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Book vs Movie, Disappointment in the Difference of Gone with the Wind

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The first time I saw the film adaptation of a book I had read, I was appalled at the changes that had been made to the story. Both “Gone With the Wind”, the movie, and “Gone With the Wind”, the book, tell an epic story of life in Georgia at the time of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era and the effect of the war on the life of a spoiled Southern belle, Scarlett O’Hara. But there are significant differences in the characters, events and perspectives that made me realize that a screen adaptation will never be able to capture the details and background stories that are included in a novel.
Characters
. For those who have never read the book, the characters are defined by the actors who portrayed them and not necessarily by the way…show more content…
This change completely altered the significance of the attack and the subsequent events.
Events
In the movie there are a couple of instances where the order of events is changed. For example, in the movie Melanie and Ashley get married first but in the book Scarlett and Charles get married first. Because Melanie was engaged first, it was protocol that she should be married first, but in the book Scarlett specifically planned her wedding to occur before Melanie’s. For the reader, this illustrates how conniving Scarlett was but the movie-goer does not get this insight into Scarlett’s personality. In the movie, Melanie is the first to donate her wedding ring to the cause, and Scarlett follows suit; in the book, Scarlett is the first to put her ring in the basket. Scarlett’s donation of her ring was not really a sacrifice because it didn’t have any sentimental value to her. In the movie, Rhett Butler returns the rings to both of the women but in the book he only returns Melanie’s ring. There are a couple of significant changes in the scenes regarding the escape of Scarlett, Melanie and Prissy from Atlanta. The importance of finding the cow as was completely understated in the movie. Melanie had no milk and her baby was starving so, without the cow, the baby would have died. .An event that was completely added to the movie was the rain storm they encountered night they escaped. There was no rain in the book.
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