To Kill a Mockingbird Essay: Book Vs. Movie

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay: Book vs. Movie

When it comes to the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the movie and the novel vary greatly. The main reason why the book and the movie are so different is because the movie omitted many parts of the book. By doing this I believe that the overall story line lost its impact on the person watching the movie. To be more specific the movie lost a lot of the story's literary quality.

One example of a part of the story that was omitted was Aunt Alexandra. In the book Aunt Alexandra is mentioned at the beginning of the story and then enters the story as an important character in chapter thirteen. When the directors of the movie omitted Aunt Alexandra as a character in the movie they also took out a whole part of the book that was about Scout becoming a lady. In the novel Alexandra was the driving force behind Scouts coming of age and becoming a lady. Also by taking out Alexandra the movie lost all of the women in her missionary circle. By removing that part of the story, viewers also lost the knowledge of how looked down upon Atticus was for participating in the trial. Overall taking out Aunt Alexandra to me was unpleasing.

The next part of the story that the director of the movie took out was a small detail, but a detail that had a large impact in readers understanding of the time period. This detail that was changed, rather than omitted, was that Tom Robinson was shot seventeen times when he tried to escape. On page 235 Atticus states, "They said if he'd had two good arms he'd have made it, he was moving that fast. Seventeen bullet holes in him." In the movie viewers learned that he was only shot one time. This bullet killed Tom because the guard on duty supposedly "missed his mark" and killed Tom. By taking this out of the movie I think viewers lost the effect or truth of Tom's death. The movie made it seem like it was his own fault in a way, because he did try to escape and was "accidentally" shot one time and killed.

The next part of the novel that was left out of the movie was the beginning part of chapter twenty-eight. At this point of the novel it narrates to readers Scout and Jem's journey to Scout's play. This part of the story was extremely important because it foreshadowed their walk home from the play. One specific paragraph left out of the movie was on page 255, it sates "The tree as a single and ancient oak; two children could not reach around it's trunk and touch hands. It was far from teachers, spies, and curious neighbors: It was near the Radley lot but the Radleys were not curious. " This detailed description of the tree foreshadows that something may be more important other than its size. In the movie the characters didn't even mention the tree. Also the book included Cecil Jacobs jumping out on his friends Scout and Jem to scare them on