Compare And Contrast The Devil's Arithmetic Book And Movie

The Devil’s Arithmetic Book vs. Movie Essay

The book and movie versions of The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen both had many pros and cons. However, the more preferable version goes to the book. The book had far more interesting and suspenseful moments. With the book having better characters, scenes, and themes, there is no point in arguing which adaptation of The Devil’s Arithmetic is more enjoyable to an audience. Although the movie did have some interesting additions and removals, the book was far more appealing to a general audience than the movie. One of the first reasons for why the book is better than the movie is because of the characters. In the movie, they removed Yitzchak and Reuven. These are very important characters in the story. They even replaced Gitl with Aunt Mina, who did not play as big of a role compared to Gitl’s. All of this comes together to make the

The movie takes out many important scenes from the book version of The Devil’s Arithmetic. For example on page 140 it states, “When Reuven didn’t answer, Chaya stepped forward, ‘Please, sir, his mother is dead.’ ” This shows extreme bravery and courage in the book because Hannah is standing up and defending Reuben from a Commandant. However, the movie did not include this scene. The movie also added unnecessary scenes. The movie includes Leye having a baby in the concentration camp. This is unnecessary and may be even disturbing to some viewers. Also on page 95, it states, “ ‘ But promise me you will cry no more before these monsters. We will never cry again.’ ‘Never,’ Hannah agreed.” By promising to not cry, Gitl and Hannah show extreme bravery as they are standing up to the Nazi’s themeselves. As a result, by taking away certain scenes and adding unnecessary ones, the movie did not appeal to audiences as much as the book