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The book and film of To Kill a Mockingbird have some similarities, and some differences. They are both a tragic story of racial injustice in the 1930s To Kill a Mockingbird revolves around a trial of an innocent black man name, Tom Robinson, for the rape and assault of a white woman in a Alabama. The book was written by Harper Lee, published in 1960 and it was made into a movie two years later in 1962.
Theme
The major themes of the book are focus on racism in the South during the 1930’s. There were three summers in the book that are combined into one in half in the film.
The Plot
The plot of the classic novel and movie are the same as they both portrayed the ugly side of the town. Like when Atticus goes down to the jail and stop the town’s white mob from lynching Tom in the novel and film. Also in both, he is found guilty by an all-white jury and is shot and killed after the trial ended cited. In the movie, scenes are left out, but the scenes shown was overall important to the plot. In the film, the trial and the defense of Tom Robinson was center stage, but not as much in the book. One of the most similarities is that Scout, the narrator is an older woman, speaking from the future, for this is a flashback story.
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Characters
The characters compared to the actors in the movie were good and bad in some cases . The actor Gregory Peck, who played a perfect Atticus Finch, gave the character a far greater depth in the film than the book provided.
When the book made the transition to a film, characters and their actions were combined. In the film, Ms. Stephanie Crawford ( Dill’s aunt) and Cecil Jacobs drives Scout to break her promise to Atticus about fighting but the book had Francis Hancock driving Scout. Some characters were omitted like, Aunt Alexandra who isn’t present in the movie. Also the issue of Scout “acting like a lady” in the book, never plays a role in the film.
The film introduced new characters to help develop the story line. Scout and Jem have a conversation about their deceased mother which brings her alive in the film, but the book writes only one paragraph about her. Tom Robinson’s children and father was also introduced to the viewers, when his father isn’t mentioned in the book, and his children were mention a little.
The benefit of film is that viewers get to see the characters, but viewers can be thrown off the story if the actor playing the part doesn’t fit the reader’s vision of the character from the book. Like, the actress who plays Ms Maudie in the film is thin, much younger, and more conventional than Scout had described in the book.
