Adaptation of To Kill A Mocking Bird

 Adaptation of To Kill A Mocking Bird

To Kill a Mockingbird is primarily a novel written by Harper Lee about growing up under extraordinary circumstances in the 1930s in the Southern United States. The story covers a span of three years, during which the main characters undergo significant changes. Scout Finch lives with her brother Jem and their father Atticus in the fictitious town of Maycomb, Alabama. Maycomb is a small, close-knit town, and every family has its social station depending on where they live, who their parents are, and how long their ancestors have lived in Maycomb. A widower, Atticus raises his children by himself, with the help of kindly neighbors and a black housekeeper named Calpurnia. Scout and Jem almost instinctively understand the complexities and machinations of their neighborhood and town. The only neighbor who puzzles them is the mysterious Arthur Radley, nicknamed Boo, who never comes outside. Scout is a tomboy who prefers the company of boys and generally solves her differences with her fists. She tries to make sense of a world that demands that she act like a lady, a brother who criticizes her for acting like a girl, and a father who accepts her just as she is. Not quite midway through the story, Scout and Jem discover that their father is going to represent a black man named Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping and beating a white woman. Suddenly, Scout and Jem have to tolerate a barrage of racial slurs and insults.

             To Kill a Mockingbird is a film in which there is a great interplay of past and present, justice and injustice, innocence and experience, progress and tradition, old people and young people, male and female characteristics and so on. There are certain irrelevant scenes which were avoided by the creators of the movie in order to meet the financial and technical requirements. Unlike film, the novel has no rigid framework and authors have taken full advantage of this freedom and represent the life with its entirety. But in film the makers should confront various conundrums and troubles to bring the story to the screen.

                The novel and the film have many similarities and a few differences. But we can claim that these minute alterations never mitigated the beauty of the novel while adapting to the film. In general, the film is a faithful adaptation of the book with only a few subtle changes most of which were forced upon Mulligan by time constraints and the voice over narration which smoothest over the cracks left by material deleted from the book.

Book into Film:-

           It is difficult to turn a novel into a film. The film and the novel have many similarities and some disparities. Ideally, a novel and its film version complements each other, as in this case. A film can accomplish elements that novels can't and vice versa. Likewise, film has limitations that a novel doesn't. By its nature, film is a visual medium, which makes a first person story difficult to tell. To have Scout narrating throughout the film as she does in the book would have become digressing, so Scout as narrator sets the mood of the scenes in the film. So there is no depiction of Scout as first person narrator in the movie as in the book. In the movie, there is childlike perception presented flawlessly.

 Some Similarities and Dissimilarities:-

            The film uses music to reinforce the child's perspective. The film has Scout as an important character but it also expands on her brother, Jem's personality too like Jem finds the whole things in the tree, he accompanies Atticus to inform Helen about her husband's demise and he was also left to solely nurse her sister which is absent in the book. A film has a rigid structure and therefore, it concentrates on certain characters unlike books. For instance, Miss Stephanie Crawford and Cecil Jacob's, not Francis Hancock, compels Scout to break her promise to Atticus regarding combat. Aunt Alexandra is not mentioned in the movie at all, so the question of Scout behaving like a lady was removed. Here, the gender bias and prejudices which was obvious in the novel was kept less relevant or mild by the film makers. For the sake of explicit narration, films introduce new characters and expand existing ones. In the film, the heartfelt conversation between Scout and Jem details her persona whereas the novel had a single paragraph devoted to her. Viewers also see Tom Robinson's father and children in the movie, father Robinson is absent in the book and his kids are a passing reference only. Many people enjoy the advantage of being able to visualize a character, however, viewers can be thrown out of the story if the actor playing the part doesn't fit the reader's vision of the character. For instance, the actress who plays Maudie is thin , much younger, and more conventional than the one in book. On the other hand, Gregory Peck, by Lee's own assertion, is the perfect embodiment of Atticus Finch, which gives the character a far greater depth than the book. There are many striking similarities between the film and the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Both the versions presented the flashback narration by the old Scout. The macabre life of Boo Radley was portrayed bereft any omissions or additions. All the relevant actions and conundrums unraveled in the novel were presented with authenticity. The trials and tribulations encountered by Tom Robinson, racism and its brutal facets, white supremacy, racial prejudices all are portrayed in an infallible manner.

