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To Kill A Mockingbird Movie Vs Book

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Books and Movies: Scouting Out Their Differences

To Kill a Mockingbird is a powerful novel, laden with impactful themes for the reader to walk away with. This book tells the story of two children named Jem and Scout Finch during the 1930’s. These two siblings, together, figure out the mysteries hidden in their small town of Maycomb, Alabama. Throughout the book they learn very important values, which become empowering messages to the reader. Harper Lee wrote the novel version, and Robert Mulligan directed the movie version. Although the two have the same plotline, the movie is missing several important details from the book - many themes from the book have been downplayed, characters have been combined or taken out completely, and some events …show more content…

This impactful event helps to show the compassion of the small town. It shows how everyone really cares for each other, and the people of Maycomb are not as superficial as readers may first assume. Also, it shows how close everyone in the town was in the book, and how everybody in the town knew everyone. As Scout thought, “‘The men of Maycomb, in all states of dress and undress, took furniture from Miss Maudie’s house to a yard across the street’” (Lee 92). Scout’s thoughts during this event display how the people of Maycomb came together to help. This was clearly a significant scene in the story, but somehow got left behind in the movie version. Her house never caught fire in the movie version, and Miss Maudie was not even present as a character. Also, this cuts out an entire theme from the novel. People who only view the movie do not see the compassionate side of Maycomb, and also never see how closely knit the town really is. The house fire is just one major scene left out of the book, and there are many more noticeable differences between the novel and …show more content…

She is Scout and Jem’s aunt, and she brings many important values and lessons to the novel. One theme she introduces is gender stereotyping. Aunt Alexandra was insistent on helping Scout become more ladylike, which was a stereotype expected of ladies back in those times. Scout did not enjoy becoming ladylike at all, however Aunt Alexandra persisted in helping to change her, and this shows the stereotyped mindset people had back then. However, she teaches Scout more than simply how to be a lady. Whenever Scout displayed interest in doing something that the Finches were not supposed to do, Aunt Alexandra would scold her and command her not to. An example of this could be when Scout wanted to play with Walter Cunningham. When Scout told her Aunt she wished to play with him, she quickly shut Scout down: “ I’ll tell you why,” She said. “Because he – is – trash, that’s why you can’t play with him. I’ll not have you around him, picking up his habits and learning Lord-knows-what…” (Lee 301). Despite Aunt Alexandra being such a pivotal character, Robert Mulligan decided to leave her out of the movie, having her only show up for a few seconds before Scout’s first day of school. Not only does she only appear for a very miniscule amount of time, she was also present in the Finch household way too soon than she had in the novel. With this major difference, the movie

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’s mother passed away. Aunt Alexandra tries to convert Scout from acting like a boy and tries to make her act like a girl more. Aunt Alexandra influences both Jem and Scout by teaching them basic manners. Ex. She teaches them how they should act when she first comes over.

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692 Words | 3 Pages

In the movie they didn’t add Aunt Alexandra thus, making Scout less of a lady. Aunt Alexandra brought drama and some tension in the book. Along with Aunt Alexandra, you forgot Francis and Uncle Jack. Uncle Jack was a funny character that would have played a good part in the movie with Christmas gift of airsoft guns, and yelling to Miss Maudie. Francis would have made an annoying character that would be made fun of, and that nobody would like, but would have some purpose.

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473 Words | 2 Pages

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Aunt Alexandra is a motherly influence on Scout and Jem who tries to teach them how a Finch should act. For example, Aunt Alexandra teaches the children how to act when she first arrives at the house. In fact, she corrects Scout soon after she steps through the door. “Jean Louise, stop scratching your head,” Aunt Alexandra sternly demands.

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505 Words | 3 Pages

The night Scout and Jem were attacked was a turning point for Aunt Alexandra as a character. By being more concerned by the health of Jem and Scout, her true colors showed. “Aunt Alexandra’s fingers trembled as she unwound the crushed fabric and wire from around me.” (Lee, 264). She acted as a mother figure, the motherly notion being what Scout really needed all along.

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715 Words | 3 Pages

Jem understands that he has to have the humility while Scout would just want to brag. In addition, when Aunt Alexandra shows up to live with Atticus and the kids. She planned to teach Jem and Scout “about the family and what it’s meant to Maycomb country” (Lee, 133). Aunt Alexandra would take a big part in Scout and Jem’s life. She would be teaching them many things like behaving like a gentleman and lady or their family history.

