Character Changes In Dear John: Novel And Movie

Dear John is a love story about a soldier John Tyree and a college student Savannah Lynn Curtis who fall in love during a two-week period in the summer then John returns to base and Savannah to school so they keep in contact through letters, emails, and phone calls. Dear John the novel is better than the film, though the film and novel differentiate. The main changes are John being with his father as he passes away, the death of Tim, and the ending of both the book and film. The director made these changes for sentimental value and for a happily ever after.
In both the novel and film John’s father passes away but, in the novel, John is away when his father has a stroke and asks his neighbor to be his caretaker and she does a horrible job. While …show more content…
The novel was better because it has more emotions and it 's more in depth than the movie. The movie is a rushed version of the book, Savannah and John meet and on their first date go to visit John’s dad. In the novel, it takes them a couple of dates and Savannah asked John and he just couldn’t say no. Also, when it comes to sex, Savannah and John didn’t have it until his leave after being apart for a year, in the film they had sex on about their second date. So aside from the big changes in the film, the little ones also contribute to the novel being better than the film. While reading the novel, you get to relate and really understand how both John and Savannah feel, but in the film, it 's just a rushed version of their story. According to the rotten tomatoes website, with about 55% of an audience voting 29% of them had bad reviews on the movie. While reading the book, you get a feel of John’s thoughts and you know exactly how he is feeling, word for word. When it comes to the film, you know he is in love with Savannah but due to the changes made and the rushed scenes, you don 't get the same feelings you do while reading. In an interview, Nicholas Sparks was asked “Do you hate happy endings?” and his response was “ I’ve had happy endings. (Laughs) Happy endings are easy. Tragic endings are easy. What you have here with “Dear John” is a bittersweet ending. This is just about the hardest thing to pull off. It’s “You can’t hate him. You can’t hate her. They just can’t be together.” (Laughs)” The ending of the novel plays a big role as why the novel is better. The author, Nicholas Sparks in his interview is saying that John and Savannah just could not be together which makes the ending of the story great. As much as one would want them to end up together, it just was not meant to be and she and he both had to leave eachother