What The Giver Gave Me

     Tonight, I saw The Giver. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I have never read the book, but lately people have been talking about the book and movie constantly, so I decided to go see it with a friend. It turned out to be one of the most intriguing, thought-provoking, best movies I have ever seen. When I expressed this to my mom, she replied, “It’s about controlling people’s emotions, right?” In short, yes, but it is about so much more. That statement only scratches the surface of the complex and rich story, and I think there are many valuable life lessons to be gleaned from this movie.

     My lesson-learning actually started earlier today, way before I even started thinking of going to the movie tonight. At some point today, I realized I was just in a really really good mood. I didn’t know why. Nothing particularly earth-shattering had happened, but I was happy, joyful even. I saw a side of myself that I haven’t seen in a while. When I thought about why I was so happy, I realized the answer was quite simple. For the past several weeks, I have been feeling really crappy. I’ve had my happy moments, but for the most part, I have felt down and heartbroken. When you feel this awful for a long period of time and then have a day where you feel even a little better, it feels marvelous. You appreciate your good mood more than usual. You may not actually feel happier than any normal day, but after a down-period, a happy day can make you feel like you’re having the best day of your life.

     This is one of the important things that The Giver helps us to remember. In the movie, society has erased the memories of every person except for one because they believe that this is a better way of living. The elders believe that not having emotions, colors, religion, or any type of differences will prevent conflict and everyone will be happy in this “utopian” society. However, what this movie brings to light is how awful a world like that would truly be…what a shame it would be. One boy, the receiver of memories, and his mentor, the giver of memories, make it their goal to return all of these memories to society because what they realized, and what I realized as I watched the movie, is that there is beauty in every single aspect of life. There is beauty in our differences. There is beauty in our emotions. There is even beauty in our pain.

     What this society had tried to keep its citizens from was the pains of life—of war, heartache, loss, brokenness. This meant that it also kept them from experiencing love, joy, and beauty. However, what the giver and receiver (and I) realized is that it is worth experiencing the pains in life in order to have the beauty. It is not possible to have the joys without the heartaches, but it is worth it. It is worth the pain to be able to experience the joy, the love, and the beauty. That is what I had started to realize earlier today. If I hadn’t had my heart broken, I wouldn’t have been able to experience the elation I felt today from simply feeling better. If we want to experience good in our lives, we must also accept the painful things because then we understand what true joy feels like. Life is meant to be experienced to the fullest, and in order to do that, we must take the good with the bad, the ugly with the beautiful, the pain with the joy. After all, that’s what life is all about, right? It’s not just about living but actually feeling and experiencing all that the world has to offer.