The book The watsons go to birmingham 1963 by paul curtice is about an african american family that takes a trip from flint, michigan to birmingham in the 60s while facing racism and meeting their grandmother. The book deals with racism with humor but is mostly focused on the meaning and importance of family. A movie was made based on the book. The movie is called The Watsons Go to Birmingham. In the movie segregation and racism is more emphasized than in the book. The book is focused on the importance of family and friendship. In the movie segregation and racism is more emphasized. To emphasize segregation and racism the movie adds characters ( the cousins) and some scenes. In the book segregation is mentioned for about three times,
Joey for example is less whiney and persistent she does not tattle as much. Since they cut out of some of the scenes when Byron is being especially mean in the movie byron is more friendly. Joey is told about the bombing instead of in the book how she never finds out because they leave right away after the bombing. The dad adds more responsibility to byron because the family stays later than they planned but the dad has to leave. Although byron takes his responsibility way too seriously he is not so mean and immature in the movie as he is in the book. The family has different appearance in the movie for example Momma doesn’t have a tooth gap. I think the tooth gap is a key part of Momma because it shows that momma cares about what people think about her and also how she solves the problem. In the movie they do not include kenny's lazy eye. Part of that is because it is hard to find actors that have lazy eye. The lazy eye is important because the lazy eye is the one of the reasons that Kenny gets bullied and Is also the reason that he is happy when Rufus and Cody come to Flint. Although the characters are changed a bit many things remain the same, Byron is as cocky and arrogant as ever and still thinks the he must be secretly adoptive. Momma is still a micromanager and draws terribly. Dad still has a big sense of
In the novels The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis and My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, two young boys are faced with the challenge of learning the moral and ethical codes that will shape their futures. Kenny Watson and Tim Meeker live in very different times, but they face events that complicate their lives. Though one boy learns his morals through playful encounters and the other is forced to educate himself during a war, the conclusion of each story shows that both characters have successfully found sets of rules to follow.
While watching the movie, I could see that the main characters in the book, both their names and traits, were the same in both the movie and book. However, aside from that there were many different as...
Christopher Paul Curtis wrote The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 throughout the course of 1995. The novel follows the Watsons, a black family living in Flint, Michigan during the Civil Rights Era. In a historical context, 1963 and the early 1990s have far more in common than one would expect. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 following the church bombing in Birmingham, and yet race-based discrimination remains a problem even in our modern society via passive racism. This paper will analyze the ways in which Curtis’ The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 draws parallels between the time in which his is writing during and the time in which he is writing about. This analysis will also shed light on what can be called the “white standard,” wherein all things white are “good” or “better” and anything not-white is “bad.”
One topic that was compared between the two novels was racism. The definition of racism is the belief that all member of each race possess characteristics
...erican family is living in the times when the Civil Rights Movement was occurring. The climax, which is the event of the bombing, is an actual historical event. The author including that event makes the novel more effective. This book not only teaches the reader about events in history, but also life lessons. Reading “The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963” can teach readers while giving them a little laugh.
Even though To Kill a Mockingbird was written in 1960’s the powerful symbolism this book contributes to our society is tremendous. This attribute is racism (Smykowski). To Kill a Mockingbird reveals a story about Scout’s childhood growing up with her father and brother, in an accustomed southern town that believed heavily in ethnological morals (Shackelford).
To begin with, there are many similarities between the book and movie To Kill A Mockingbird. For example, Tom Robinson died in an attempt to escape from prison in both the book and the movie. In my opinion Tom's death was crucial to the original story, and I believe the movie would have been seen as over-sentimental if the scriptwriters had let him live. Another important similarity between the book and movie, is the mutual fascination between Arthur Radley and the children. Arthur, or Boo as the children called him, left them gifts such as dolls, a watch, and chewing gum in the hollow of a tree in his yard. The children made expeditions to the Radley house to look in the window just so they could catch a glimpse of Boo Radley. I believe this captivation was important to the story line because it was the main foundation of the children's imagination. A big part of the story was imagining Boo to be some kind of freak that came out at night to eat cats and squirrels. An additional similarity between the book and movie is the respect showed to Atticus by the African American community of Maycomb. They respected him for his courage, which by his definition meant, "It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."(112). I think the mutual respect between the African Americans and Atticus was important not only to Atticus, but also to his children. Their father and the sad story and memories of Tom Robinson taught them the wrongs of racism. I think if the movie producers had taken out the good relationship between Atticus and the African Americans, it would be taking away one of the most important themes of the story. There are many other significant similarities between the book and the movie.
