The Monkey's Paw Compare And Contrast Essay

In order to compare and contrast the ending of the short story “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs and the ending of Ricky Lewis, Jr’s film adaptation, one must think about all of the differences and similarities in both versions. The short story and film, both contain Mother struggling to open the door. In film there is a scene towards the end, showing a shadow, which frightens the audience, move across Herbert’s grave. This scene does not exist in the text although, it does appear in the movie. Both mediums of The Monkey’s Paw include Mother struggling to open the door for Herbert. On page 116 of the story, it said, “It’s my boy; it’s Herbert!” she cried, struggling mechanically.” The author keeps this to show how determined Mother is to have her son back. Some other similarities are that Mr. White tries holding on to Mother, and in both versions Mother has a hard time trying to open the door for her son, because she cannot reach the bolts. Director keeps Mr. White holding on to Mother while she

In the text its read, “At the same moment a knock…, sounded on the front door.” There is no mention of a shadow or a gravestone in the text, however in the movie there's a scene with those thing. At 25:09 minutes through 25:20 minutes the movie clearly shows a shadow pass in front of Herbert’s colorless grave. In other words; the Whites go to bed after the second wish is wished, then a quick flash of the grave is revealed. The director chose to add this scene in the film because he wants to make it as clear as possible that the White’s son, Herbert, who has been dead for a while, is back. The director probably does not want confusion in the audience because it would get the film off track, so he shows that the second horrifying wish was granted. Therefore, the film has an added scene, showing that the paw does make wishes come true, making it clear that Herbert is