I think the movie quite follow the novel. There are some parts that were not mentioned but the movie did not differ much to the novel. In the episode that we have seen in class Jeanette's biological mother was not mentioned. Well I think it should have been because the existence of her mother was the trigger. Somehow it released Jeanette mentally from her adoptive mother dictatorship. It confirmed what she always questioned, herself and the story in the bible. Her relation with Melanie was the only thing that she choosed herself and not her mother. Her adoptive mother adopted her I think because it is a way for her to fight the evil of the world. In the novel she wasn't close to Jeanette enough to even notice her hearing loss. Her love is conditional, she likes her only when she fills her expectations. All she wanted was to make of Jeanette a missionary, devoted to the church.
A part like where the preacher wanted to exorcise her was chocking. The preacher was ready to hurt Jeanette using God's name to justify his brutality. The adoptive mother Knew that this attempt would lead nowhere. I say that because her past has many shadows about her sexuality (remember the girl's picture in her book) and the people who gathered was there for the show.
This novel has many aspect of a postmodern writing. I think what Winterson wants to bring up is the critic of society on what is different and the fact that not everyone calling themselves God's missionary or preachers are divinely inspired. Some people are just using people belief to manipulate them, making them do or follow there own convictions that are not always the best.
Actually in the first episode I believe, they bring you to the first part of the book. There is a scene where she's talking to her adoptive mother in the kitchen and someone starts banging on the door. Her mother tells her to stay in the kitchen while she goes to see whose at the door. Sure enough the person at the door and her adopted mother are yelling. Jess steps into the dark hallway and now we can hear their conversation. The woman at the door shouts about her daughter and her adoptive mother ends up slapping and pushing the woman. Jess questions her mother about it and her mother shakes her and tells her that she is her real mother. Then Jess runs to the door and opens it to watch her birth mother walk down the street away from the house. Its a really nice scene to watch.
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ReplyDeleteI like that they got rid of the fairy tales in the BBC adaptation, because I thought the book could have been done without them because they were way too distracting. It is interesting to compare the book to a film adaptation of it.
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