Olena Bychkovska

Contrast-Comparison Essay

“Fahrenheit 451”. Film VS. Book

          An outstanding American writer Ray Douglas Bradbury wrote his famous dystopian novel “Fahrenheit 451” in 1953 and 13 years later the well-known French director Francois Truffaut made a film version of this novel. According to them, in the future people will not be allowed to read books and special firemen will burn all the books. The protagonist, fireman Guy Montag, revised his thoughts and issued challenge to the system, refused to continue burning books and escaped from the city. In spite of the fact that both novel and film have some obvious similarities, there are many differences between them.

          Bradbury and Truffaut have different views on how the same story should be unfolded; consequently, the film introduced some changes to the original book’s ideas. To start with, the names of the heroes are different. In the novel Montag wife's name was Mildred, whereas in the film her name was Linda. Her friends’ names differ also. Secondly, Bradbury wrote that Montag got acquainted with young girl Clarissa, who was 17 and dropped out of school. Later she died at the traffic accident. On the contrary, Francois Truffaut described Clarissa as a twenty-year-old teacher. She managed to escape from persecutors and met the fireman outside the city in the company of hermits or "Book People". Moreover, according to the book, the English professor Faber showed the way to the hermits, whereas the film shows that Clarissa explained Montag how to find these people. There are several differences in the final scenes. By the novel, the fireman crossed the river by swimming, was prosecuted by helicopters and the other man (pseudo-Montag), and was killed by the Mechanic Hound. While in the film the protagonist used a boat, he was prosecuted by flying men and pseudo-Montag was shot from helicopter. Finally, the ending of the book and the film differs. Francois Truffaut showed the happy society, every member of which learnt one book by heart. But in the novel Guy Montag led people and they were going to get to the city to create a new society. These discrepancies led to other differences between the film and the book.

         There are certain issues which appeared in the book and which Truffaut did not mention at his film, but instead added his own episodes. For example, the Mechanical Hound, which prosecuted the main hero, did not appear at the film. War, destruction and rocket airplanes were also omitted at the film. In addition, the director did not include into the film the English professor Faber and his portable communicator who was one of the main characters of the novel. In comparison to the book, there are some interesting episodes in the film. The French director showed scenes of totalitarian regime, when firemen were searching for books in the kindergarten or forcedly cut hair of long-haired boy. The audience's attention was paid to the fact that there were no antennas on the roof of Clarissa house, which meant that her relatives did not watch television, but talked to each other and such a situation was strange at that time. Moreover, according to the film, Montag's relations with the wife were better, comparing with their attitude towards each other in the book, where the wife almost always ignored her husband. Due to the mentioned above differences the film depicts a slightly different story than the book does.

       Despite of some differences, both the novel and the film have similar plot and ideas. The general scenario is the same; therefore, the heroes follow similar sequence of events. In both cases the author warns the people about the danger of totalitarian regime, censorship and degradation. Certainly, if the plots and ideas were not similar, the film would be completely different from the book.

       Overall, the numerous changes brought by the film advantageously supplement the book’s story. Reading and watching “Fahrenheit 451” might appear to be equally exciting and informative. These two forms of the same work of art depict somewhat dissimilar stories and it might be interesting to see diverse variants of the course of events. Besides, everyone can choose the preferred form. Familiarizing oneself with this work will contribute to general knowledge and personality development, because while watching the film or reading the book one has a chance to reconsider own way of living and view of the world, as it was conceived by the authors of the book and film.

	FILM	BOTH	BOOK
Heroes’ names	Linda, friends’ names	Same idea Similar plot	Mildred, friends’ names
Different heroes	Clarissa, 20, teacher, no Faber		Clarissa, 17, student,  Faber
Final scenes	killing of pseudo Montag in a different way		killing of pseudo-Montag in a different way
The end	new society		happy society
Omitted and added	scenes of totalitarian regime,  no TV, better relations with wife		war sciences, Mechanical Hound, worse relations with wife