To Kill a Mockingbird: The Book vs. The Movie

833 Words2 Pages

There are many differences between the book; To Kill a Mockingbird and the movie. Some differences are easy to spot and some aren’t. Many things that are in the book aren’t in the movie. Many of these things you don’t need, but are crucial to the plot of the book. Movies and books have differences and similarities, but many things in books MUST be included in the movie. In the beginning of the movie, it opens up with Scout singing and drawing/coloring. The first thing I noticed was the way the audience meets Dill in the book and the movie. In the book, we meet Dill relatively late and in the movie we meet him almost as soon as the movie starts. Dill is a key character and we don’t get to see that as much as I intended too. A few examples of that are his capabilities to act out plays, and tell magnificent stories. In the movie, we do not get to see how he performs these plays. This is one of the things I was disappointed in during the movie. To add to Dill’s amazing thinking of plays and games, the movie did not include the strip poker game. This gave an excellent lesson and moral to the reader’s of the book. “Matches are dangerous, but cards are deadly…” This quote was very meaningful and made people think about the true meaning of it. Matches can harm people but playing a card poker game, stakes are high and could involve money and peoples lives, if things go in the wrong way. This scene would be great for the movie and would put a more dramatic and meaningful look to the movie. This was an example of one of the things that that was a key part after reading the book and watching the movie that was left out. I thought Jem, slapping the Radley house was very important in the book. This part of the book showed us... ... middle of paper ... ... What really shocked me about a part that was left out in the movie was when Jem was punished to go help and understand Mrs. Dubose as a punishment. After Mrs. Dubose harassed Jem and Scout, he got tired of it and took out his anger on her most precious thing, her garden. I thought this was very important to the book and would be essential to the movie as well. This was one of the scenes that showed us that Jem was indeed “growing up.” It also introduced us to Dubose’s addiction to morphine and her attempt to stop and be, courageous, as Atticus said. I actually, after all the differences, believe this is the most important scene that was not in the movie. Overall, the movie and book have many differences and similarities, some more important than others. The story still is clear without many scenes from the book, but the movie would have more thought in it.

Open Document