Journal 3

Describe one your favorite film adaptations (like we did with The Scarlet Letter and Easy A). What did the adaptation change? What did it keep? Why? What issues are raised, are how do they relate to the specific time, audience, or culture? What does this tell you about the importance of reading a text with its context in mind?
I like the adaption of The Time Traveler's Wife.  The book was amazing, I couldn't put it down; which compelled me to see the movie.  The adaptation changed some scenes and characters which is quite normal in an adaptation but a major change was the ending.  In the book after Henry's death, Clare finds a letter from him asking her not to wait for him, and revealing that she'll see him one last time in her old age. As the years pass, Henry visits Alba frequently, but never Clare. The novel ends with Clare and Henry's final meeting, when Clare is 82 and Henry is 43. In the movie there is no letter, and no scene in which Clare is old. In the movie ending, Henry visits nine-year-old Alba in the meadow behind Clare's childhood home; while they talk, Alba tells Charisse and Gomez's kids to run and inform Clare that Henry is there. Clare rushes to the meadow to see him (this is in an approximate re-creation of the museum scene from the book), and they are able to embrace and kiss before Henry vanishes. The adaptation keeps the main ideas of the scenes (for the most part) and tweaks them to what will relate better to our fast paced society. The issue raised is of timeless love. Clare and Henry's love defy time and space. The changes made just adapt the ideas to a our society which has become very based on instant rewards so in the movie instead of dragging out Clare and Henry's last meeting they make it sooner on in her life. This tells me that the context surrounding a text is very important because it can change the meaning or reason of something that happens in the text.