The movie, however, is based on the novel written  by Susanna Kaysen herself.  She writes about her problems that lead her to being admitted to McLean Hospital.  Kaysen also explains what happens during her stay in the mental institute. She writes of the friends she makes, the doctors, nurses, and so on.  Some of the people she actually knew in the institute end up as characters in the movie later on.  Her book also briefly describes Borderline Disorder, not to confuse it with Bipolar Disorder. 

In the novel, and Susanna's real life she gets married, and that is how she gets out of the institute.  The movie just states that she has a 360 degree turn around in her life and she gets better and gets out.  Susanna Kaysen also writes about seeing Lisa and her son after being released from the institution, while the book does not go beyond Kaysen's release from the loony bin.  

Essentially this is a comparison between the book and the movie itself of Girl, Interrupted.  I hope you all enjoy the movie, but also read the book.  It is nice to read the real life story of Susanna Kaysen, to see that she was an actual person who went through all this stuff and is not just a made up character.

Take care all.

The classic work seems to imply that the role of women during those times is to become active yet servile individuals in society, and by establishing connections, they put themselves in a position where they can be noticed by people from the higher class and eventually become married to one of them. Jane Austen places importance on love, but it is not the single element that will create a perfect marriage and happiness in settlement. Money and social position are also two important characteristics that should be found in a gentleman, thus by having those two traits, a lady can be sure that he can give her a secure lifestyle and a considerable place in the world.

The distribution of wealth in those days is interesting. A normal family will engage in trade for an entire lifetime and build a long lasting income. If fortune smiles upon the father, he will be able to lay up some wealth for the next generation. Upon death, the firstborn male child will receive a monetary inheritance from his father, and he will take charge of all the family property as well  practically becoming the new father. This type of scenario is very unfortunate for families with only female children exclusively. When there is no male heir present, the female siblings are then forced to try their luck; in the outside world, hoping to find an eligible bachelor with considerable wealth and social position so that they can live a secure life in the future.

The book, The Chocolate War and the movie, Dead Poets Society take place in a different place and time. Dead Poets Society takes place twenty years before The Chocolate War does. Welton Academy is a boarding school that takes place away from a city. Trinity High School is a private school, but is in a city. A similarity would be that both of the schools are catholic.

There is more pressure put on the boys that go to Welton, however. The parents and teachers expect more from the students than those that go to Trinity. The parents intend for their children to become what the parents want them to become. Behavior in Trinity is worse than the behavior in Welton. In Trinity there are The Vigils. The Dead Poet Society that is made by the group of boys at Welton really isn't as harmful as The Vigils. The Vigils run the school, makes the students do things that they don't want to do. The Dead Poets Society is just a group of kids reading poetry to each other, nothing that dictates how the rest of the school acts.

The main focus at Welton is schoolwork. At Trinity, the students try to get away from all of the schoolwork. Archie has The Vigils, Jerry has football, and Goober has running. At Welton there were study groups. That wouldn't be seen at Trinity. At Welton the students on the first day of school are getting lectured on how the school year is going to be and what is expected from the students. Then at Mr. Keating's class they leave the classroom to look at the trophy case and the students are surprised. Then Mr. Keating says “Carpe diem”. Later on the class when Mr. Keating tells the students to rip out the page in the textbook, the students don't do it at first. They are so surprised at the different method of teaching. Keating is trying to show the students that there is more to life than schoolwork and doing what your parents want you to do and that you have to capitalize on the opportunities that come your way.

The chocolate sale in The Chocolate War and the teachers and parents in Dead Poets Society put a lot of pressure on the characters. In both stories the parents do not really get involved with their children and listen to what the children want to do. Jerry's father doesn't get involved with much of anything that Jerry does and stays to himself and his job. Todd's parents don't pay attention to him that much. This is seen when Todd gets the same desk set for his birthday two years in a row. “Keating, you stay away from my son”. Neil's father says this after Neil performs in the play. Neil's father thinks that Keating is a bad influence and that he made Neil act. This drives Neil to do the worse thing possible, suicide, when his father enrolls him into military school.

