In watching the film, Donnie Darko and reading the novel, A Wizard of Earthsea, I noticed some similarities and some differences. Both books include a portrayal of the typical teenager’s maturation process. Now, which one does the best at portraying this process is another story. I personally think the novel, A Wizard of Earthsea does a better job at portraying the maturation process because it shows multiple stages and obstacles that Ged faced during his maturation process, unlike in the film Donnie Darko, where Donnie really only has one obstacle. In the film, Donnie had that weird, menacing bunny following him around, and at the end he died for his family. I don’t think that vividly portrays a maturation process. A maturation process includes …show more content…
Donnie only experienced a few things throughout the movie. He only encountered that scary bunny a couple of times, but Ged on the other hand had many encounters with the shadow spirit. First, when he drew up the shadow monster in the beginning of the book trying to impress a girl, which resulted in him getting scratched in the face by the shadow monster. Next, when he entered wizard school, where he met Jasper, who he was trying to compete with the entire time he was in wizard school. Lastly, when he was on the quest at the end of the book to find out where the shadow monster was and find him and defeat him. Donnie just ended dying at the end of the book, which is a really big sacrifice. Even though he didn’t experience much throughout the movie, he made the ultimate sacrifice, and I feel that you had to be a very mature person in order to die for his family at the end. I think Ged would’ve done that also if he was in the same predicament. He just didn’t have a family. The novel, A Wizard of Earthsea, and the film “Donnie Darko” share many similarities and differences. The main similarity between the film and the novel is that the main characters experienced the maturation process throughout the movie and book. The main difference is that the amount of obstacles the main characters faced throughout their journey of the maturation