For example, Mama goes to the bank in the movie and is given a hard time about paying her mortgage, but this did not happen in the book. Another major difference is that the school bus scene, where the Logan kids played a trick on the white kids, was not shown in the movie, even though it was an important part of the story. There are some character changes as well. Lillian Jean, Jeremy, R.W, and Melvin are Simms’ in the book, but in the movie they are Kaleb Wallace’s children. However, the main plot difference is how the movie starts in the middle, summarizing everything from the first part of the book very briefly. Additionally, many scenes are switched around and placed out of order. Altogether, the plot and character changes contribute to my unfavorable impression of the
I have only included what I have to believe are largely important plot gaps and differences in the movie version in comparison to the book one, and so I apologize again if I have missed any other major ones. Forgive me, please.
There were many differences in the characters' relationships with each other. For instance, Heather and Melinda’s connection were very different from book to film.
For example Norman and Jesse are married way before Norman meets Neal (Jesse’s brother). In the movie Norman meets Neal while is he still courting Jesse. This brings forth another difference Norman doesn’t date Jesse in the book. When Jesse is first introduced, she is already married to Norman. A viewer of the movie who has read the book might also notice that when Norman is never offered a job to teach at Chicago University in the novel. Another big difference between the movie and the novel is the role that Norman’s mother plays, she is a very lively, dynamic character in the book, but in the film she is depicted to a flat character. Paul and Norman have equal fly-fishing skills, but in the movie Norman is just a mere amateur compared to Paul. Rev. Maclean expresses displeasure with Paul's decision to change the spelling of the family name in both version of the story. Someone who might have read the book may believe that the movie didn’t do the book justice when showing Paul’s struggle with his alcohol and gambling addictions. Norman offers to help Paul out with is personal struggles when he is driving Paul and his girlfriend home after a long night of drinking. The offer to help in the novel is done when Paul and Norman go fishing. Some other differences are Rev. Maclean’s personally is almost completely lost in the movie and his most important line “you can love completely without complete understanding” (a
The more the movie goes on the more these characters change.For example one of the most I think dramatic character change is the character played by Nick Robinson. He went from this free spirited teen to a teenager that does not care for life anymore. His expressions and his personality changes to the environment and fast! So during an apocalypse your first instinct is to run,hide and survive, yet this Cassie decides to make out with the character Evan Walker. What?Yes you can make out who cares how you can be shot at anytime because you love the other person! This is a ridiculous scene I was in the movies shaking my head, and I was making that face like what are they doing. Overall the movie was
...rtrayed differently in the movie. Lennie is shown as being very mentally challenged, whereas in the book he is just a little slow and has a mind of a young child. Although some changes are made in the movie to make it flow better, it is still based on the same story as the book. The movie has the same plot line and characters, and some of the scenes are told in the exact same way as they are in the novel. As well, the movie and the book give out the same themes. This story is about how all the people in the Great Depression were trying to escape their unhappy, lonely lives, but weren’t capable of doing so. The movie stays very true to the book even though some things are removed or added. Everything that is added or changed still works very well and captures the film perfectly.
Segregation is a prominent topic in both of these books, and plays a large role in each. In To Kill a Mockingbird, blacks are discriminated against in a number of different ways. One place they are discriminated against is in church, and another in the very homes and neighborhoods they live in. One example of church segregation is, "First purchase African M.E. Church was in the quarters outside the southern town limits, across the old sawmill tracks... it was paid for from the first earnings of freed slaves. Negros worshiped in it on sundays and white men gambled in it on weekdays" (Lee 118). This is clearly segregation because blacks and whites have to worship in different churches. Also, it is segregated from the white church because white men worship in an "actual church" where they don't need to rent a building out to gamblers. Anyone gambling in a church is rude in itself. The whites have enough money to pay for belongings like hymnals; the black church only has one book. Also, the white church doesn't have to rent the church out to gamblers. An example of public segregation, in a very socially close town, is displayed during th...
o The parents are pretty static characters, they do not change much through the story