Compare Cavafy’s poem “Ithaca” with the film

“The Giver”(19th century vs the future)

Androulaki MelitiniGeorgoulia Marianna

According to Cavafy’s poem Ithaca life is a journey that should lead to wisdom, the destination is not important compared with the journey itself. Wisdom here emanates from experience which comes from memory.

Theme

In the nineteenth century people had aims

and ambitions. The destination was important to them, but the journey was more important . The reason is that life’s journey makes people wiser. The difficulties they faced gave them the experience to deal with other problems. They tried to find pleasure while they were trying to reach their aim. Life to them was beautiful only when they had struggled to achieve their goals.

Centuries

In the future people will probably seek a simple life. In other words, they will be interested in just surviving.

They will probably try to eliminate social and political differences, as it so happens nowadays through globalization. They will not fight for ideas, rights and beliefs.

Centuries

Ithaca appears to be our life’s destination, a destination

everybody aims to reach. The poet Cavafy encourages us by suggesting that we should not fear dangers but embrace challenges. In this way we will learn how to face them. Besides, most of those fears only exist in our mind. He advises us not to hurry but make our journey last. He believes that the longer our journey is, the better it is. He also advises us to gain as many experiences as we can, so that we reach our destination the same time we are learning as much as we can. We shouldn’t necessarily expect our destination to give us what we want. Moreover, what is important is not the destination itself but what we have gained through our effort.

Ithaca

In the movie the memories of all people were

erased. People were the same because nobody remembered what it was like to be different. By having their memories erased people had lost their identity and their aims. Their lives were empty. They had no feelings, no emotions, no problems, no challenges. Experiences are simple information recorded in one person’s brain. Only Jonas has some purpose, a destination. His destination is to bring memories back so that everybody can have experiences from then on. And so only his life is adventurous.

THE GIVER

Comparison

Both the film and the poem describe life. However, while in the poem life is full of adventures and challenges, in the film life is just a boring journey.

In the poem differences are positive as they make our lives more interesting. But in the film , differences are negative; they are unacceptable.

According to the poem , we should welcome problems because they will help us become better. But in the film, problems ruin people so the ‘’elders’’ try to eradicate them.

In the poem , people should be active and

eager to learn new things. On the contrary people in the film are passive.

In the film people are not just passive but also uninterested in adventure. Of course this is not their fault as they ignore alternative ways of thinking and living.

In the poem, people know what difference means and it is their choice whether they will chose it or not. As a result, they don’t have a boring life like the people in the film.

Comparison