Adaptation Blog - "Everyday Use"

POINT OF VIEW

If I were to make one of our short stories into a film, I would choose "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker and make it a suspenseful movie. One of the most significant changes would be changing the point of view. In the original work, Mama tells the story giving her own personal thoughts and feelings about situations with her children. In the film version, Maggie would be narrating the story. In the original, Maggie never says much to Mama or Dee. In the film, the viewer will get to hear what Maggie is actually thinking during her sister's visit. For a film, Mama's consistent support of her daughters even when she disagrees would not keep the audience interested. When the audience hears Maggie's views, jealousy, and feelings of insufficiency, they will sympathize more with her character and find a basis to relate with her on.

PLOT

The beginning of the film would begin the same, with Mama and Maggie waiting outside for Dee to come home for a visit. We first see Mama's face, joyful at the fact her daughter Dee was coming home to see her. Then we see Maggie's face: bitter, hard, and cold. As she silently waits beside her mother, her thoughts narrate to the audience, beginning with the statement, "I will never forgive her for that day." She goes on to describe the day their house caught on fire and she was severely burned while a flashback appears on the screen of Mama carrying her out of the house. The camera then zooms into Maggie's eyes which make eye contact to Dee standing beside the tree. Dee's face is seen next with an expressionless stare. Maggie continues to narrate how she knew in her heart she started that fire out of her jealousy for the attention Mama always gave to Maggie instead of her. Dee finally arrives and the story continues very similarly to the story, the only difference being that Maggie continues expressing her thoughts about Dee and also how she resents Mama for not believing that Dee started that fire. Maggie keeps her mouth shut around Dee and Mama for the duration of Dee's visit. As everyone goes to sleep at night, Maggie is the last one awake and she uses this quiet time to think of ways to finally get revenge. She comes up with many ideas, but can never quite carry out her plan. This only angers her more and she hates herself for not being able to stick with her plans. One day when Dee demands the quilts from Mama, Maggie loses it when her mother gives in to Dee and hands over the blankets that were supposed to be Maggie's. That night, Maggie decides she will do to her sister what she had done to her a few years ago. When Dee goes to sleep that night, she uses the quilts to keep her warm. Maggie walks into her room and sets fire to the quilt and runs outside to stand by a tree in the front yard. Maggie watches while her house becomes engulfed in flames with the same emotionless stare Dee had years before. Suddenly a figure runs outside the house. Maggie expects it to be Mama, but it was really Dee. Maggie panics and cries out to Dee if she has seen Mama. She says she is still in her room, so Maggie runs into the house to save her. As she enters the burning house, Mama pulls into the driveway and runs to Dee to ask what was going on. Dee said someone must have left the oven on. Maggie still believes Dee that Mama is in the house so she continues her search. Mama then asks where Maggie is, but at that moment the burning house collapses. The camera then looks to Dee where she is standing with a disturbing smirk.

CHARACTERIZATION

Mama remains pretty much the same in the film as she did in the story. The changes are in Dee and Maggie. The main thing that changes is the relationship between these two sisters. The story did not show much hate and revenge between the girls. They just merely did not speak much in the original version. The characterization is more dramatic and unrealistic compared to the story. Dee is out to get Maggie when in the story that is not necessarily true. Maggie also is not portrayed as revengeful in the story while she is in the film.

SETTING

I would change nothing about the setting of "Everyday Use." The location on farmland spread out in the country seems ideal. For revenge to occur, it would not be beneficial to have neighbors witnessing the events that take place. I would keep the same time period as well because for the initial fire, an investigation would not have been done in that time to determine what caused the fire, which helps to make Mama not believe her daughters when they discuss what started each fire.

THEME

The original themes of the story deal with the meaning of heritage and the barrier education can make between individuals. Education has little to do with the film. The meaning of heritage is still relevant in the film because Dee continues to view her family as those who "oppress" her. However, there is less stress placed on this theme because the main storyline of the film has to do with the tenseness between Dee and Maggie. Their suspenseful struggle mainly deals instead with themes of jealously and what individuals may do to get revenge. The overall point of the story is mainly for entertainment purposes for those who enjoy suspenseful films. There is not an extremely important message to be relayed to the audience. The story provides a more substantial message and is less for entertainment purposes.

Film Blog - Smooth Talk

PLOT

In regards to plot, Smooth Talk maintained a highly similar storyline. It seems most every event that happened in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" also happened in the movie. Connie is still a 15 year old girl who is out running around with boys and lying to her parents. However, the movie version was far less ominous and troublesome. Her encounter with Arnold the first time at the diner only lasted a mere 2 or 3 seconds and seemed fairly insignificant, while in the story, it describes this encounter for about half the page. Had I watched the movie without reading the story, I would not have even paid attention to Arnold pointing at Connie. The biggest change in plot was the ending. Connie does not fight as hard to stay at home while Arnold tries to get her to go for a ride. She actually approaches the car while in the story she stays behind the screen door. In the movie she also did not scream into the phone and have a breakdown. She only cries for a short time then makes her way over to Arnold's car, in no way distraught as Connie's character was in the story. She also returns to her house afterwards, while the story ends with Connie walking toward the car. The movie made it far less ambiguous and troublesome. She returns home and apologizes to her family and hugs and dances with her sister, indicating that she went through a life change and would change her foolish ways. In the story, Connie breaks down and is forced to go with Arnold and the story stops there. The movie basically seemed like a sugarcoated version of Oates' story.

