as obvious is that both main characters (Lowell and Jonas) try to save something that is to be destroyed. Jonas learns that a child, Gabriel, who stayed with him for awhile, is to be "released." After he receives this knowledge he devises a plan to run away with Gabriel. This comparable to the movie when Lowell and his friends are told to destroy the domes that is filled with beautiful landscapes. It comes down to the last one which is the forest, Lowell refuses to let them destroy it and in the madness he ends up killing his friends just to save the one last standing forest. After he realizes that there is a ship from earth that has found him and wants to board his ship he does some quick thinking and decides to leave one drone on the forest and detach it from the ship and blow the ship up.

A few of the obvious comparisons are the fact that everything in the world is controlled. The temperature remains the same in both the book and the novel. No matter where you go the temperature does not change. Each person is assigned a different duty. In The Giver Jonas is

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assigned to become the next receiver of memory and in the movie Lowell is the keeper of the forests. There is not a ruler or King, however there is a committee that acts as the presiding rulers of the community. Both characters end their quests in similar ways. Lowell sends off the forest and commits suicide. Jonas takes Gabriel, runs away, when he reaches a hill he finds a sled and slides down the hill, and the story ends suddenly.

The receiver of memory and Lowell also can be related because they are the only people in their respective communities that can remember a time when there were wars and the nature was beautiful. No one else in the entire "community" has any memory of what life was like before an outside force controlled everything.

There are some obvious comparisons that you can make as well as some not so obvious ones, which you have to look deep down to find. The movie Silent Running and the book The Giver is two completely different objects that can be related fairly easy. I did not like how the movie presented the subject of a controlled world but I dealt with it and the book really did a good job of presenting the topic of controlled society. The idea of a controlled society is just one example of how peopling think the world may be in the future.