The Lottery: The movie

Plot

For this movie, I would have to add a significant amount of plot to the film. The short story and the storyline of the short story is not enough to keep a movie going for a hour and a half. Becuase of this, I would have to nearly transform what happens with everything before the lottery or what happens after the lottery...or probably both. With this in mind, I would make this movie into a horror movie and have a man mistakingly come into this village. The village would appear to be normal, but after a while, the villagers and the village itself then become stranger as the movie progresses. I would keep the same characters as the short story has, and have each one keep their points of view about how they feel about the lottery. In the film, we would find out how each person feels about the lottery due to their private conversations with the stranger who enters the village. Because this man has entered the village, the villagers will not let him out which will eventually cause him to partake in the lottery. I would probably have him become attracted to a woman, and the woman would be the one chosen for the lottery. The man would be like Mrs. Hutchetson in which he is the one screaming out, "it's not fair." Becuase this element would remain, I could do the best I could with keeping the meaning of the work.

Point of View

The point of view would have to drastically change for the film. Instead of having the ominscent point of view like the short story has, I would have to change to a limited point of view where the whole story focuses on the man who enters the village. There wouldn't be a scene that would occur where he was not relatively present. I do not think this would change the meaning of the work becuase since I have more time with the film, he would be able to maybe talk to people about the lottery before it happens like Mr. Summers or Old man Warner and still get different approaches about it from different people. Because it is possible for me to do this, the meaning of the original work can easily remain with the film. All the film would have to do is incorporate anything that is described in the story with interactions with the man and the other people in the village.

Characterization

For the film, I would definitely use an indirect characterization, similar to how the short story does this. In the short story, the conversations between the villagers is what illustrates their feelings about the lottery and the author never directly describes how each person views the lottery. For the film adaption, I will be able to do this through the man's interactions with other people. They never really will directly talk about the lottery becuase they are either restricted to or maybe its just tradition not to. By doing this, the villagers may indirectly show their feelings about the lottery and whether or not they have their doubts about it or whether they think it is necessary. When he becomes trapped in the village in the film, this is where we will find out more about the other characters. In the short story, we never really know that much about each character except for their feelings on the lottery. But in the film, we will be able to go deeper into the lives of the villagers.

Setting

The setting for this story would pretty much be identical to the story except for the setting before the man gets to the village in the film. With this setting at the beginning of the film, I may be able to hint at and enhance the meaning of the short story by maybe showing how society is similar to the reactions of the villagers during the lottery. But other than that, the setting for the film would remain primarily in the village. However, I would be able to show more detail about the village than the short story because the short story took place primarily in the village square where the lottery took place. But I do not think that slight changes in the setting would diminish or enhance the meaning of the work enough to matter. As long as the theme of the story is kept constant, then that is what is important.

Theme

Keeping the meaing of the original work would be my main focus if I were to make The Lottery into a film. The meaing of this work in my opinion would be how people do not let go of tradition easily which can make us close minded about things. Also, comparing the reactions of the people participating in the lottery to society is another theme to make note of. These themes would definitely be able to remain in the film which would be my main priority. There is no reason that the meaning of the Lottery should be diminished. In showing how people sometimes do not let go of tradition, I would make some of the villagers really creepy building up to the creepiness of the lottery. His woman he recently began a relationship with would be chosen and he would then be the one to resemble society and shout about how its not fair.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Film)

Plot

While the the film and short story of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button share similar themes and the basis to the story line are pretty much the same, the two also share many differences. To start with the similarities, both story show the story of a man who is born old and has to cope with his problem of aging backwards. Because of how this is kept consistent between the two, some themes between the two are kept the same. However, this is really the only significant detail kept consistent. The significant differences then become numerous. For instance, one major change the movie made was that at the birth of Benjamin, the mother dies and Benjamin's father puts him at the doorstep of a nursery home. In the short story, the mother remains alive and the father keeps the baby. This changes how we view Benjamin Button in the movie. In the movie, he grows up with the old people in the nursery and this causes us to compare Benjamin to older people. His mind is that of a child, but, nevertheless, he acts like the older people in the nursery home. Because of this, I was able to observe how a child's mind in an aged person's body is almost identical to a normal old person and how older people act. The film also went to include scenes how aging backwards is similar to aging forwards like, for example, learning how to walk was something that Benjamin went through because he was in wheelchair before that.

Point of View

The point of view between the short story and the film are completely different. In the short story, there is an omniscent point of view; however, in the film, the story is told in almost two points of view. The first is Benjamin Button himself while the story of his life is told from a diary that a woman reads throughout the movie. The second comes from the old lady in the hospital bed who would also help contribute to the story. With this different point of view, I felt that I became more connected with Benjamin Button and understood him as a character better. This is because through this different point of view in the movie, we can learn more personal things about Benjamin including how he truly was as a character. In the short story, the omniscent point of view allows us to get more information about other characters, but in the movie, we are limited only to what Benjamin knows. With this more personal view in the movie, we can more easily compare Benjamin to other characters that are old when he is old looking but truly young.