The Chocolate War shows the ramifications of non-conformity. “My name is Jerry Renault and I'm not going to sell the chocolates.”(129). Jerry gets hurt because of this, for not conforming with the rest of the Trinity community, for not selling chocolates. After the fight at the end of the book between Jerry and Emile, “He had to tell Goober… to do whatever they wanted you to do.”(187) Jerry is suggesting no to disturb the universe, just follow what everyone else is doing and what everyone else wants you to do.

Dead Poets Society is promoting non-conformity. Mr. Keating shows this in his first day as a teacher when he pulls the students out of the classroom, “Carpe. Carpe diem. Seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.” This was the beginning of the students expressing them selves. The recreation of the Dead Poets Society, Dalton speaking out to Mr. Nolan about letting women in Welton, Neil acting, Knox going and trying to get the girl, and most of all Todd, who was able to pull enough courage together to speak out for what he believes in. “Oh captain, My captain,” said by Todd while standing on his desk after Mr. Keating gets fired. Soon all of the other students who believe that Keating was good for them follow Todd. For Mr. Keating this shows himself that he made an impact on these kids and that it was a positive one.

The author of The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier and the writer of Dead Poets Society put the different messages across through their stories in a successful way. Cormier shows that the good guy doesn't always win and he stuck behind his message the whole entire book. He could have easily had the story turn away either having Archie pull a black marble out of the box or even having the fight go Jerry's way, but he didn't. He stuck with what he believed in, and it was successful. The writer of Dead Poets Society is also successful in the way that he puts his message across even though it is different than Cormier's. The message is that not conforming can be good. It is shown in the final scene with Todd standing up for Mr. Keating. The movie shows how much of an impact one person can have on others.

Conformity is a big subject to think about and can go a couple of different ways. Both the Dead Poets Society and The Chocolate War touch upon this issue showing different outcomes.

Harry potter along with his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley go on a quest to defeat the dark wizard Voldemort who is the most dangerous wizard alive. This wizard had also killed Harry's parents long before Harry went to Hogwarts which is the school of witchcraft and wizardry.

After accomplishing many things and going through dangerous activities they do accomplish the task given. They collect the horcruxes which are objects with the fragments of Voldemort's soul.

Harry Potter along with his trusted friends go through many hardships and they also take help from the great headmaster, Dumbledore. Dumbledore is portrayed as the most powerful wizard alive until obviously he dies after getting killed by Severus Snape.

I really like this book and I also like the movies which are action packed. Great plot was made and the story was told really well. J.K. Rowling has made one of the greatest and the most action packed books in the world. This book would be given an 11/10.

The narration requires adjustments in order to carry out the cinematic format; for example, the transfer from the written story to the oral communication and the representation of the various fields associated with the production of a film such as costume design, make-up, music, photography etc. are the first steps that should be considered with regard to an intersemiotic translation. Besides, the adaptation to the summarizing scenes in the cinematic language involving several descriptive paragraphs in the literary language and the relevance given to determined characters and events in the novel which may differ from the starring roles and events in the film are the elements that will constitute the main difference between them.

Because complete equivalence (in the sense of synonymy or sameness) cannot take place in any of these categories, (…) Only creative transposition is possible: either intralingual transposition - from one poetic shape into another, or interlingual transposition - from one language into another, or finally intersemiotic transposition - from one system of signs into another, e.g. from verbal art into music, dance, cinema or painting (Bassnett, 1996: 15)

The intersemiotic translation gives place to a story developed in the film format and adjusted to the film industry, thus giving the story a different focus of relevance but still preserving the general idea of the original story. Next, I will discuss the facts which were adjusted between the novel and the film, as a resort to provide a less dramatic film, inspired in the romantic aspect of the novel.

In the novel the main characters are Almásy -the English Patient, Hana, the Sikh bomb defuser and Caravaggio, the film maintains these characters but centres its attention on the affair between Almásy and Katharine Clifton. The setting of the novel chiefly elapses in the Villa San Girolamo, interrupted every so often by Almásy's flashbacks to his experiences in Africa, while the film concentrates in the deserts of North Africa.

The novel opens with Hana, the young nurse who takes care of the English Patient at the villa; shortly after another character is introduced in the story, a man called Caravaggio. Concerning the novel, it can be assumed that Hana and Caravaggio had met a long time ago in their native country but the film indicates that they did not know each other since he introduces himself “My name is David Caravaggio, but nobody ever called me David”. In the second chapter the novel drops a hint that Caravaggio likes Hana “During these days in the hill town near Florence (…) he has no plots to set in motion, is interested only in Hana” (40), however this is not reflected in the film.

