John Ball's In the Heat of the Night: Crime and Racism

The gripping novel “In The Heat Of The Night” written by John Ball in 1965 is a story about a black man named Virgil Tibbs suspected to be a murderer when a crime takes place in the City of Wells. In the mid 60’s black people were accused guilty by the white people because they do not have equal rights with the white people. The story is also about racism which is very well-known at that time until now. The novel has been made into a movie in 1967. The main character was played by Sidney Poitier, the first black man to receive an Oscars. There are several differences between the novel and the movie which made them effective and not. The description of characters is one of the main differences. Also, characters that is not in the novel but is in the movie is also one thing that differentiate them. The novel gives more meaning to the feelings of each characters towards each other which is good because the readers will understand more the characteristics of each character.
In the movie and novel “In the Heat of the Night”, the solution to the murder plot was similar but with a few differences. The murder was committed by Ralph, the cook, because he thought that Delores, his girlfriend, was pregnant and tried to cover this up by accusing Sam Woods of raping her. Tibbs discovered that Ralph was the murderer because he realized that there was no one else that met his profile of the murderer. He realized that the police were being set up by Delores and that Ralph was right handed. In the movie the murder was committed by Ralph, but the development of Ralph as a suspect only came to light when Tibbs went to the abortionist and saw Ralph in the shadows. The murder plot ends with the murder of Delores’ brother and his final confession in the police station.