Compare And Contrast Bernice Bobs Her Hair

In both the film and the book Bernice Bobs Her Hair, there are some main ideas that mirror and deflect on another. In the book, everything has to be detailed and described down to every last detail, while in the movie, the director had to make sure that the items in the house, barbershop, and in any setting was just as it was in that time period. Many things that were explained in the story go by so quickly in the movie and you have to take notice of every little detail that went into the making of the film. The only things that were changed in the film were slight, if not, unnoticed to you that were mentioned in the book. As well as how they leave you hanging at the end of the story.

The one thing that really pops out at me that is similar

to the book is that in the film, Bernice and Marjorie's relationship is something that's out of the ordinary. At first, Bernice is a very introverted girl and nobody really seems to make any notice of her, but once Bernice gives into Marjorie's "helpful advice," Bernice soon realizes how much of a butt Marjorie really is. But yet, she still takes her advice, resulting in her to become more popular, like Marjorie. Another thing that was really evident in the film is how amazing and new Bernice's life had changed so quickly. "To Bernice the next week was a revelation. With the feeling that people really enjoyed looking at her and listening to her came the foundation of self-confidence. Of course there were numerous mistakes at first." In part five of the book, you see how Bernice's life has evolved into something finally enjoyable to her, but that of course, came with a price. Because of the pressure that was put onto her by not only everyone, but most importantly, Marjorie, she was led into the idea of getting her hair bobbed. The film really showed you how worried and uncomfortable Bernice was at the idea of it, and especially when it finally came down to her sitting in the barbershop chair and everyone was crowded around her.

Now for the differences, there were some things that also popped out for me as well.

How the story ends in the book is totally different from the movie. In the book, it ends with Bernice, holding her luggage in one hand, and the two braids that were cut off of Marjorie in the other, she has an impulse to do something pretty nice, in my opinion, by throwing the braids onto Warren's porch, laughed, then ran down the street. In the movie, however, she takes the braids and throws them into the car, then walks away. In that way of ending a film, I think that it doesn't make as much of a statement as it did when she threw the braids onto Warren's porch in the book. By ending the film like the book did, what you get from it is more of an reaction and a bigger impacted statement. There is also more that's unknown to the end of the story that people watching will want to know about. When watching the film, the ending leaves you with just thinking about what Marjorie will wake up to with short hair and how she'll react when finding Bernice missing and the braids in the car. But when you read the book, it leaves you with not only what you get in the movie, but it puts Warren into the mix. How Bernice created a relationship with Warren is what caused Marjorie to become jealous and more hurtful to Bernice since she previously had a relationship with him as well. Another thing that stands out is how Bernice's and Marjorie's hair color is flipped. Bernice is the one who is supposed to

have the dark brown hair, not Marjorie. You can either take it as it's just how it ended up to be, or you can look at it in a symbolic way. Since Marjorie is the one with the dark hair, that could symbolize her dominance over Bernice, as well as her having a more dark side of who she really is as a person. But for Bernice, her hair is a very light brown, some would say blonde, and that could be taken as how she's an innocent person and is the more pure person and different around all of Marjorie's friends, who all have dark hair.

For both the film and the book, what it leaves you with in the end is the most important thing. Of course, everyone has their own opinion on things and looks at things differently, but the main focus of it all is social status. Anyone watching or reading the story can somehow relate to what Bernice is going through. Everyone tries to fit in at school, public events, or whatever it may be, and we all have struggled with that in different ways than others. It really goes to show how something so simple, like how you have your hair, shows your social status and how people will treat you.