What Is The Difference Between Where The Red Fern Grows Movie And Book

Leah

Wilson Rawls is an American published author of the 1961 book “Where The Red Fern Grows”. About ten years later, Wilson Rawls made the book into a movie. The movie was considerably different, however, I prefer the book more than the movie because of the character, plot and setting differences.

I think that there are some significant character differences between the book Where The Red Fern Grows to the movie version. Some characters from the book don’t even exist in the movie, such as Billy’s one sister. In the novel, he has three younger sisters, but in the movie, Billy only had two sisters. “After all, I had three sisters” (Rawls p.g. 16). This may not seem that important because the sisters didn’t play a big role to play in either the book or the movie, but having a third sister in the book shows how poor his family is and how difficult their lives are. This is important to the story.

There are many things I could share that prove this. The first example would be when Billy won the championship cup in the book, but in the movie, the cup was won by someone else and then given to Billy. Once Billy, Papa and Grandpa Portman got home Billy gives the championship cup to his little sister as he promised and gave the money he won to his mom. This made his mom very happy because she doesn’t want her family living in the Ozark’s. By giving her that money she and her family can finally move into the city and get an education. That school doesn’t only teach you how to read and write, it also teaches you social skills (Rawls p.g. 113-114). Billy’s mom says “A gold one and a silver one. Who would have thought anything so wonderful could have happened to us. I’m so proud; so very proud” (Rawls p.g. 113). This all happened in the book. In the movie version, Billy didn’t win the $300.00 so us viewers miss out on watching Billy give his mom the