Book publishing is a massive business like the movie industry. The fans wait for a new edition of their favorite book as enthusiastically as film lovers wait for the launch of their films. Books could influence emotions equally if written in impactful ways, as if the person is seeing and viewing things. The power of words could let an individual imagine what the writer wants to say by developing the perception through the phrases used in the text. However, movies can depict or perform the message quite quickly and can let viewers understand what they want to communicate through simply speaking or performing.
A movie and a book written on the same topic can create a comparison to see which has influenced the reader or the viewer to stay motivated till the end. The short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” and the short film “Away from Her” are developed on the plot of Alzheimer’s. The disease was highlighted in 2004, and once it gained much importance due to increased patients in the service center, directors and writers identified it as a potential plot for developing a story or a movie to attract fans’ attention.
The story and the movie both focus on couples facing Alzheimer’s disease. The similarity is that in both cases, the wife is the patient facing Alzheimer’s, and the husbands are the ones trying to overcome the emotional trauma of letting their wives go to the service center to be looked after well.
The story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” and the movie will be discussed below separately to evaluate the effect of media. It will help to identify if the content could better explain the subject or if additional performance is needed.
“The Bear Came Over The Mountain.”
Alice Munro has taken Alzheimer’s disease as the perfect plot for writing a short, touching story about the love, hate, and jealousy of the love life between a couple. The story explains the bitter truth of life and how a companion may react to another partner’s aging or even deal with the problems of aging while also being aged. The story begins with a beautiful girl proposing to her husband, and at once, the story switches to the same woman after fifty years of marriage, entering a facility due to dementia (Su, 2015).
Munro has successfully been able to present the past, mixing it with the present to tell how she was when she was young and, with age, what dementia has done to her. Fiona, the main character, was a lively and loving woman, but now she has even forgotten her husband’s name. The story tells well about the foundation of long-term relationships and how people in the past used to ignore each other’s flaws to maintain the marriage.
Grant, Fiona’s husband, was a university professor and was known for his immoral character. He used to seduce other women, the majority of whom were married, as well as a few girls. Fiona, being a wife, had the idea that her husband was cheating on her, but just to protect her marriage and bring him back to her, she never complained and rather kept it inside her. Thus, such situations made her prone to dementia, and she caught the disease while being younger than Grant. However, when Grant was unable to look after his wife, he finally decided to leave her at the facility. There, out of loneliness and depression over the years, Fiona started getting closer to another patient having a similar disease. Once, the woman who spent her entire life ignoring her husband’s deeds has now actually forgotten his name.
As Grant gave little attention to Fiona and her condition demanded more love and care, she found this with another man. Thus, Grant, seeing it, couldn’t believe it and felt jealous, but it was of no use because Fiona had no aim in her life but just to spend her time with someone loving and caring about her. Thus, the side-by-side plotting of the story helped the reader to anticipate that something different was coming ahead and kept the reader continuing to read the story.
Away From Her
The movie is based on the subject of Alzheimer’s and how it can affect a married couple. This health issue develops over time. Moreover, the movie is built upon a similar storyline to “The Bear Came Over the Mountain.” However, it is directed by a different artist. Thus, the difference between the influences of the two media needs to be analyzed to determine whether the person behind writing or directing the movie and the story has been influential enough to capture attention (Filley, 2007).
The movie Away from Her opens with an aged couple. The wife is facing difficulties due to Alzheimer’s and is even putting the frying pan into the fridge. Considering her condition, she decides to leave and go to the facility so that her husband may not be disturbed. While on the way to the care center, they remember their past years because Grant, the husband, may not be able to see his wife for thirty days, and they were fine with it.
Thus, she went off to the facility, and the husband started seeking a new companion. The movie, though good, was too pure or may even have deviated the viewer as it had no twists and even fewer emotions than the story. The writer in the story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” showed the past and the present of the couple together. It made the reader understand the gravity of the situation and the depth of the relationship. However, the movie begins with an elderly couple and the woman facing difficulties managing her daily life chores.
Thus, after going through the story and the movie on the same topic, it felt as if the story had more influence because, in the film, the characters had to communicate the message through dialogue and expressions. However, in the story, the words alone were influential and had power over the reader. Both media have an impact on their followers, but the story writing demands more attention and applause for the same topic.
The media has an influence on its followers. It can be well understood through the comparison of a movie made from the same story on which the book was published earlier and how much it has attracted the readers. In the majority of scenarios, viewers appreciate the story more in written form than when it is developed as a movie because the movie may spoil the real essence of the story. Something similar happened, I guess, with the story and the movie discussed here. The topic was the same, and the characters were similar. The only thing different was that the viewers were seeing it rather than reading it. The individual who may have read the book has an idea of what is waiting for them in the movie, and the slightest loose end may not let them appreciate the movie because they may expect it to be more perfect than the book. Any movie developed on the storyline of a book needs more attention when being transformed into a movie because the readers are enthusiastic about how much better it could be in a different medium. Therefore, the power of media shall be revealed differently to influence the followers.
References
Filley, C. (2007). ‘AWAY FROM HER’ — A LOVE STORY IN THE GRIP OF ALZHEIMER DISEASE. Neurology Today, 7(12), 20. https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.nt.0000280847.86308.04
Su, Y. (2015). The Temporal Art of the Short Story, The Bear Came Over the Mountain. Theory And Practice In Language Studies, 5(3), 535. https://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0503.12
Academic Master Education Team is a group of academic editors and subject specialists responsible for producing structured, research-backed essays across multiple disciplines. Each article is developed following Academic Master’s Editorial Policy and supported by credible academic references. The team ensures clarity, citation accuracy, and adherence to ethical academic writing standards
Content reviewed under Academic Master Editorial Policy.