POINT OF VIEW

The point of view of the movie is fairly similar to that of the short story. There is no character directly telling the story, but the focus does remain on Connie. The major difference was that the film does not reveal the background of Connie and her relationships with her family. Those facts had to be revealed in a different approach by verbal communication between characters and witnessing how they behaved toward one another. The movie also made Connie out to be more of a victim of her family's harassment. The mother seemed more harsh in the movie than in the story, like in the beginning of the film when she says to Connie, "I look in your eyes and all I see are a bunch of trashy daydreams." There was also a point in the movie when Connie sits at the kitchen table and listens to her mom talk on the phone. When the mother sees her come in, she stares unblinkingly to Connie and speaks into the phone, "June is just wonderful. June is an angel. Not like this one here..." Connie is far more victimized and it made me feel more sympathy for her here than I did while reading the story.

CHARACTERIZATION

The characterization of the movie was similar in regards to Connie and her mother, but the father was very different. He was actually nice to Connie and seemed to be a foil of her mother. He took her for a drive and gave her a long lecture about being careful. In the story, the father said nothing to Connie and ignored her along with the rest of the family. He worked all day and only came home to eat. Having a steady father-figure diminishes my reasoning behind Connie's rebellion. In the story I assumed that a big part of Connie hanging around with boys was because of this lack of a father figure in her family. The movie provides her with a father though which makes it harder to assume the same reasoning behind Connie's acting out.

SETTING

The setting of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" was never stated in the story; however, it could be assumed it took place in the 50's or early 60's based on clues like the transistor radios and the fact it was written in the mid 60's. The film, however, does give a more specific location of some place near San Francisco. In the opening scene Connie and her friends are at the beach and come home passing the Golden Gate Bridge. The year it takes place also seems to be different. The way they dress looks to be more 70's and 80's style clothing than 50's or 60's, but they never say exactly what year it is. Overall, I do not believe the setting had much effect on the purpose of the story and film. The change in setting of the two versions did not change how I viewed the message.

THEME

The theme of the film and the story remained relatively consistent. A foolish young girl learns that she is not fully ready to become an adult and she is unprepared for the consequences that independence brings. The only difference is that the movie creates more of an epiphany for Connie. Unlike the story, Connie is brought home after being taken away by Arnold Friend. Upon her return she embraces her family members and apologizes to them. This ties in a second theme to the movie that the story did not contain regarding the importance of family and coming back to one's roots.

"You're Ugly, Too"

This story seems to just be one big characterization. I have gone back and forth between how I feel about Zoe, but in the end, I believe I overall feel somewhat sorry for her. She seems very depressed throughout the story about not being married. "'I'm not married? Oh, my God,' said Zoe. 'I forgot to get married,'" (355). Her sarcasm seems to be a cover for her sadness over not having a husband in her life. When Evan tells her that she is getting married, Zoe is unresponsive out of her sadness over not being married or engaged herself.

"'I was hoping you'd be my maid of honor,' said Evan, waiting. 'Aren't you happy for me?'

'Yes,' said Zoe, and she began to tell Evan a story..." (362).

She quickly changed the subject to avoid the conversation and bury her feelings. Even though I do feel sympathy for Zoe, I think she needs to be mature enough to be an adult and handle things differently. Being bitter does nothing to help the situation, and she was honestly just making it far worse.

Style of "Popular Mechanics"

This short story was written in what seemed like a rather informal style. The most obvious informality was that it lacked quotation marks around the husband and wife's statements. There was also a common pattern present. Each line switched between the husband and the wife yelling at each other and arguing.

"I want the baby, he said.

Are you crazy?

No, but I want the baby. I'll get someone to come by for his things.

You're not touching the baby, she said," (344, handout).

This back and forth arguing coincided with the couple's "tug of war". Their yelling back and forth was similar to their tugging back and forth of the baby in the end.

Oxymoron in "The Drunkard"

The father in "The Drunkard" seems to be a very strange character. Most people do not view funerals as he did: "It was an excellent funeral from Father's point of view. He had it all well studied before we set off after the hearse in the afternoon sunlight," (345). What kind of person gets excited over funerals? He was literally studying what he was witnessing before the funeral and becoming overjoyed at how "excellent" it would be. To me, that just seems sick if you find personal enjoyment out of the mournful loss of another's loved one. In the beginning of the story, the boy states that "it was a terrible blow to father when Mr. Dooley died," (342). I have no respect for alcoholics so I felt zero sympathy for the father at all. Even if he did experience a rough time, drinking was no way to solve it. He should have sought out his loved ones for real help, not a drink to help him forget.

Point of View of "The Lottery"

The point of view of "The Lottery" is 3rd person omniscient. The story is told by an indifferent narrator. The reader gets bits of information about many different individuals from the town, without any interference of opinions from the narrator. Because of this, the ending came to me as a surprise. While the narrator does use foreshadowing techniques to suggest at the disturbing ending, the indifferent attitude made me rather surprised at the end. "Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones," (264). This point of view helps to enhance the overall theme as well. The narrator giving no opinion about the lottery, is similar to how the town gives no question to the lottery tradition and blindly follows along.