The person who originally suggested that I read Lois Lowry’s The Giver (1993) is now lost to me. A small instinct in the back of my mind tells me that it was probably a girl I had been trying to impress at whatever time in my life it was given to me. Whenever it was, it was definitely before I began practicing Catholicism in earnest. Whenever the book crosses my mind, which is not often, I wonder if my Faith would cause me to have a different take on the story. Then again, what that take was beyond vague enjoyment, I could not tell you. In any event, Hollywood provided an opportunity with a 2014 film adaptation of the young adult novel. Why I had yet to see it before now I also could not tell you. What I am eager to do is tell you about the strong Catholic themes I found in it.

That opportunity begins The Giver in a world that appears peaceful largely because almost everything capable of disturbing the peace has been removed. Following a catastrophe known as the Ruin, Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) lives in a Community built around “Sameness,” where weather is regulated, families are assigned, emotions are suppressed by daily injections, and even color has disappeared. Jonas lives with his father (Alexander Skarsgård), a Nurturer, his mother (Katie Holmes), an official in the Department of Justice, and his younger sister, Lilly (Emma Tremblay). His friends Asher (Cameron Monaghan) and Fiona (Odeya Rush) approach graduation with him, when the Elders assign everyone lifelong occupations. Asher becomes a drone pilot and Fiona a Nurturer, but Chief Elder (Meryl Streep) leaves Jonas for last, giving him the rare position of Receiver of Memory. His instructor is the previous Receiver (Jeff Bridges), who asks to be called the Giver. Jonas receives privileges forbidden to everyone else, such as permission to lie, but his real education begins when the Giver transmits a memory of sledding through snow. Jonas experiences cold, exhilaration, and color, something the rest of the Community cannot perceive. The Giver continues with memories of dancing, music, animals, affection, and family life, allowing Jonas to discover pleasures his supposedly perfect society eliminated along with suffering. He stops taking his injections and begins feeling genuine attraction toward Fiona. He even asks his parents whether they love him, only to have them dismiss the word as imprecise and obsolete. One need not be Catholic to recognize that something has gone badly wrong when a society eliminates love in order to eliminate pain, but it certainly helps. Jonas also becomes attached to Gabriel, an infant his father temporarily brings home because the child is failing to thrive. Gabriel possesses the same capacity to receive memories, so Jonas secretly comforts him by passing along pleasant ones. Yet the Giver cannot teach only happiness. Jonas receives memories of hunting, warfare, suffering, and death and begins to understand what humanity has done to itself. The worst revelation comes through the supposedly benign practice of “release.” Jonas watches a recording of his father caring for newborn twins and discovers that the smaller baby is not sent peacefully to Elsewhere. His father injects the infant with a lethal substance and disposes of the body, smiling because he genuinely does not understand that he has killed a child. The Giver explains that the Community removed moral understanding along with memory and emotion. He also reveals that the previous Receiver-in-training, Rosemary (Taylor Swift), was his daughter. Unable to bear the painful memories she received, Rosemary requested release, and her death returned those memories to the population. Jonas and the Giver devise a plan: Jonas will cross the Boundary of Memory into Elsewhere, causing all the memories he carries to return to the people, while the Giver remains behind to help them cope. Their timetable collapses when Jonas learns that Gabriel is scheduled for release. Refusing to allow another innocent child to die, Jonas opts to depart earlier. He races to the Nurturing Center, where Fiona helps him rescue Gabriel. Jonas asks Fiona to come with them, but she stays behind after sharing a kiss with him. Jonas steals a motorcycle and escapes into Elsewhere with Gabriel. The Chief Elder declares him dangerous and orders Asher to find him with a drone and “lose” him, a euphemism for murder. Asher captures Jonas and Gabriel but cannot kill his friend, instead dropping them safely into a river. Fiona is arrested for helping Jonas and sentenced to release. As Jonas struggles across deserts, forests, and finally snow with Gabriel, the Giver confronts the Chief Elder, arguing that people deserve freedom to choose even though freedom permits them to choose badly. She answers that human beings cannot be trusted with such freedom, which is precisely the sort of argument that makes free will inconvenient and indispensable at the same time. Fiona is strapped down to be released by Jonas’ father while the Giver desperately tries to delay the execution. Exhausted and nearly frozen, Jonas reaches a snowy hill and discovers the sled from his first memory. Carrying Gabriel, he rides down the hill and crosses the Boundary of Memory. Color floods back into the Community, along with memories and emotions. Jonas’ father suddenly comprehends what he is about to do and stops before killing Fiona, while Jonas’ mother begins to cry as she experiences love and grief. Jonas and Gabriel approach a warmly lit house where people are gathered singing Christmas carols, an image of family, faith, music, and memory that Sameness had tried to erase. Jonas says he knows the Giver is with him and that, far away, he can hear music, or perhaps only its echo. Either way, humanity has received back the dangerous gift that the Community tried to take from it: the freedom to suffer, love, remember, and choose.

Suffering is something that stands out in The Giver, and not because it is a bad movie. I am also unsure as to how faithful it is to the source material, as I do not remember much from the book. One thing that is apparently inserted into the film version is the romance between Fiona and Jonas, though I had to look up that fact. It works, though, for the live-action installment because it is yet another feeling that the Community had outlawed in order to avoid suffering. However, the thing about how God made us is that those ordeals cannot be avoided without drastic measures that ultimately dehumanize us. There is so much to be gained from the things that challenge us and make us human. Difficulties are an opportunity to praise God, to ask Him for strength when we have none, or to learn about ourselves or others. In short, suffering can lead to miracles, and before you go accusing me of Christian bias in using that word, know that it is said by the Giver in the film. He is referring to Jonas’ mission to cross the Boundary of Memory and give the Community back their emotions. What is also remarkable about what the Elders are trying to accomplish is that they say it is all in the name of equality. While they do label it as equality, the most often used word is “Sameness.” Indeed, they see the terms as interchangeable, but that is not correct. Throughout the film, Jonas is shown the unmitigated variety that is God’s creation and how beautiful it is. It is also something that makes us into the full human beings that He created us to be: our ability to perceive and experience all that beauty. As with earlier, there is no getting around the bad, but there is so much good that goes with it. And through it all, God is glorious.

Actually, there is really no getting to all of The Giver without making this review obnoxiously long because there is so much philosophy in it. In general, what it reinforces is that nobody should be arbitrarily limited for the sake of anything, much less a so-called “better” society. It makes it harder to find God sometimes with all the noise, but that is the essence of Faith.