Plainsong vs. Empire Falls

Writing Analysis #5: Plainsong and Empire Falls
The book Plainsong and the film Empire Falls have many similarities, like the way in which they are presented, the point of view switches throughout the story. In Plainsong, each chapter was shown through a specific character or characters. Likewise in Empire Falls, we see Miles’ point of view and his childhood memories flash throughout certain events in the film. Another similarity is the position the characters are in. For example, Tom Guthrie is a single parent caring for Ike and Bobby, meanwhile Miles is also a single parent caring for Cristine.
In Plainsong different parts of the story were shown through a different character and not just through a single character. The same happened with Empire Falls we saw some parts through Miles the man and Miles the child. Throughout different points of the story certain situations or events cause Miles to reminisce on past events. I think this shows the child inside him kept alive by the death of his mother. I think this represents his emotional instability, which Tom Guthrie in Plainsong also showed signs of.
In the film Miles’ wife, Jeanine, seems to facing her own problems. She thinks that by losing weight she is changing, all she is really doing is running from her problems. She want Miles to love her so she lost weight, but Miles didn’t love her for who she was, not her weight. In Plainsong, Ella too was going through her own problems, she was physically sane but emotionally was not. We see the characters going through relatively the same troubles. Tom Guthrie was having an affair with Maggie Jones, the school teacher, as Miles seemed to want something with Charlene. Charlene though like Miles’ brother, David. Also Ella like Jeanine was not very involved with her children. Ella was in her own little world and did not provide very much motherly love for her children, Jeanine was too busy with herself to really get to know her own daughter, thus their... [continues]

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