The main characters of the novel are Hana and Kip. Ondaatje widely describes the past and present facts in the nurse and the Sikh's lives. In the novel the reader finds that Hana's father had died at war “Hana broke in Santa Chiara Hospital when an official walked down the space between a hundred of beds and gave her a letter that told her of the death of her father” (41) and that “she has missed Clara with a woe but is unstable to write to her, now, after all that has happened to her” (92), while the film makes no reference regarding Hana's father and stepmother. Furthermore, the literary text mentions that Hana had had to lose a child because “The father was already dead. There was a war” (82), a despairing aspect in Hana's life which was not included in the film. And the painful situations she has experienced at war are not described in the film “soldiers were coming in with just bits of their bodies, falling in love with me for an hour and then dying” (83)

The love between Hana and Kip -the Sikh sapper- occupies a leading role throughout Ondaatje's novel; she even risks her own life to help him defuse a bomb and tells him “I thought I was going to die. And I thought if I was going to die I would die with you” (103), a fact that was left out during the film. When Hardy dies, Kip returns to the villa seeking her comfort “If he could walk across the room and touch her he would be sane” (113), the film shows an evasive boy hiding in his shelter.

“In Situ” is the chapter dedicated to Kip and his mentors “he stepped into a family, after a year abroad, as if he were the prodigal returned, offered a chair at the table, embraced with conversations” (189), his training as a sapper, and the dramatic death of Lord Suffolk, Miss Morden and Mr. Fred Harts. It also makes reference to Kip's brother “He refused to agree to any situation where the English had power. So they dragged him into their jails” (200), and mentions that Kip's father is still alive. This information is not included in the film.

The Atomic bomb influenced Ondaatje's novel. When Kip hears about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he feels hatred for the English Patient because from his point of view, Almásy represents the Allied Powers that drop their bombs on non-white nations, and he wants to kill Almásy. Caravaggio warns him that Almásy is not an Englishman, but he does not care “When you start bombing the brown races of the world, you're an Englishman”, “They would never have dropped such a bomb on a white nation” (286) eventually he does not kill the English Patient and leaves the villa. The film does not mention the atomic bombs, exposing as the cause of his departure his posting North of Florence.

As regards the English Patient character, the story and the film share analogies. However there are slight differences; for example, in the novel Caravaggio reaches the villa unaware of the presence of Almásy in that place “I came because of the girl. I knew her father. The last person I expected to find here in this shelled nunnery was Count Ladislaus de Almásy” (252), in the film Caravaggio says “This nurse, Mary, tells me about you and Hana (…) how you came out of the desert… and you were burned and you didn't remember your name (…) Then I knew it was you”.

In the novel Almásy seems to accept the fact that he works for the Germans “You had become the enemy not when you sided with Germany but when you began your affair with Katharine Clifton”, “I see” (254-255). In the film he claims that he is not a spy “Madox thought I was a spy? No. No, I was never a spy.”

At the end of the film the English Patient asks Hana to poison him with morphine, and she agrees in deep sorrow. The last words dedicated to Almasy in the novel are: “His hand reaches out slowly and touches his book and returns to his dark chest. Nothing else moves in the room” (298). In the novel Hana decides to write a letter to her stepmother where she mentions that she will go home. Instead, the film shows that she leaves the house with Caravaggio and Gioia, they are going to Florence but her final destiny remains uncertain. The novel narrates that some years later Kip is a doctor, he “has two children and a laughing wife” (299), he is in India and he always remembers Hana. Nevertheless the film makes no reference to him after his departure.

Having discussed the main differences between the novel and the film, it can be outlined that while Ondaatje's novel mainly narrates the effects of the war on the characters' lives, Minghella's film is focused on the pre-war period and the romantic love story between Almásy and Katharine. “Translation is relative to the purpose for which a particular translation is intended and to the assumed background knowledge of those who will use it” (Bassnett, 1996: 326) Therefore the film can be considered a translation of Ondaatje's novel, where the loyalty in the process of translation depends on the cinematic form and the potential public of a different media.

