Comparing Hitchcock's The Birds: Short Story And Film

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The ratio of birds to humans is approximately 300 to 7, so if humans were attacked by a mass of birds, there’s a very slim possibility of survival, if any possibility. This is the base of the plot of Daphne du Maurier’s short story, The Birds (1952), and Alfred Hitchcock’s movie adaptation of the same name, which came out in 1963. While there are similarities between them, such as the conflict and the theme, there are also differences, such as the characters and the setting. This essay will be covering the similarities and the differences between the short story and the film.
There are a few similarities between the short story and the movie, like the conflict and the theme. The conflict in both the story and the film is a bird apocalypse-thing …show more content…

There is, in fact, an abundance of differences between them regarding the plot, setting, and characters. The setting of the story is based on a farm in Great Britain, near the ocean whereas the setting of the movie was in San Francisco, California, although both San Francisco and the farm in Great Britain are near the ocean. The plot of the story consisted of a humble farmer who was, along with his family and everyone else in Great Britain, were attacked by gargantuan flocks of birds. The story followed the farmer and his journey with his family to try and survive this bird-pocalypse. The plot of the movie consisted of a wealthy city-slicker woman who was intrigued by a man and sought him out until she found him in his hometown two hours away, in a rural town named Bodega Bay. The woman stayed there just in time for the onslaught of bird attacks on the small town and apparently developed a romance with the man. The characters of the story and the movie were quite different as well. The main character of the story was named Nat, and he was a farmer. The main character of the movie was named Melanie, and she was a rich city girl. Melanie was very dependant who relied on her money to do the work for her, whereas Nat was quite independent, taking tasks into his own hands. The movie drifts away from the story in ways that are understandable, the director of the movie, Alfred …show more content…

The movie was still interesting, just not as suspenseful as the story in my opinion. Many books with movie adaptations are still considered better than the movie. No director could possibly get everything right, though they should still make an effort to somewhat-accurately represent the book and give it justice. Both the story and the film of The Birds are good, the story was better and more interesting in my