Literature in Film

Translation Essay

By Raymond Kuang

Professor Sean Scanlan

10/19/2022

 

The similarity between the short novel, “New Boy” by Roddy Doyle, and its short adaptation, “New Boy” by Steph Green, is that they both rely on the same story to show their audience. The difference is that they both rely on different uses of storytelling to convey their messages to the audience. Either way, they both succeed in trying to tell their story from their own perspective. While the literary version of “New Boy” by Roddy Doyle may make its story impactful from its usage of justice throughout the story, I think the film version of “New Boy” by Steph Green is stronger in its storytelling through its use of color schemes, acting, and camera angles.

According to Linda Cahir, there are three types of translations for a film: literal, radical, and traditional. The “New Boy” translation stands more on the traditional side by it telling most of the story straight from the novel but also changes the little details to make the story different and be told from the director’s perspective. Because of this, it is not surprising that the film has to change how the story transitions itself to make it not just a carbon copy of the novel. One of these examples is the beginning scene where Joseph stands in front of the students during his first day in an Irish school. The camera focuses on Joseph for a long time while keeping the background blurry. The use of shallow depth of field in this scene shows the emphasis on Joseph feeling isolated from everyone in the class he is in. This is contrary to the novel since at the beginning of it, there are not a lot of visuals but instead, have descriptions of Joseph and his experience in blending in with the other students in the classroom. Therefore, the film version shows a better introduction to Joseph by showing how difficult it is for him to view a different ambiance.