Compare And Contrast The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963

Our class recently completed the reading of the book, The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963, as well as watched the movie by the same title. While both forms of media were entertaining, they each had their own perspective on the telling of the story. There were many similarities and differences in the ways the story was told. There were several similarities between the book and the movie. One way they were alike was Joetta thinks that the angel does not look like her because the angel is white and she is African American. Another similarity between the two was Kenny believes that if he stays behind the couch long enough, the “magic” will work to get rid of his depression. A final comparison was when they see the notebook their mom made and
they think her drawing of a bee is a bird.

In contrast, there were numerous differences between the novel and the movie.
One way in which they were different was in the book it described Grandma Sands as being a small, pruny, old lady whereas in the movie she was a young, large-framed lady. A second way the two stories were different was in the book, Joetta had no clue about the bombing, while in the movie Joetta knew that a bomb went off in her church. Finally, the two stories were different because in the book, Byron kissed the mirror on the car, but in the movie he kissed a window.

There are several details about the story that we did not know from the movie because the movie had a different focus than the book. The book focused more on how the kids are growing up and how their personalities are affected because of the events that occurred, whereas the movie focused more on the Civil Rights Movement. If the movie added all the details from the book, it would be really long and it might not flow as well, which might make it boring.

I believe the movie was told very differently than the book because a movie director is entertaining a different audience than an author of a book. A director has different goals and thoughts to portray than the original book. The director is given certain artistic freedoms to help better connect with the audience and sometimes that makes the story change a little
bit.

For me, I preferred the story told through the book because it gave more details about the whirlpool and how Kenny personified it. The book was also very descriptive when it talked about Joetta’s church got bombed and how the people flocking to the church looked like a people magnet or a river of brown bodies. The book made me feel as if I were experiencing the events that were happening as they occurred. When Kenny saw the little girls that had died in the bombing, it made me feel sad for him and the little girls.I thought that the book was more complete than the movie because there were less gaps in the story.

In conclusion, I recommend that people read the book to get a full experience of the story because the movie leaves out certain details that provide a different influence to the story. The reader will get a better understanding of the character’s perspective of the events that occurred in the book. Overall I thought the book was more engaging and I enjoyed learning about the story better than from the movie.