Was Ray Kinsella a successful hero, who dared to live his dreams, or merely an insane person who blindly followed voices that could only be heard within the confines of his mind? Either of these theories could be argued successfully. He builds a baseball field for Shoeless Joe Jackson. Between the movie and the book there are many events that take place that are different. The movie goes into more about a journey that Ray takes to learn more about his father. He was given the strange ability to meet a number of celebrities from both the world of baseball and literature who had been dead for many years.
In both the movie and the book, "Field of Dreams" and "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa" Ray Kinsella was introduced to the viewers and readers as an ordinary man, living an ordinary life, in an ordinary town. After hearing the voice say, "If you build it, he will come," Ray risked the economic and emotional stability of the family he loved dearly to build a baseball field. At first, Ray Kinsella was highly confused, but eventually he realized the significance of his calling. Upon the completion of the baseball field, "Shoeless Joe Jackson", the baseball player who had been his father's hero before he passed away, suddenly appeared in the field to talk with Ray and to play baseball. He got to watch Shoeless Joe Jackson play graceful baseball in the field that he built.
The book is different from the movie in many ways. In the book the field is not one hundred percent completed as in the movie, it looks beautiful. The only thing that is great about the baseball field is left field. That is where Shoeless Joe Jackson plays his position. "The pitcher's mound rocked like a cradle." "The bases were stray blocks of wood, unanchored." "There was no backstop or grandstand, only one shaky bleacher beyond the left field wall." In the movie the bleacher was on the first base line and there was no outfield wall.
