Compare Contrast: Where the Red Fern Grows Relationships in the Novel and the Movie As you readers and movie watchers may all wonder, will there EVER be a movie that is the same as its novel counterpart? The answer is, we all highly doubt it. If we were to watch a movie exactly the same as the book version, wouldn’t it be quite boring? Yes it would. An example of one of these book/movies is Where the Red Fern Grows, written by Wilson Rawls in 1961, and directed by Norman Tokar in 1974. The movie is very different from the novel in many ways, yet there are many similarities. As a reader of the novel and a viewer of the movie, I believe that the things that has completely changed the course of the story and yet have similarities that kept the basic …show more content…
Billy feels more guilt for Rubin’s death because Billy tripped him in the movie, making Billy the cause that Rubin is dead. The book’s version of the story stated that Rubin was running with the axe, tripped on a stick, and impaled himself, killing himself. Additionally, Billy attended Rubin’s funeral in the movie, instead of the privately sneaking onto the Pritchard’s property to the private graveyard and placing flowers on his grave like in the novel, which shows that Billy was very determined to get a closure from the horrifying experience, also showing that Billy was really wanting to let Rubin’s family know that at least someone cared about the death of one of the most annoying children in the country. These are simply a few of the key points the novel, Where the Red Fern Grows differs from its movie counterpart. Yet I believe these are the key relationships that throw off the symbolism and meaning the story, but keep the storyline in check, differing the depth of the novel and the movie. Maybe the movie was slightly different from the book, but like I said before, if would be quite boring if they were exactly the