Compare and contrast the Tomas Rivera book with the film.
In comparison, the book and the film portray the same protagonist in Marcos, the little boy, and his experiences with his family as migrant workers. The movie gives us narration and insights to what Marcos is feeling. Rivera uses the same narration in his book and allows the reader to get a better understanding as to what is unfolding. The intention of the book and the film is to allow the viewer or reader to gain an understanding of the economic strains, deprivations, loss of life, celebrations, hopes and dreams of Mexican Americans known as migrant workers during the 1940's and 1950's. .
The book and the film also touch on others experiences. Through the film and the book we are introduced to some characters who are named and others who are not. The whole point of having varying characters is to allow the audience to make a connection. There are some people in both film and book like the poet who sells his songs so that everyone can always remember their own stories and real life experiences. There is the story of Ramon and his girlfriend Juanita. Ramon must migrate in order to make enough money to support Juanita and get married. Meanwhile while he is away she falls in love with someone else. We are also introduced to the mojado who comes to visit Bone and Don Laito, the baker. They end up taking advantage of him just because he had some money and they believed that no one would miss him anyway. These incidences commonly occurred and the book and the film try to allow the audience to relate. .
In contrast, the film leaves out many scenes that the book includes. The reason that the film leaves out some of these scenes is so that viewer is shown a more fluid, smooth story line. The book on the other hand has a unique literary style that can only be understood if you read it. The purpose of this literary style is so that the reader can almost feel what the characters are saying.
