The movie Children of Men and its novel made me relate what’s happening in today’s world from war, diseases, hate, and refugees crisis to the end of the world. I found some similarities and differences between the movie and the novel Children of Men. The novel and the movies have similar openings. The novel talks about people feeling angry, feared from the future and hopeless: “In 2021, the last human being was killed. We are outraged and demoralized less by the impending end of our species, then by our failure to discover the cause” (James, The Children of Men). The opening of the movie, also shows people in Britain being shocked, and feared from the end of the world after seeing the last human being dead. In addition, the movie shows some scenes that relate to famous Christianity sculptures, such as Pieta. The movie also shows a scene of a woman holding her dead son questioning the cruelty of men just like Mary when she held Jesus.

On the other hand, I found lots of differences between the movie and the novel. For example, the novel focuses on describing the causes of depression on people, such as “Western science has been our god and didn’t prepare us for humiliation of the ultimate failure” (James). However, the movie doesn’t blame science but people. For example, the movie shows a flying pig, which reminds me of the novel, Animal farm. The pig in this movie is very symbolic and shows the government is dictator and doesn’t care about the equality of its citizens: “everyone is equal, but some people are more equal than others” (Orwell, Animal farm). Finally, I noticed how the movie compares the foreground and background in some scenes. For example, when Theo drives to his cousin, Nigel, the movie compares Theo inside the luxury car to the starving people outside. This scene shows inequality and capitalism. On the other hand, the novel doesn’t compare the Britain citizens to the stable government.

Even though this movie made me feel depressed, I really enjoyed watching it because it motivated me to think about the future generations. Today, when I look at the world around me, I see diseases spreading quickly, people who are scared from the future, and children, who are the future generation, fighting and dying because of wrong beliefs. I’m curious to read more from P. D. James writing to learn how We the People can prevent the spread of blood and make our world a better place?

Work Cited

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1954. Print.