Red Fern Grows Movie Vs Book

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Wilson Rawls is a great American author. In 1961, “Where the Red Fern Grows” was published. It was a very touching book with lots of emotion. The movie counterpart of this book came out in 1971, directed by Norman Tokar. This movie was also very sentimental and heart-breaking, but it was not as good as the book. While both “Where the Red Fern Grows” movies and books are by Wilson Rawls, they are quite different. But which is better? For many reasons, the book is better. To begin, I can think of many ways of how the character aspect of the story is much better in the book than in the movie. One of them is because of how much detail the characters have in the book, and how much better they are described than in the movie. First of all, the characters …show more content…

In the book, scenes are described in much more detail. “Our home is in a beautiful valley far back in the rugged Ozarks. The country was new and sparsely settled.” (Rawls, page 6). This entire page is extremely detailed and the scenery is described very well. This page helps me visualize things that the movie doesn’t have. The movie has the visual aspect, but the visuals from the movie just don't capture what was said in the book. Another reason why the settings in the book are significantly better than in the movie is because of how well different senses are described. “The silence was shattered by one long, loud bawl from Old Dan. I'd never heard my dog bawl like that. It was different to the other. His voice rang out over the mountains, loud and clear. The vibration of the deep tones rolled in the silence of the frosty night, on and on, out over the flats, down in the canyons, and died away in the rimrocks, like the cry of a lost soul.” (Rawls, page 116) This scene describes hearing very well, and it helps me connect and visualize with the book better than in the movie. This scene was also described really well from its description of the mountains and the canyons. Finally, the last reason why the settings in the book are far better than in the movie is because of how well the actions are described. For example, “I saw her when she stopped searching. With her body half in the water, and her front feet curved over a piece of driftwood, she turned her head and looked toward the shore. I could see her head twisting from side to side. I could tell by her actions that she had gotten the scent. With a low whine, she started back.” In this scene, it described Little Ann’s actions in a very complete way. Additionally, this scene also describes what happened step by step in detail, on the other hand, in the movie it was just a quick glimpse of Little Ann.

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