So, here we have another addition to the pack - first-time author Mike Gayle and his story of an average young man still infatuated with his ex-girlfriend. Mike Gayle used to be agony uncle at J17, the magazine for teenage girls, and it seems as though he used his time there wisely. His story includes as many cultural reference points as possible to widen his book's appeal. Will is Everyman, or at least he's meant to be. But in the end this is where the book falls down: Will is just too bland, too inconsequential to really care about.

That and his constant obsessing over his ex. By the time Will eventually comes to his senses, it's too late; we've had enough. If you knew anyone like Will, you'd give him a good hard shake and tell him to get a life.

"A hilarious novel for anyone who has ever dumped, been dumped or lived in a dump," runs the blurb on the book jacket. And there are some nice touches of humor here. Gayle even takes us into the toilet with him and gives us his protagonists thoughts with his trousers around his ankles, giving new meaning to the phrase "toilet humor".

This is not a "black" book and of course, there's no reason why it should be just because its author happens to be black. And it's not a "guy" book in the way that Nick Hornby's novels are. Nor is it a "chick" book, in the vein of Bridget Jones; it falls somewhere in between.

I can easily see this book being turned into a nice, cosy "Brit" film by Channel Four, of the kind that used to be made in the mid-Eighties. And I'm sure Gayle can too, which is probably why he included his film pitch in the book; why waste time, after all?

And that's another reason why the book doesn't quite work for me; it's far too cynical an exercise, it's writing by numbers, if you like. Every now and again there are flashes of the writer I think Gayle would eventually like to be, but "My Legendary Girlfriend" is fiction-lite; a pleasant enough read, but a book you wouldn't be too worried about leaving behind on a plane.

First I will talk about the difference that I spoke of earlier between The Giver and The Village, and that was in The Giver the only person that truly knows about the unknown witch everyone fears is the Giver himself, while in The Village all of the elderly citizens know exactly what the unknown is. In The Giver the unknown is all of the memories witch no one else knows about, which have been lost in time. While in The Village the unknown that everyone fears is what truly lies in Covington Woods, beyond the borders of the community. “We have always had a gentle understanding with the creatures that live in the woods.”

The next difference that I will talk about is in The Giver only one person, Jonas, wants to look fear into the eyes and cross the border of his community into elsewhere, while in The Village two people, Ivy and Lucius, want to cross the borders that they know into Covington Woods. Throughout the whole movie, Lucius wanted to cross Covington Woods and face his fear of the unknown, to retrieve medicine for Noah, and later on in the movie Ivy wanted to cross as well to retrieve medicine to stop the rapidly growing infection inside of the one she loved, Lucius. While in The Giver, Jonas was the only strong person that wanted to cross the borders of his society into elsewhere. "He was free to enjoy the breathless glee that overwhelmed him: the speed, the clear cold air, the total silence, the feeling of balance and excitement and peace."

I will end with a similarity between The Giver and The Village. The similarity is that in the both The Giver and The Village the communities are controlled by fear. In The Village the way that the citizens of the utopia are controlled by being taught that monsters live within Covington Woods (the woods that surround their community), that way no one will ever try to escape. Meanwhile, in The Giver the village's citizens are controlled by what they do not know. "Always in the dream, it seemed as if there were a destination: a something-he could not grasp what-that lay beyond the place where the thickness of snow brought the sled to a stop. He was left, upon awakening, with the feeling that he wanted, even somehow needed, to reach the something that waited in the distance. The feeling that it was good. That it was welcoming. That it was significant. But he did not know how to get there."

Although both the communities seem very similar, and they are both Utopias, there are many similarities and differences between them. First, in The Giver the only person that truly knew about the unknown was the Giver himself, while in The Village all

of the elderly people in the community know about the unknown. Second, in The Giver, Jonas is the only character that truly wants to cross his community's borders while in The Village, two people want to cross their borders to see what is beyond what they know. Last, a similarity is that in both The Giver and The Village everyone is controlled by fear.

"He wondered what lay in the far distance where he had never gone. The land didn't end beyond those nearby community. Were there hills elsewhere? Were there vast wind-torn areas like the place he had seen in memory, the place where the elephants died?"

I have always loved writers who are able to bring any landscape and moment to life and make the reader feel as though he or she is right there with the main character experiencing each moment simultaneously. Pickett has quite skillfully crafted such a story.

