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The Sweet Hereafter Essay

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Character development keeps an audience interested. Being able to pull emotion out of the main character allows the audience to feel the pain or excitement that is being portrayed. In director Atom Egoyan's "The Sweet Hereafter," Dolores Driscoll brings out the sadness that her character is feeling. You can sense the pain and distress that she bears. Yet, in the novel, The Sweet Hereafter, by Russell Banks', Dolores does not grow as a character. The audience never deciphers if Dolores understands the tragic events. The film explores Dolores' character, which adds depth, while the book illustrates Dolores on the surface and denies her any sort of personal growth.

In Russell Banks' novel, The Sweet Hereafter, a small town suffers a …show more content…

Dolores never conceding to her own grief leaves her character in the position of a narrator, not a character that one can easily relate to. Dolores never cries. She never questions why it happened to her, why it happened in her town. There is never an ounce of emotion that comes from her chapter. Dolores never becomes a real person. Who can survive this horrific accident and not mention their sorrow once? She serves as an outside source that relays the facts instead of an emotionally vulnerable character with whom the reader can connect.

In the movie, Atom Egoyan wants his audience to associate with the characters. He does everything possible to show that Dolores Driscoll is just the average person. She cannot keep herself from crying in her interview with Mitchell Stephens, or in deposition with the other lawyers. The grief overcomes her as it would any other person in the same sort of situation. During her interview with Mitchell, Dolores is obviously having issues dealing with the trauma. She continuously refers to the children in the present tense, as if they are still with her. She is having psychological troubles that

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