Cry the Beloved Country
Is a picture really worth a thousand words, or do words inspire and free the imagination? It has always been my experience that books are truly the better of the two mediums when it comes to releasing the imagination and providing the reader with an in-depth story. Perhaps with the book Cry the Beloved Country it will be different; perhaps the movie will unleash the viewers imagination with greater success than the somewhat dated book. Let's analyze three aspects of the book and movie and see how each is handled differently. The first aspect that I would like to cover is the characters of the book and movie. In the book, the characters in general are subdued; they tend to have less outward emotion. In the movie however, the characters seem much more animated, especially when it comes to violence. An example of this difference in character animation can be found on page thirty-one of the book. The scene taking place is when Stephen Kumalo finds his sister. In the movie, Kumalo is very violent with his sister and at one point, he grabs her face and forcefully wipes away her makeup. When this same scene is read in the book, you will notice that there is no violent ac
tion at all taken on Kumalo's part. This noticeable difference in the character's disposition can be seen throughout the book. Overall, the characters in the book are mellower and in my opinion, rather boring as well. The second aspect that I would like to cover is the settings. How are settings handled by the movie in relation to the book? Usually, when it comes to settings, I have always found that books tend to be more successful. I credit this with books having the ability to be more detailed than movies. There is a catch to the wonderful scene portion of books: you must have a vivid imagination. If you lack such an imagination, you will probably be successful in movies because all the work is done for you. An illustration of the scenic differences between the book and movie can be found on page one of the book. The setting described in the opening paragraph tells of grass-covered hills, lovely roads, and dried up streams. All in all, the author does a wonderful job of setting up a scene in the readers mind. In the movie however, the same scene in sort of toned down. You don't get the same feeling from seeing the scene in the movie as you do from the book.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 796
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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