To Kill a Mockingbird Summative Assessment
To Kill a Mockingbird is widely known as a classic, as well as the movie adaptation (1962) which stars Gregory Peck as Atticus, Mary Badham as Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, and Phillip Alford as Jem Finch. Both the Book and Movie have earned multiple awards, the two are not exactly the same, they compliment each other like most book to movie adaptations, movies can portray things in a way Books can't, and vice versa. A book also doesn't have the limitations that a movie often has, like time, which leads me to my next paragraph.
There are multiple scenes that would be considered important in the book which never appears in the Movie, like the Miss Dubose scene, or the fact that Aunt Alexandra was completely cut out, which means that multiple important parts of the book have been changed. This leads me to think that the Book version was more effective at delivering its message -- that no matter the age or innocence of a person, they should be treated with dignity, and that innocence never lasts, as we see with scout throughout the book. This theme is slowly and carefully throughout several scenes, in the book at least, but in the movie, many scenes were cut out. This makes Scout's character development seems rushed. In the Book, Scout narrates most of the book in chronological order in the first person, but this would be difficult and annoying to do well throughout the movie, instead, we see a lot of the movie through Jem's Point of view, which we rarely saw in the book. One example would be with the gifts, In the movie Jem finds all of the gifts at once, right before the knothole was filled up, rather than Scout and Jem finding the gifts over a period of time, with Scout finding the first gift, "Some tinfoil was sticking in a knot-hole just above my [Scout] eye level, winking at me in the afternoon sun. I stood on tiptoe, hastily looked around once more, reached into the hole, and withdrew two pieces of chewing gum minus their outer wrappers." (chapter 4), and later again in chapter 7, the kids find the rest of the gifts in the tree before Nathan Radley fills it up with cement. We can infer that it was Boo Radley leaving the gifts for the kids, throughout part one, the kids develop a haphazard relationship with Boo as they receive the gifts, and try to peep or meet him. They slowly develop a liking/curiosity for Boo, who is most likely the loneliest man in Maycomb. In the contrast to this, we never see the kids play the Radley game, we never see them try to message Boo, we never see the kids really develop a relationship with Boo until he rescues them in the Movie, even then, they only interact for that very short period of time. To add to this, we see what could have been an incestuous relationship in the book between Mayella and her father, but instead, we see the expressions on the faces of the two, we see that Mayella Fears her father, for reasons that would have been a taboo to put in a movie in the 60's. This results in us not feeling as much empathy for Mayella, as in the book she's portrayed as a poor woman with nobody to really support her, the characters had more 'depth' in the book, be it from backstories (like the Boo Radley Rumors), or events that completely changed how we would view a character. This is why I think the Book was more effective at delivering its message.
Furthermore, the limitations of the film made it so that we could see how the characters develop compared to the book and changed the importance of certain scenes.
The book was a coming of age story, fueled by an event that has been controversial in her community, and her family is in the middle of it. As Scout gets older, the community (mainly Maycomb's women) want Scout to 'fit in' with the rest of Maycomb, but Scout avoids this, choosing to not be the perfect mold of a Maycombian Lady, but herself. On the other hand, the Movie was more of courtroom drama, which touched on the lives of the defendants Lawyer, and family. The movie never talks about or directly addresses Maycomb's obvious racial Caste system ("Maycomb's usual Disease"), although they are deeply rooted in the Book. There are multiple scenes missing from the film that was in the book, one of the most obvious differences was the lack of Miss Maudie or Aunt Alexandra, with the latter being completely cut out, and the former appearing for less than 5 minutes. The story progressed quite finely without Aunt Alexandra or much of Miss Maudie, however, this meant that Scout and Jem lacked a major motherly figure, as nearing the end of the book, Aunt Alexandra becomes less of a thorn in Scout's side and more of a Mother that Scout never truly had. “We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence. It won’t be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes and boys—” (chapter 13) at first Alexandra is cold and very critical of Scout, but as she realizes the situation Scout is in, it clicks in her brain that Scout doesn't need the cold embrace of a forceful mold, but the warm, mending hug of a mother figure. "'Stay with us, Jean Louise,' she said. This was a part of her campaign to teach me to be a lady." (chp. 24), this is Aunt Alexandra right before the reveal of Tom's death; cold and unswayed. Soon Alexandra learns about Tom's Unjust death, she is shocked, (quote after death) " She sat quite still; she was so quiet I wondered if she would faint. I heard Miss Maudie breathing as if she had just climbed the steps, and in the dining room the ladies chattered happily." (24), “Do I show it?” (24), and "She left it at that. She brought me something to put on, and had I thought about it then, I would have never let her forget it: in her distraction, Aunty brought me my overalls. “Put these on, darling,” she said, handing me the garments she most despised. She rushed back to Jem’s room, then came to me in the hall. She patted me vaguely, and went back to Jem’s room." (chapter 28). It seems that both Alexandra and Scout encouraged each other to develop and change as people/character, but we see none of this in the movie (sadly), and the movie is more focused on the Trial rather than the Town as a whole, which a book with no limitations could easily do.