Sideways is the story of two men who are at a turning point in their lives. One is to be married shortly and the other is a starving writer who is his best man. Throughout their journey of unexpected, incredulous twists and turns, the two learn lessons in friendship, life and themselves. As Pickett describes his novel it is: “The ultimate road trip. The last hurrah…” for two best friends. It is an interesting story that kept me up late at night turning page after page in anticipation of what would happen next.

The main character Miles, the writer, has a very cynical, straightforward, sarcastic charm that leaves you caring about his plight for he is nothing but honest, self-deprecating, and vulnerable. His cohort in crime, Jack, has a crass, seemingly unethical approach to life that in the end becomes understandable and surprisingly endearing.

For the wine enthusiast, Pickett's exceptional knowledge of wine and generous descriptions leaves one feeling thoroughly educated and privileged. While his sometimes uncanny, off the wall twists and turns within the unfolding of the pair's journey leaves the reader entertained by his pleasantly, unique imagination.

Pickett is a screenwriter who lives in Los Angeles and Sideways is his very first novel.

The most entertaining thing about reading stories is that you get to feel the emotions that the characters are feeling. When they're scared you become scared. When they're sad you become sad, and while reading 1408 every time Mike became scared or sad I became scared or sad. While I was watching the movie I felt nothing because the actor that played Mike Enslin was boring and didn't do a very good job at playing Mike. I like being able to feel something when I watch movies and I felt absolutely nothing when I was watching 1408. The Character development was horrible and non existent.

When watching a movie you usually expect some form of character development but in 1408 there was none. Mike Enslin started off the movie bland and he ended the movie bland. Unlink the story, where Mike started off confident and cocky but ended sad and depressed. Weird things started happening while in 1408. The alarm clock started going haywire and Mike's dead daughter appeared and told him how much she loved him. When this part of the story happened in the movie Mike was emotionless and could care less that he could see and hear his daughter; but in the story I could feel exactly what he was feeling.

I feel that when I read a story I can relate to the characters more then if I am watching a movie. While reading 1408 I felt like I could relate more to Mike, unlike when I was watching the movie, because in the story Mike was a cocky, and confident individual, like me, who knew what he wanted to do with his life. In the movie he was an arrogant, stuck up individual, unlike me, and all he wanted to do was get into 1408 and stay there to prove to everybody that it wasn't haunted. That's what I liked least about the movie. The story was much better and more entertaining.

Most stories and books are way better then the movies that are made from the books or stories. 1408 is a good example of this. I believe that if the casting director of 1408 got better people to play the main characters in the movie, the movie would be more entertaining; but because the actors and actresses were so bland the movie was horrible and pointless. The story was much better and the key examples I gave were what made the story more entertaining.

At the end of the surgery Charlie was thinking of suicide because he lost all of his intelligence and didn't feel he was worth anything any more. He also learned how mean everyone was to him so when Charlie was smart and then after he had lost all of the friendships he had before the operation. Also, because the experiment had never been done before they didn't know if Charlie would lose just what he learned or if he would lose all intelligence he ever had.

Someone that thinks that Charlie was better of at the end of the story might say he is better off because he got to experience what it feels like to be smart. Even if he was smart for about a week he just lost it and started thinking about killing himself. They might say he got to see the world as it really is instead of what he thought it was before the operation. The problem with this idea is that Charlie didn't want to see what the world really was like and when he did he hated it and lost all of the friends he ever had.

Lastly, they might say he could help bring new advances in this area of science and have it be successful in the future. If the scientist really wanted to make sure it was safe and reliable they should have tested it on animals more and longer before testing on a human being.

It's okay to be who you are instead of trying to change who you are and except who you are. For example, sometimes scientist make drugs before they know what they do to people and the people that take the drug end up worse off after taking the drug just like Charlie was after the surgery. One example of this is when scientists make weight loss drugs that make people have heart problems.

As you can see, Charlie was worse off at the end of the story than he was at the begging. After the operation Charlie had thoughts of suicide, all of his friendships were broken, and he lost all of his intelligence and might lose more than he had to begin with. I urge you to not let this fictional story come true and make sure that scientist check there experiments before they try it on a human being.