Ordinary People

A detailed Summary of Ordinary People


Many movies are made to mimic popular books. Many times, the movie does not do the book any justice. This is the case with the movie of Ordinary People. Judith Guest's praised book, Ordinary People, uses complex characters and their thoughts to tell the story of three people dealing with a tragedy; on the contrary, the movie focuses mainly on the tragedy. The book is far more effective than the movie because of the pivotal scenes and characterization.

The characterization in the book is substantially stronger. The story is basically told through the thoughts of the main character, Conrad, and his father, Calvin. These thoughts allow one to understand what is going on in the characters mind and understand what they are going through more effectively. In the book,


Conrad describes the death of Buck, his brother, in detail through his thoughts and in his dreams. It makes it easy to understand what happened. In the movie, only a few dreams are shown. If the book had not been read first, it would be very hard to understand what these dreams were all about. Scenes throughout the book used the inner thoughts of Calvin and Conrad to explain what was happening in the story. Without these thoughts, the story line was very hard to follow.

The book is far more effective than the movie because of the pivotal scenes and characterization portrayed in the book. It may be faster as easier to watch the movie of any book, but the book is almost always better. So many differences are present in the movie that it almost never does the book

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Approximate Word count = 522
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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