Book vs. Movie Paper

Caitlin Hunter
Lib 5160
Dr. Truett
25 March 2012
Young
Adult Book vs. Movie Comparison
For my young adult book and movie comparison, I chose to
read and watch The Hunger Games,
which is a novel by Suzanne Collins. I
read The Hunger Games series a few
months ago, and was extremely impressed by the quality of the series. The books were well written, engaging, and
thought provoking. I particularly
enjoyed the first two books in the series: The
Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I could not put the books down, and although
there has been a lot of hype about the books and the movie, I can honestly say
that the series lives up to all of the excitement!
There are many aspects of The Hunger Games novel
that I found compelling. First of all,
the plot of the story is sensational!
The premise of the book is this:
A futuristic North American society is divided into thirteen districts,
with one district hosting the Capitol.
Years prior, the districts decided to rebel against the Capitol, and war
ensued. As a reminder that the Capitol
is in control, each year, they host The Hunger Games, which is an arena type
setting where two teenagers from each district are randomly chosen to fight to
the death, leaving a lone victor. The
book focuses on one tribute, Katniss Everdeen, and her plight of leaving her
family and fighting to survive. Overall,
this is one of the most unique, creative books that I have ever read!
Another aspect of the book that I found to be amazing was
the character development. The novel was
told from a first person perspective through Katniss’s eyes. By doing so, the reader is given insight into
all of Katniss’s thoughts and emotions throughout the story. We can quickly see that Katniss is no
ordinary teenager; instead, she is strong, mature, and wise beyond her
years. The reader cannot help but be
captivated by her story and pull for her to come out as the victor! Also, seeing the story unfold through
Katniss’s eyes gives the reader an opportunity to observe the other characters
in the story as Katniss does, which adds a new dimension to the story. Overall, I found that Collins did an
excellent job of developing the characters in the story, and forcing the reader
to become emotionally attached.
Since I loved the novels of The Hunger Games series so much, I was torn on whether or not to
see the movie. Although I wanted to see
it, I knew that there was no way that the movie could be better than the
book! It has been my experience in 99
percent of the films that I have seen that are based on books I have read, the
book is always better! However, I
overlooked my hesitation and went to see the movie on opening weekend! J
Overall, I thought the movie was a good representation of the book. Although it was not nearly as detailed as the
book, I did think that the movie kept the integrity of the story without
leaving out too much important information that made the book flow.
There were a few major differences between the book and
the movie. First of all, the movie was
told from a third person perspective, with no narrator, and the book was
written from the first person perspective of Katniss. I was wondering how the movie was going to
explain the plot without making it first person, and although I think they left
a few things out, they used the Hunger Games announcers to explain things that
the audience needed to know, like they were explaining it to the audience in
the movie. I thought that was a clever
way to cover the information! I still
felt like some emotions and thoughts were lacking in the film, and I am not
sure how someone who had not read the books would be able to understand
everything, but the movie did a pretty good job of covering the plot.
Another main difference between the book and the movie
was the elimination of the character Madge in the movie. In the novel, Madge was one of Katniss’s best
friends growing up, and she was the one who gave Katniss the infamous
Mockingjay pin, which would eventually be a symbol of revolution for the
districts. Madge was not even mentioned
in the movie, and I am not sure exactly why that was! Madge was central to Katniss’s life, so the
lack of her presence was definitely noticed!
In addition to missing Madge, I feel like viewers of the movie may be
missing the way that the movie was setting itself up for movie number two, Catching Fire. To those who read the book, it was obvious
that something ominous was about to happen in Katniss’s life at the end of the
first book, but the movie did not have quite as much foreshadowing.
Overall, I thought that the movie was a good
representation of the book, but there is no way that the book could have been
surpassed in greatness! One of the best
things about reading is that the reader can imagine the story however they
like, so I had developed my own visual images of the characters and setting
from the story. When I watched the
movie, everything was not as I had pictured it, which is slightly
disappointing. I hope that if people see
the movie, they will go back and read the books and realize the superiority of
literature to film! I would highly
recommend this series of books to any young adult, as I think there is a lot of
symbolism in the story that can be related to our world today. If you want to be entertained, seeing the
movie would be a good option as well!