To Kill a Mocking Bird

The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and its movie had many similarities as well as differences. The most crucial ones were between the characters, events, and conflicts. These differences and similarities were the deciding factors in which the book or the movie was better or worse. The movie gives a visual idea of the characters and aids people who prefer movies more to books to understand the story more, while the book is more detailed and it explains and describes the story more thoroughly. The next paragraphs will explain specifically why these differences and similarities exist.

The character of Scout was the main character in the book as well as the movie, her role as the main character was to express the views of the author through the views of an innocent child. The “book” Scout was very curious and asked many questions, whereas in the movie, there were fewer questions. Some of the questions, which she asked, were questions like “I don’t see why I have to go to school while Burris doesn’t”(pg. 30). Her simplistic views in the book were expressed very frequently, whereas in the movie, not so much of the questions that were asked in the book were asked. The Scout in the book was more caring of Atticus; for example, she didn’t want to cause Atticus any trouble so she went out of the way not to fight in the book, “Atticus had promised to wear me our if he ever heard of me fighting again” (pg. 74), but this point was not emphasized enough in the movie. The movie gives a good visual of the character Scout, but the “book” Scout is more sophisticated overall.

Jem was a character that acted as a companion as well as a role model for Scout. Jem appeared more childish in the movie then in the book; for example, in the movie when the tree hole at the Radely’s place was filled with cement, he was more scared like a child than emotional that they had just lost contact with Boo Radley. Also, the movie did not film the part where Jem made a special trip back to the Radley’s place to find his pants neatly folded, which was a scene where it showed the beginning of his “real” relationship with Boo. After the verdict was made about Tom Robinson, Jem did not cry in the movie where in the book, he was heart broken and confused to why Tom was found guilty, when all the evidence pointed out that Tom was innocent. The differences of the character Jem in the movie and the book were greater than the similarities.

The events leading up to the trial of Tom Robinson were altered from the book to the movie. The change in the events deteriorated the use of foreshadowing the story; for example, when Jem had to read to Mrs. Dubose for beheading her camellias, he learned from Atticus that real courage is knowing that he’s licked from the beginning, but seeing he gets the task done anyways. That event gives readers a vague idea of what’s going to happen to Tom Robinson’s case later on, but in the movie, that event did not occur and the result came more of as a surprise than being notified beforehand that it was going to result that way. It was a good choice to put the rabid dog scene in the movie, from Atticus shooting the rabid dog, Scout and Jem learns that the reason Atticus doesn’t like to shoot his gun was to give others a chance, this teaches Scout and Jem to give other people chances and not to be too arrogant toward people. Some of the important events were kept in the movie, while many are left out.

There were many events introducing Jem and Scout to the black community, they were very important to readers in order to understand the case of Tom Robinson later on, but they were not filmed in the movie. The first important event that happened was Jem and Scout’s visit to the First Purchase church with Calpurnia, there they learned that there is a difference between the white and black community, and people of each race would want to feel like they belong in their own community. The second would be when Dill and Scout met Dolphus Raymond outside of the courthouse; there they learned that he’s not always drunk and he preferred to live with black folks, that was an important