The Monkey's Paw Movie And Book Comparison Essay

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Many people watch movie versions of books they like. More often than not, there are slight alterations from the books in movie versions. This would be the case if one read “ The Monkey’s Paw” and then watched the short film rendition of it afterwards. There are a few similarities and differences between the two versions. The movie and book versions share both similarities and differences because the dialogue in the movie has been slightly altered from the dialogue in the book, the point of view stayed the same, and some characters’ reactions changed. One example of how “The Monkey’s Paw” is similar to the movie version, is that the theme is still the same . The theme of both versions is to be careful what you wish for. …show more content…

For example, in the book, Herbert asks his father to wish for 200 pounds, while in the film Herbert requests for his dad to wish for 300 pounds (The Monkey’s Paw 4). This is only one example of an instance in which the movie has different dialogue from the book. Another example is that while in the story, Mrs. White screams at hearing about her son's death, Mrs. White doesn’t scream, but faints in the film. Based on this, one can infer that the movie version of “The Monkey’s Paw” has different dialogue than the book …show more content…

In the text, the speaker refers to the characters as if they are on the outside looking in. One example of such language is when the speaker states, “Mr.White dropped his wife’s hand, and rising to his feet, stared with a look of horror at his visitor”(The Monkey’s Paw 6). The way that the narrator describes the characters is as if their experiences are a movie that they are watching. The narrator does not know their inner thoughts and feelings, much like the viewer does not know the characters’ inner thoughts and feelings while watching the movie. The viewer is simply on the outside looking in, similarly to the narrator. Based on this information, one can conclude that both the book version and the movie version of “The Monkey’s Paw”share a third person point of