Comparison Contrast Reading Article2
Comparison-Contrast Article
Directions:
The passage below is followed by questions based on its content. Answer the questions based on what is stated or implied in the passage. A friend once failed a college exam on Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Not having read the book, he tried to bluff his way through by watching the movie. What he couldn’t have known is that the book and movie tell R.P. McMurphy’s story in vastly different ways: one through the eyes of one of McMurphy’s fellow patients at a psychiatric hospital, the other through McMurphy’s own eyes. The fearful, heartbreaking observations of Kesey’s narrator, which really constitute the heart and soul of the book, are absent in the movie. This is not to say the film fails. On the contrary, unlike many Hollywood adaptations, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a terrific movie. Apart from affirming the folly of my friend’s weak impulse, this anecdote illustrates the basic differences in the experiences books and movies offer.
One difference lies in the relationship of each medium to its audience. A movie is a public performance. A book is an intimate encounter. When we read, we learn of characters and events through a one-on-one relationship with the author’s narrative persona. Movies bring us a different experience. Whether surrounded by others in a theater or viewing tape or DVD alone, we are observers or eyewitnesses. Good movies make events seem genuine, but our experience is with images, action or characters more than with the artist who rendered them.
Time is a different entity when we experience a book and a movie. A book takes its own time. A book may be savored in small increments, but movie would not be enjoyed that way. Films must make their impact in a couple of intense hours. For example, both David Guterson’s novel the movie Snow Falling on Cedars blanket a winter in drama and tension, but Guterson’s taut plotting and lifetimes of longing don’t translate well to film.
Directions:
The passage below is followed by questions based on its content. Answer the questions based on what is stated or implied in the passage. A friend once failed a college exam on Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Not having read the book, he tried to bluff his way through by watching the movie. What he couldn’t have known is that the book and movie tell R.P. McMurphy’s story in vastly different ways: one through the eyes of one of McMurphy’s fellow patients at a psychiatric hospital, the other through McMurphy’s own eyes. The fearful, heartbreaking observations of Kesey’s narrator, which really constitute the heart and soul of the book, are absent in the movie. This is not to say the film fails. On the contrary, unlike many Hollywood adaptations, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a terrific movie. Apart from affirming the folly of my friend’s weak impulse, this anecdote illustrates the basic differences in the experiences books and movies offer.
One difference lies in the relationship of each medium to its audience. A movie is a public performance. A book is an intimate encounter. When we read, we learn of characters and events through a one-on-one relationship with the author’s narrative persona. Movies bring us a different experience. Whether surrounded by others in a theater or viewing tape or DVD alone, we are observers or eyewitnesses. Good movies make events seem genuine, but our experience is with images, action or characters more than with the artist who rendered them.
Time is a different entity when we experience a book and a movie. A book takes its own time. A book may be savored in small increments, but movie would not be enjoyed that way. Films must make their impact in a couple of intense hours. For example, both David Guterson’s novel the movie Snow Falling on Cedars blanket a winter in drama and tension, but Guterson’s taut plotting and lifetimes of longing don’t translate well to film.