My Antonia Comparison

The Novel, My Antonia, which is written by Will Cather, tells a story about immigration and relationships in Nebraska. The whole story is told from Jim Burton’s aspect, who is the main character. Antonia Shimerda, another main character in the story, moves from Bohemia to Nebraska with her family. She is Jimmy’s best friend, and they both play an important part in each others lives. Their relationship and growth are presented in the book. This novel was adapted into a film in 1995, which is also called My Antonia. The adaptation of My Antonia shows the phenomenon that literature is commonly adapted into other media in modern media business. This is also discussed in Linda Hutcheon’s article: In Defense of Literary Adaptation as Cultural Production”, …show more content…
But these adaptations will have some impacts on readers and audience, depends on how the changes are made. For the adaptation of My Antonia, I prefer the novel of My Antonia more than the film version, because the film version focused too much on the love relationship between Antonia and Jim. The movie is faithful to the book mainly, but directors make some changes which is a result of adaptation. The movie is mostly faithful to the book itself. They shared many similarities. The main part of the story happens in Nebraska at the end of the 19th century. Most of the place where stories happen in the movie are countryside and a small town called Black Hawk, which fits the description in the novel. The characters’ costumes match the time period when the story happens. Setting are beautiful, such as the place setting during the dancing activities. In the movie, …show more content…
Firstly, some small characters are not shown up in the movie such as Widow Steavens, who is close to Antonia and helps her for a period of time. This is understandable because it is too hard for directors to put all the details into the film because it has a time limit. These missing characters may not be necessary in the main story, however, their missing fact will make the film missing some details of the story or even feeling unrespectable to the original work by some audiences. Next, all stories in the book are told from Jimmy’s aspect. In the film, even though the narration is told by Jimmy, some parts of the story is presented in the third person or another character’s aspect. After Mr. and Mrs. Burton have decided to move to town, Jimmy tells Antonia about his leaving. In the movie, when they are leaving from the town, Antonia is running on the field crying, because she is sad about Jimmy’s left. This added scene shows Antonia’s sadness and the friendship between Jimmy and Antonia from her aspect. Directors adapted original text into this because it can give audience more understanding of their relationship. Changes like these two differences are acceptable and it is common to make adjustment during adaptation between