Contemporary U.S. Literature and Film

ENH255: Contemporary U.S. Literature and Film
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ADAPTATION ACROSS MEDIA AND MOTIF
Miyazaki’s adoption of Jone’s children novel howl’s moving castle is undoubtedly the largest theatrical release of an animation in Japan. However, most importantly a critical approach to the film giving consideration to its source allows us to study Miyizaki’s version as a transformative adoption. Though the film retains most of its elements from the novel, Miyizaki adds a novel component of to the account: war. Sophie, the main protagonist in the novel, is a shop attendant cursed by a beautiful villainous witch (Jones). The curse makes her look like an old crone. Instead of seeking help from relatives and friends, Sophie opts to seek the help of a wizard who lives in a moving castle in order to free her from the curse. Her plan finally succeeds.
In Miyizaki’s version, Sophie’s curse and her refuge with the wizard are retained in the backdrop of the film. However, Miyizaki introduces a war raging through the country (Miyizaki). In so doing, he establishes a divergence to which the reverse of Sophie’s curse is tied. Consequently, while Jones concentrates on elaborating on the vital role played by communication in prevention and termination of a conflict, Miyizaki demonstrates that failure to have an open dialogue can result into a tragedy such as war. In this regard, the film transforms the narrative of Jones novel into a critique of the modern global politics encompassing the war in Iraq.
The adaptation described above is an illustration of an adaptation approach that goes beyond the confines of borrowing from the original text. Moreover, adaptation involves intersecting, a process in which a work is redone as similar as possible into a different medium. In the above noted adaptation, Miyizaki takes a completely different approach to textual variation referred to as a transformation. According to Abbott (p. 112) “if they are good at all, steal what they want and leave the rest.” Themes and motif are very relevant in adaptations. The original work and the adaptation must be held together by connective tissues in the form of themes or motifs.
These serve as remnants of the original work in the new version. A motif is a recurring element in a narrative. This recurring element carries symbolic significance in a narrative. The repetition of the motif helps in generating another narrative aspect such as mood or theme. Miyizaki’s approach to adaptation is not a mere process of sudden change. Instead, he creates parallels between the film and the novel, which allow for an inclusive comprehension of what is portrayed to the target audience. Similarly motifs are repeatedly used in a narrative to give the narrative a symbolic significance.
In both the novel and the film, some elements such as the doorway with a black knob are retained. The retention of this element leads the reader of the novel, as well as the viewer of the film to a similar conclusion; irrational conflicts that can easily be avoided and resolved through open dialogue. In Miyizaki’s context, he seems to assert that peace with oneself and others is possible if effective communication forms the basis of relationships. In a similar manner, the repetition of motif within narrative helps readers to come to a similar conclusion by establishing major themes within the narrative using the motifs.
The nature of an adaptation across media influences the reception of the new work by the target audience. Likewise, the use of motif gives an indication to a particular theme, which may be acceptable or unacceptable to the target audience. For instance, in Miyizaki’s adaptation, the frequent use of violent scenes might be perceived as a notion against war aimed to teach children that war is bad. Moreover, it could also be read that Miyizaki aims to sensitize adults that they should engage in peaceful dialogue to solve their conflicts. Consequently, the anti-war notion generated by the film could account for the moderate success of the film in the United States. In this regard, Abbot remarks that audiences set limits on what is acceptable and unacceptable (p. 125).” He further notes that deviations from cultural norms normally find outlets for accessing mainstream audiences during cultural shifts through the adaptation of previous works.
Abbott is of the view that the creative leeway between script and performances is enormous when adaptation crosses media boundaries (112). Nonetheless, Miyizaki starts his film in the same way Jones starts his novel. As the film progresses, Miyizaki transforms into what Abbott terms as a new author in his own right (p. 112). This is expected in a transformative adaptation. Often, adaptations build on motifs to show the relationship between the original and the new work. The motif of the senselessness of a conflict is used as a basis of adaptation to show that war is pointless. This demonstrates the vital relationship between adaptation of a narrative and motif. Motifs used in the narrative enables the adaptation retain relevance and connection to the original work. Consequently, most adaptations borrow the motifs used in the original work. A critical review of Jone’s novel howl’s moving castle gives a revelation of the ways Miyizaki’s film builds on the motifs and themes in the novel to establish its figurative critique of United States invasion of Iraq.
Miyizaki’s adaptation of Jones’ novel howl’s moving castle is controversial. Moreover, he introduces modern politics with a tinge of symbolic criticism of the United States’ invasion of Iraq into his adaptation. However, the film builds on motif established by Jones in his novel to establish a cohesive message across the novel and the film. Therefore, we can conclude that there is a close relationship between motif and adaptations. Motifs are used by adaptors to construct bridges between the original work and the new version. This process is vital as it allows for a deeper comprehension of the two works.
In this regard, Abbott (p. 113) notes that though an adaptor may introduce drastic changes to the plot and add new elements, in the end, there need not be a barrier that separates the original and the new work as distinct. Nonetheless, motifs and themes of the original text can be transformed in an adaptation. Such a transformation may have an effect on the meaning of the narrative as is the case with the film version of howl’s moving castle. In his adaptation, Miyizaki radically changes the situation and setting of the source text to transform a children’s novel into a film that is addressed to a new generation of children whose lives are affected by global conflict. However, a keen study of the new version and the source text revel that the motif which forms the basis of the effective communication theme s heavily relied upon in the film.

Works cited
Abbott, H. Porter. Adaptation across media. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative: Second Edition. 2008. London: Cambridge UP. Print.
Jones, Diana. Howl’s Moving Castle. 1986. New York: Harper. Print.
Miyazaki, Hayao. Howl’s Moving Castle. 2004. Disney. Film.