Blog: ... If you did not write on that subject, briefly summarize a scene from the novel that you think should have been included in the film and justify your reasons for choosing it
I'd suggest a full-scale reenactment, as an opening scene, of Ben's story, to Stanley, of the time in his childhood, when he and his father drove their sheep to better grazing lands. It was a time of severe drought, and they knew the sheep would die if they stayed in the home area. (In the movie we only see the discussion begun, when Ben says he didn't wear shoes until he was 14, and worked with sheep.)
His summary of the experience, later (page 163) explains much of the book and how he has come, through his experience is his search for justice, to understand just where he is:
"The single memory that has been with me all day...is that distant summer when Pa and I were left with the sheep. The drought that took everything from us, leaving us alone and scorched among the white skeletons.
What had happened before that drought has never been particularly vivid or significant to me: that was where I first discovered myself and the world. And it seems to me I'm finding myself on the edge of yet another dry white season, pehraps worse the one I knew as a child."
It was worse. Much worse. And more than innocent lambs were put to death.
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3 comments:
The inclusion of the scene you describe would certainly provide the reason for A Dry White Season as the film's title. All I got from the film version of that scene was Stanley's admonishing Ben ("Be careful, lani) for trying to equate his life as a South African to that of black South Aficans.
Walt, do you recommend the book?
Yes. Especially if you can pick up a cheap copy or get it from the library. Its better than the movie -- with more realistic detail.
(I got mine from Amazon.com, used, with shipping, I think I paid about $4.50...)
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