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703 Words | 3 Pages

Scout always saw Aunt Alexandra as a mean, cranky, and strict family member. Scout disliked her a lot because Alexandra would always stop her and Jem from doing what they wanted to do. While Alexandra was venting to Miss Maudie about Atticus, “Aunt Alexandra rose and smoothed the various whalebone belt and wiped her nose. She patted her hair and said, ‘Do I show it?’” (Lee 237).

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545 Words | 3 Pages

For one thing, Miss Maudie’s character is hardly focused on at all. This cuts off her insight on the Radley’s way of life as well as completely stopping the fire from ever happening. Without the fire, Boo cannot, once again, prove himself to be a kind person through placing a blanket on Scout. Along with this, the prejudice taking up almost every breath the Maycomb citizens can not be fully understood. Throughout the story, even the smallest of encounters show just how biased and rude the highest respected people could be, and without showing the bad, the movie also fails to show those like Mr. Underwood and Mr. Dolphous Raymond who really stood with

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1577 Words | 7 Pages

Aunt Alexandra had put him up to this, somehow.” (Lee 134) Scout was terrified that things would change, and she even asked him if they would, but he promised that they wouldn't. But this exact instance shows how Scout thought of her aunt and how she blamed her. It also shows how Aunt Alexandra

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697 Words | 3 Pages

The movie left out many important scenes, especially Scout’s character development. They took out the part where Scout went to school and back talked with her teacher, Miss Caroline, but then later on learned a lesson from Atticus that it’s important for her to see other people’s perspective on the view of things. This lesson is shown throughout the book, but not throughout the movie. There are some scenes where you can kind of tell Scout’s development in the movie. For example, in the ending of the movie, Scout says, “I stood on the Radley porch, and that was enough for me.”

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423 Words | 2 Pages

This scene is essential because it leads to the discovery of Aunt Alexandra moving into Scout’s home. The discovery of Aunt Alexandra’s visit leads to Chapter thirteen where Aunt Alexandra’s character is described in more detail, and the readers get to know her better. Furthermore the exclusion of Aunt Alexandra’s character is essential during chapters twenty-eight and twenty-nine of the book. During those two chapters Aunt Alexandra is the person that helps Scout and makes sure she is okay.

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737 Words | 3 Pages

To Kill A Mockingbird is an award winning novel written by Harper Lee that tells the story of Maycomb county and the Tom Robinson trial through the eyes of six-year-old Scout. Scout and her older brother Jem don’t understand the social rules of the time period and are both confused as to why the people of the world couldn’t get along. Their unusually strong sense of justice may come from their father Atticus—the lawyer of Tom Robinson. Atticus had taught Scout and Jem that they were no better than anyone else. Atticus proved his justice when Scout asked about the ways of different people saying, ““First of all, if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks.

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718 Words | 3 Pages

 Her Aunt Alexandra is upset about the way scout acts she wants her to

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899 Words | 4 Pages

This is the start of Aunt Alexandra being hard on Scout's behavior. Aunt Alexandra is hard on Scout because she agrees with the gender roles and standards of her generation. She becomes very upset that Scout does not follow those roles and standards. But, after years and years of criticism, Scout notices that even if she does not want to be like Aunt Alexandra, she will have to grow up at some point. During the rough times Maycomb experiences after Tom Robinson’s case, Scout realizes that if her Aunt could be “a lady at a time like this”, she could also (318).

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148 Words | 1 Pages

Aunt Alexandra is a proud member of the Finch family. Therefore, she is strict and makes sure her family is in line. Being proper, Aunt Alexandra wants to change the way Scout and Jem live their lives. She wants to dictate their actions, especially Scout. This is due to the fact that her past is honorable, thus she wants to keep that running through the family.

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502 Words | 3 Pages

At close examination of the book and movie To Kill A Mockingbird, one can see that the deletion of the fire scene from the movie has a large impact in the stories events. When the fire occurred, the Maycomb community stepped up to help their fellow neighbor Miss Maudie. The people of the town helped gather Miss Maudie's belonging from her burning house, and they also helped push the fire truck towards her house to put out the fire. The fire scene is a part of the story that gives the reader important information about the story and its development. During this scene, the reader is able to identify some key events that will later have a large impact in the second half of the book.

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