Can one small difference have a great impact on the way something is perceivedin the way something is told change the whole story? There are many similarities between the John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men, and the movie by Gary Sinise. However, there are also some small but important differences between these two. This inaccuracy of representation led to a change of some overlaying themes in the story, in turn changing the way the characters and story were viewed. A few of the differences between the film and the book include the opening scene of the movie being completely different from that of the book, the absence of the scene with Lennie’s hallucinations and finallythe scene where Lennie was hallucinating his Aunt Clara and finally, the scene whereith George shototing Lennie being much shorter and much less emotional.
The first difference between the book and movie is the setting of the first scene. In the book, the story is started by describing the landscape of the Salinas Valley, where Lennie and George spent the night by the river, and also by explaining how they resembled. We learned a lot about both main characters, such as the fact that Lennie had some sort of mental disability and the reason why they left their old job. However, the movie starts off with the scene in which Lennie had misbehaved by grabbing a woman’s dress, thus forcing them to flee their old occupation and make their way to the Salinas Valley they were escaping the farm they previously worked at. This inaccurate introductory scene leads to an earlier exposure to the personalities of both characters, however it is harder for the viewer to understand as it is not as clear of an introduction as of the one in the book by John Steinbeck.the viewer being a little more confused, and it takes longer for them to realise what the main characters are like.
Later on , near the end of the book, Lennie was by himself hiding in the brush where he and George had agreed on meeting at if something bad were to happen and waiting for George when he started hallucinating. The first image that he saw was his Aunt Clara. She reprimanded him for all the trouble he had caused George, and told Lennie how much of a burden he was to him. His second vision was of a giant rabbit. The rabbit kept taunting Lennie, telling him that George would leave him. In the movie, this scene did not exist. The lack of this scene meant that we never got to see deeper into Lennie’s character; about how he felt no guilt for killing Curley’s wife and was instead worried about George punishing him, which consists of George scolding him, threatening to leave him, and then end up telling him once again about their dream of owning a ranch. The fact that Lennie expected the same punishment shows how childlike he was., and tThis, plus the fact that he was’s hallucinating, gave us hints about what type of mental illness he suffered fromhad.
127 our experts are availableright now
Finally at the end of the story, we reach the scene where George shotots Lennie. The scene was very long and emotional in the book, showing George’s hesitation to kill his friend and showeds that he did it to save Lennie from a worse fate, one that Curley was waiting to deliver to him., but However, in the movie the scene was short and pretty sudden, without the same emotions that were shown in the book. Failing to show these emotions in the movie made George seem detached and cold, unlike in the book where he hesitated and felt awful for having to kill his own friend. After shooting Lennie, George made his way towards the rest of the men and Slim comforts him. In the movie, this part did not exist. Instead, there was a short scene with George and Lennie working at their dream farm.cold and didn’t show how close he was to Lennie.
The differences between the book and the movie Of Mice and Men did in fact alter the overlaying themes in the story, as seen in the introductory scene, and at the end of the story before and during the part George shot Lennie. This showed that, just like in the game Telephone, even the smallest change on how something is told or portrayed can make a big difference in the way another would perceive it.