Both the Book and Film Adaptation were amazing pieces of literary/film art. The book was more concentrated on the coming-of-age of a young girl in a traditionally southern neighborhood, with the film focused on a Trial which deeply affected the neighborhood, and eventually affected multiple families/people in Maycomb County. Both explore different sides of a singular story, they both greatly compliment each other, as a great book and film.
There are multiple scenes that would be considered important in the book which never appears in the Movie, like the Miss Dubose scene, or the fact that Aunt Alexandra was completely cut out, which means that multiple important parts of the book have been changed. This leads me to think that the Book version was more effective at delivering its message -- that no matter the age or innocence of a person, they should be treated with dignity, and that innocence never lasts, as we see with scout throughout the book. This theme is slowly and carefully throughout several scenes, in the book at least, but in the movie, many scenes were cut out. This makes Scout's character development seems rushed. In the Book, Scout narrates most of the book in chronological order in the first person, but this would be difficult and annoying to do well throughout the movie, instead, we see a lot of the movie through Jem's Point of view, which we rarely saw in the book. One example would be with the gifts, In the movie Jem finds all of the gifts at once, right before the knothole was filled up, rather than Scout and Jem finding the gifts over a period of time, with Scout finding the first gift, "Some tinfoil was sticking in a knot-hole just above my [Scout] eye level, winking at me in the afternoon sun. I stood on tiptoe, hastily looked around once more, reached into the hole, and withdrew two pieces of chewing gum minus their outer wrappers." (chapter 4), and later again in chapter 7, the kids find the rest of the gifts in the tree before Nathan Radley fills it up with cement. We can infer that it was Boo Radley leaving the gifts for the kids, throughout part one, the kids develop a haphazard relationship with Boo as they receive the gifts, and try to peep or meet him. They slowly develop a liking/curiosity for Boo, who is most likely the loneliest man in Maycomb. In the contrast to this, we never see the kids play the Radley game, we never see them try to message Boo, we never see the kids really develop a relationship with Boo until he rescues them in the Movie, even then, they only interact for that very short period of time. To add to this, we see what could have been an incestuous relationship in the book between Mayella and her father, but instead, we see the expressions on the faces of the two, we see that Mayella Fears her father, for reasons that would have been a taboo to put in a movie in the 60's. This results in us not feeling as much empathy for Mayella, as in the book she's portrayed as a poor woman with nobody to really support her, the characters had more 'depth' in the book, be it from backstories (like the Boo Radley Rumors), or events that completely changed how we would view a character. This is why I think the Book was more effective at delivering its message.
Furthermore, the limitations of the film made it so that we could see how the characters develop compared to the book and changed the importance of certain scenes.
The book was a coming of age story, fueled by an event that has been controversial in her community, and her family is in the middle of it. As Scout gets older, the community (mainly Maycomb's women) want Scout to 'fit in' with the rest of Maycomb, but Scout avoids this, choosing to not be the perfect mold of a Maycombian Lady, but herself. On the other hand, the Movie was more of courtroom drama, which touched on the lives of the defendants Lawyer, and family. The movie never talks about or directly addresses Maycomb's obvious racial Caste system ("Maycomb's usual Disease"), although they are deeply rooted in the Book. There are multiple scenes missing from the film that was in the book, one of the most obvious differences was the lack of Miss Maudie or Aunt Alexandra, with the latter being completely cut out, and the former appearing for less than 5 minutes. The story progressed quite finely without Aunt Alexandra or much of Miss Maudie, however, this meant that Scout and Jem lacked a major motherly figure, as nearing the end of the book, Aunt Alexandra becomes less of a thorn in Scout's side and more of a Mother that Scout never truly had. “We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence. It won’t be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes and boys—” (chapter 13) at first Alexandra is cold and very critical of Scout, but as she realizes the situation Scout is in, it clicks in her brain that Scout doesn't need the cold embrace of a forceful mold, but the warm, mending hug of a mother figure. "'Stay with us, Jean Louise,' she said. This was a part of her campaign to teach me to be a lady." (chp. 24), this is Aunt Alexandra right before the reveal of Tom's death; cold and unswayed. Soon Alexandra learns about Tom's Unjust death, she is shocked, (quote after death) " She sat quite still; she was so quiet I wondered if she would faint. I heard Miss Maudie breathing as if she had just climbed the steps, and in the dining room the ladies chattered happily." (24), “Do I show it?” (24), and "She left it at that. She brought me something to put on, and had I thought about it then, I would have never let her forget it: in her distraction, Aunty brought me my overalls. “Put these on, darling,” she said, handing me the garments she most despised. She rushed back to Jem’s room, then came to me in the hall. She patted me vaguely, and went back to Jem’s room." (chapter 28). It seems that both Alexandra and Scout encouraged each other to develop and change as people/character, but we see none of this in the movie (sadly), and the movie is more focused on the Trial rather than the Town as a whole, which a book with no limitations could easily do.
Both the Book and Film Adaptation were amazing pieces of literary/film art. The book was more concentrated on the coming-of-age of a young girl in a traditionally southern neighborhood, with the film focused on a Trial which deeply affected the neighborhood, and eventually affected multiple families/people in Maycomb County. Both explore different sides of a singular story, they both greatly compliment each other, as a great book and film.
Comments
Post a Comment