Contrast-Comparison Essay. Olha Vynohradova

Fahrenheit 451: the book VS the movie

Twentieth century was the time of massive creation of science-fiction novels that mostly were about the future of the Earth and the role of progress in humans` life. Thereby, authors were debunking deficiencies of the modern society. Dystopia Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a good example of such kind of novel. On the base of this novel such movies as “Equilibrium” and “Fahrenheit 451” were filmed, and plays “Salamander`s sign” and “Symphony of the fire” were set. However, even for cognominal movie that was filmed in 1966 by Francois Truffaunt, the book was only a basis and differences between them are considerable.

Firstly, the plot in the book is broader than in the movie and the first have got more storylines. For example, Faber–the one of the key-character in the novel–was eliminated from the movie. As a result, the movie lost the very important issue that was present in the book. Faber was the first interlocutor of Montag who told him that books are worth to read, then he was the one who helped Montag to deal with his feelings about books, and told him about hermits outside the city who were custodians of books. On the contrary, in the movie that was Clarisse who had an impact on Montag. Speaking about her, she was killed in the book, while in the movie she remained alive. So, in the book Faber and Montag began to work together–they had a plan how to return books in everyday people`s life. There was no any plan or consciousness in Montag`s actions in the film. It seems that in the novel protagonist eventually has a strong awareness of what he is doing, while in the film his motives rather guided by feelings for Clarisse. By the way, in the book Montag cannot stop worrying about his wife even when he admits that he do not feel anything for her. That shows an extreme difference between him and other citizens and that is where the movie lost the most essential part.

Secondly, some details in the movie were omitted or diminished, but details are significant in such stories as this. In the book, events took place on the background of the imminent war, whereas the movie does not mention this. It is the war, that is approaching every minute, shows how indifferent people could be not noticing what is happening in front of their eyes and how naïve they could be, listening and believing everything government offers them. The mechanical dog is another important issue of the book that is absent in the movie. That dog is an accomplished organism that can find a person wherever it was and kill it. Mechanical dog symbolizes the totalitarian regime itself, where all holdouts will be found and punished. Still, there is a curious detail in the movie that is absent in the book. All firemen in both sources sliding up and down the fire alarm pole in the fire station, but only in the film, once, after reading books, Montag appeared not keen of sliding up or even down the fire alarm pole. Most likely, that was the sign that he was not a true fireman anymore.

Finally, the end of the story in the book and in the movie is probably the biggest difference between those two. In the book the war has come at the end and cities of the country were destroyed by atomic bombs. In such way author showed that only from scratch the new life could begin. At the same time, heroes of the novel received such an opportunity. On the other hand, the end of the movie is completely open and people, learning and repeating their books, continue to wait, until the convenient time will come. It just indicates that Ray Bradbury and Francoit Truffaunt wanted to show different issues of that story. At last, Montag becomes a book-keeper, but in the novel his book is Ecclesiastes from the Old Testament, while in the movie he appears to be The tales of mystery and imagination by Edgar Allan Poe. Considering that Edgar Allan Poe`s book was banned at first, Francoit Truffaunt underlines the problem of censorship in such way, while in the book the problem is much deeper and applies to human`s abilities to feel and to think.

Nevertheless, considering all those differences, it should be admitted that the essence of the story in both sources is similar. People are concerned about books and everything that could make them unhappy and of course antisocial. Otherwise, they spend their time in front of their television watching their 'relatives'. They think they are social, but they are wrong, because all is vice versa. They do not speak with each other on some neutral topic or even not speaking at all, they sitting in front of television, listening and watching everything government is saying. They are zombies–a mass for modeling. It is an ideal society to rule–they do not receive a large amount of knowledge, they do not read, they do not speak a lot to each other–there will not be any seditious thought inside such society.
To sum up, in 1953 Ray Bradbury created a powerful novel that wholly describes today`s society. Francoit Truffault was a creator of its adaptation, where he wanted to show urgent problems of his time. Despite all the differences between those two, they deserve to be heard, because the essence of both of them is not to be indifferent.

References:

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Moscow: Science fiction, 1989. Print.

         Truffault, Francoit, dir. Fahrenheit 451. 1966. Film.