Adopting a literary is a task:-

               The novel as well as the film reveals the stark realities to humorous pleasing moments brilliantly. Certain sequences were avoided to adhere to the time and space limits of movie such as the children's school and classroom shots, church scene etc. These are irrelevant but the truncated depiction of Calpurnia, the maid in Atticus household was unfair as Calpurnia was the motherly figure for Scout and Jim. We can't blatantly upbraid the director for these minute omissions as the novel is not bounded to time but the film is. Lee's novel is a coming-of- age story influenced by a major event in the community and within one family. The film is a courtroom drama that happens to include something about the lead attorney's home life. The implied incest between Bob and Mayella Ewell is never discussed during the course of the trial. The movie never displays the realities behind Maycomb's caste system and the viewers remain oblivious to the fact that Ewells are considered to be trash. These eliminations may have done to avoid the actions of fanatics and conservatives. The courtroom scenes are condensed in the film. Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch delivers a shortened version of Atticus arguing to the jury. The lines he does say are verbatim, but several points from the speech are excluded. Neither does the film explores the aftermath of the trial or exhibits the conversations, Atticus has with his children, aids them to comprehend the situation. The film addresses the heart-wrenching plight of the African-Americans only through the trial. Calpurnia was treated with dignity as the Finch family is a progressive one. The mockingbird is an innocuous creature which only sings to bring music to the garden. The sin of killing the bird is evident, but it is a metaphor for inculpating and avenging in noxious minorities. There are two characters who are in semblance with the bird, ie, the black, Tom Robinson and the outcast among the whites, Boo Radley. This symbolic usage of mockingbird is infallible in both the versions, as, filmic as well as written. A long episodic novel can easily lose its way; but Lee has an unequivocal organic sense of a single story with a unifying theme of Mockingbird. The first part of the novel which is an account of Scout's early

years, primarily in search of comprehending the mystery of Boo Radley was perfectly adapted into the visual medium. Both the director and the novelist successfully, brought the two conflicting narratives together. To Kill a Mockingbird is a film in which there is a great interplay of past and present, justice and injustice, innocence and experience, progress and tradition, old people and young people, male and female characteristics and so on. There are certain irrelevant scenes which were avoided by the creators of the movie in order to meet the financial and technical requirements. Unlike film, the novel has no rigid framework and authors have taken full advantage of this freedom and represent the life with its entirety. But in film the makers should confront various conundrums and troubles to bring the story to the screen.

                The novel and the film have many similarities and a few differences. But we can claim that these minute alterations never mitigated the beauty of the novel while adapting to the film. In general, the film is a faithful adaptation of the book with only a few subtle changes most of which were forced upon Mulligan by time constraints and the voice over narration which smoothest over the cracks left by material deleted from the book.

Novel – Society- Film:-

             In the this film, the function of hero enters social group is depicted by a man-cub from Meridian approached Scout and Jem. Based on the intertextual, it is a mode of modification. The reason is the film To Kill a Mockingbird has changed but not completely from the depiction of the hero enters the social group. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Dill swearing at the garden, who pay attention to scout and Jem. Dill is not directly approached Scout and Jem.

Dill Harris : I am Charles Baker Harris, call me Dill. I am from Meridian,

Mississippi and I am spending two weeks next door with my aunt Stephanie.

          This scene tells about Dill Harris is trying to be closer to Scout and Jem.He told to Jem and Scout if each summer to spend time with his aunt Rachel. He said many have seen the movie. Dill is very creative and always had a great idea. The appeal of Dill with Radley's house at the start. The road passes near Radley we play them will do and follow Radley headed home. They noticed her always deserted, and the public does not know the whereabouts of his son. The Hero Is Unknown to the Society. The scene in film of To Kill a Mockingbird which indicates that the hero is unknown to the society is depicted by Boo Radley. Based on the intertextuality, this scene is a made of haplology. It is because the film of To Kill a Mockingbird was cut a little story in the depiction of the of the hero is unknown to the society. Therefore in the film the hero is unknown to the society.

  

Conclusion:-

           Thus, The film portrays the basic essence of novel, properly. Robert Mulligan not only relocated and translated the elements of novel but also enriched the filmic version with new utterances and unique creativities. The minutest eliminations and additions are essential to augment the beauty of the film. It is mandated that a film should not lose the essence underpinning the source work. The notion of racism, patriarchy, foisting nature of power prevalent in the so-called sophisticated American society and even the atmosphere of the novel was flawlessly imaged in the film, bounding to the film's time limits and rigid framework.