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Essay on Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: Film vs. Novel

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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: Film vs. Novel The film is severely different from the novel, as the director, Gary Sinise, made deliberate changes to influence the audience's feelings and reactions. He has altered and added scenes as he saw this as necessary to create the right kind of atmosphere and to keep the plot flowing. The whole story is about two men, George and Lennie. These are very two very different characters; the novel describes them as opposites. Lennie is a very large and burly while George is 'small and quick'. In the book they wear exactly the same thing, but as the film has to rely on devices and stereotypes to pass the message across quickly, they dress Lennie in dungarees to show how different they …show more content…

The length of the credits creates tension. The credits slowly melt into a scene on a train; the music changes also as the sound effects of the train merge into the soundtrack. Slowly the music disappears; there is a light that flashes past the wooden side of the cabin. This reminds you slightly of a prison, the light being searchlights and the wooden side the bars of a cell. Suddenly the music restarts as the image of George sitting on the train appears. It is still in black and white to keep it sombre then to emphasise the fact it bursts into colour; this makes the audience sit up and pay attention. As this happens, cymbals crash- the film has started properly, the music has returned but it has changed, it has built up, and gained more instruments. The director chose this type of music to create tension and a sorrowful atmosphere; this causes the audience to become jumpy and sad. The red dress of the girl signifies danger, it is torn quite severely but the white underwear could symbolise innocence. As she runs past the camera she is panting and crying and as she runs. These show something is wrong. In the novel they are dressed identically but in the film Lennie and George are dressed differently to show how different they are. Lennie is dressed in dungarees to show his childlikeness. The fierceness of the dogs and Lennie's stumbling run makes you feel sorry for Lennie and George. George keeps looking over

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