Characterization

Benjamin Button is not a very complex person in the short story. Its simply an overview of his life, but we never get to know him too well making him a flat character. But in the movie, with the story from the diary being told in Benjamin's own voice, we get more of a feel of what he really is like making him into more of a complex person. With this complexity, the character is able to better establish relationships with others. In the short story, he has relationships with his father and wife, but they are not told in very much detail or complexity. It's simply a stoy being told. However, in the movie, he establishes multiple, complex relationships with others in the nursing homes. These relationships then are capable of adding more themes to the movie than the short story was capable of doing. Like the book however, both characters are developed through indirect characterization which almost force us to compare him to old people when he is young allowing us to further understand certain themes.

Setting

The setting between the movie and the film are very different. The short story begins on 1860 around the civil war time while the film begins on the day WWI ended which was Benjamin's day of birth. However, this time change allows us to understand that the themes present in this novel are timeless. Moreover, the two share a similar setting in relationship to how the story begins and ends. In both versions, the stories begin with them growing up in a certain place and having to be taken care of. Then, in both, Benjamin goes off to live his life whether it be to fight a war as in the short story, or to live on a fishing boat as in the movie. However, in both, when they degress to being young, when in fact they are old, both versions have Benjamin returning to his home and having to be taken care of again until he dies as a baby. This setting shows how it is identical to that of a normal aging man. So the movie keeping this aspect of the short story helps the story itself remain with a few certain themes.

Theme

The short story was difficult to extract any sort of theme from is becuase of it lack of depth. But the movie shared themes included in the short story plus any more that are not present in the short story due to the films depth and complexity. One theme that I was able to learn from the movie was to be grateful for things while you have them. Since Benjamin was a child as an old man, he was exposed to others that were already old and would therefore die in Benjamin's lifetime. So Benjamin at first had to learn to be grateful for what he had because he found out that people don't stay in his life forever early on. While watching this movie, I was quick to be able to spot this theme, not because they simply said this, but because the increased complexity and depth of the movie allowed for it to be easy to find a theme. The short story seemed so blunt and shallow that finding a theme quite a task.

Yes....it happened

Ok, so I know that this is not really too significant for this short story, but the magnitude of just how awesome this idea is is worth blogging about. So in the short story Popular Mechanics... the baby had to have been ripped in half!! (or at least a socket or arm pulled out). And in my opinion there are many details in the story that support this. First of all, for about half of the story, the man and his soon to be ex-wife are desperately and emotionally fighting to have the baby. Eventually, this results in a tug of war battle (the baby acting as the rope in this situation). The last line then states: "In this manner, the issue was decided." If one of them had gotten the baby, I don't think that this would have simply decided the issue. If the other one had got the baby then the one who lost the baby would have deifinitely gone and tried to get the baby back immediatley after. I think this because of how emotionally they were fighting for the baby. This is my reasoning for how the baby got ripped in half because the alternative meaning just does not make sense.

Whoa!

One of the last question in the book asking about Your Ugly, Too asks where situational irony is present in the short story. When thinking about it, I remember a time in the story when I was completely taken off guard by something I never expected. This was when Evan told Zoe that the guy she wanted Zoe to meet was a really nice and fun guy that maybe Zoe would like. So when I pictured this guy, I pictured him as being a simple well humored man. However, when we are first introduced to him, his costume is just a fullout naked woman. This is not what I would picture a really nice guy wearing. So when I got this dexription, it gave me a new image of what he really was like. What really made my new image of him more valid was when he told the incredibly vulgar joke. I though it was really funny how that joke was what he thought she was going to tell him. So this situational irony really emphasized what he was really like.

Role Reversal!!

The irony present in the short story The Drunkard is what leads to a lot of the humor. For example, there is a huge role reversal in the story. Normally, the wife and the son have to put up with the father's occasional drinking problem. They knew that they would have to watch out for funerals because that is what the would use as an excuse to drink. So the mother put the son in charge of watching the father. This isn't the main role reversal, but kind of is one because one would expect the father to be watching over the son, but instead the son (who apparently is 9) is the one who is told to watch over his own father. When the father takes his son to the bar, the son ends up being the one who gets drunk and his father has to angrily escort him home. So this is where the irony plays in, becuase it is very ironic that the father is having to watch over his drunk. So the author then plays off this irony and makes it even more humorous by having the son say innappropriate things that are not expected.

The Island

In the short story The Lottery, it really resembles a movie I had seen before called The Island. This movie, similar to the story, consisted of clones who participated in a "lottery" that they thought would take them to some type of paradise island. But instead, it wasn't a random selection at all, and the person chosen was actually chosen to die. This resembes the short story remarkably. Not only in the plot, but in the similarity between how the characters in the movie perceive the lottery and how us as the readers perceive the lottery at the beginning. In the beginning of the short story, I perceived the lottery to be some type of good thing that could be won among the townspeople, just like how the clones perceived the lottery in the movie. But by the end, we find out that the lottery is a sacrificial type act and someone ends up getting stoned to death. In the movie, the clones figure out what the lottery really is, so the viewpoints are parallel.