Carli Crowley
English 102
Laura Cline
“Up in the Air”
The author creates an
interesting lifestyle relationships for Ryan in his book “Up in the Air”. Ryan
seems to have the fairly typical relationship of men lost in their
relationships with women. He loves his mom, lying to her about where he’s at so
as not to worry her. He worries about his ex wife and wonders what went wrong.
He cares for his little sister wanting to save here and help her out in life.
He gets that his older sister is the glue that holds his family, but he doesn’t
let her boss him around. Ryan in the movies seems to have more the standard
Hollywood portrayal relationship with women.
In the
book Ryan had an ex wife. He didn’t seem particularly regretful about the end
of their relationship. Some of his thoughts on the relationship do point to how
he felt confused by it. He still cares for her and asks about her. He seems
happy for her that she got what she wanted and was able to have her home and
children. He feels like the fault was his and her current husband is genetically
superior to him. The movie has Ryan completely without an ex wife, never having
been married. The movie portrays Ryan as selfish and completely without desire
to ever be married or have children. Ryan is portrayed this way to prepare you
for the big Hollywood fall for Alex.
Alex of
the book is fairly portrayed by Alex of the movie. The only exception to this
portrayal being her end game and motives. Ryan of the book likes Alex for who
she is he appreciates her and her place in his life. He doesn’t ask for more or
lead her on to believe there is more to their relationship than there actually
is. She of all people in his life probably understands him best. Ryan doesn’t believe
in love or marriage in the movie but of course he ends up falling for Alex and
breaking “Airworld” code by going to her home. He falls in “love”. In order for
there to be a movie you have to believe in love, and it will eventually catch
you. You have to believe this because that is the Hollywood way.
Julie is
Ryan’s little sister. In the book he loves Julie very much. Ryan and Julie have
a fairly good relationship. He talks about her being born and how everyone
wanted to adore her and how he was always adored by her. Ryan is always in his
mind there for Julie. When she freaks out Ryan is the one to take her off on an
adventure. He is sensitive about what she will enjoy; take for instance the
continental buffet in the gold club member’s lounge. He also understands that
she is passive and realizes that his arguing with the airline front desk
assistant clearly makes her extremely uncomfortable. In the movie his older sister says “You are
never here for her or us, you are practically dead to us as a family” (Reitman).
This is needed to portray Ryan as an uncaring, selfish, person who has no love
or desire for anyone other than himself. In this way it prepares you for the
world hardened, selfish mans big fall in love.
In the
book Kara is the older sister. She gets the exact same introduction in both the
movie and the book, “She is the glue that holds the family together” (Reitman,
Kirn 208). In the movie Ryan respects her and admires her and her family and
husband. He doesn’t want to choose for himself her solid grounded way of life,
but he sees it for what it is and values it for what it offers the individual.
Ryan is used to her trying to take the older sister tone of voice with him and
tries to boss him around. He loves her and respects her, but he refuses to let
her boss him around or influence him to do the things that he doesn’t want to
do. She is unable to manipulate him. His relationship with Kara of the movie is
fairly underdeveloped in the movie. Kara is a small character that doesn’t do
much for the plot of the movie. Unlike the Kara of the book who holds him
grounded to his family, the Kara of the movie is insignificant in light of the
romance that is starting to develop around Alex and Ryan.
Ryan has
a fairly typical relationship with his mom. He answers the phone when she
calls. He calls her sometimes, when he feels he should. He feels she is a
little overbearing and in some ways he feels uncomfortable with her new
relationship with his step dad. He lies to her about where he goes and exactly
what it is that he does. In Ryan’s mind he does this for her own good because
he knows she worries about him so much already. If she knew all the ins and
outs of his life and the work he did she would just worry even more. Ryan’s mom
in the movie is non-existent. The reason she doesn’t really exist in the movie
other than a few lines about her racism and relationship, is because you can’t
have a loving mother and son relationship when you are trying to develop your
character as a man hardened by the world. A man who doesn’t believe in love or
committed relationship isn’t the same person saddened by the loss of his father
and his mother moving on to a new relationship.
Who is Natalie? Natalie is not in the book. She is a
character completely created by the makers of the movie. This character is
added to the movie to show a contrast in Ryan. He is the older wizened,
hardened road warrior. She is he younger innocent, love stricken woman. She was
introduced to be everything Ryan in the movie doesn’t believe in. She is the
one who shows him just what he has in Alex. She is the one that really helps
Ryan change his ways and realize that you love or you are nothing. Ryan’s
relationship with Natalie is somewhat similar to his relationship with Julie in
the book. He takes her under his wing. He is somewhat flabbergasted by her
naiveté but doesn’t really judge her for it. He takes the route of showing her
where she is wrong and letting her see for herself what the world and their
work is like. In the end he does the ultimate of good deeds and insures she
gets the job she wants in California by contacting her soon to be boss and
highly recommending her. Natalie is the one that shows Ryan that life is
nothing if you don’t have love and someone to share it with. If Ryan Bingham of
the book were to have a Natalie in the book with him he would probably offer to
take her out to dinner. He would spend some time talking to her and then
probably offer to sleep with her. Whether they did or not he would then go on
flying around and not be too concerned with the outcome. She would be another
person he met and knew on the level he set for himself.
Ryan
Bingham of the book “Up in the Air” has an interesting relationship with the
woman around him. He loves his mother and sisters and has a developed past with
them. He knows where he stands in his family and he feels comfortable in the
way he has built up the relationships of those in his family into his adult
years. He knows that in times of struggle or depression that he can count on
his family to be there for him. They in turn realize that he is there for them
as well. When something befalls either party they know they can call each other
for support. They know they will have a place to land in times of trouble. The
Ryan Bingham of the movie has a very undeveloped relationship with the women
around him. Because the movie is mostly based on his and Alex’s relationship
and something of Nicole’s influence on him there is very little room to delve
very deeply into any other relationships he may have formed. In the Hollywood
version you have to believe in love and experience it to experience life. In
the book version Ryan believes in life itself. The Ryan of the, movie was lost
when he found Alex wasn’t his true love and she had been living a front. Ryan
of the book says “ I may have met my soul mate tonight although I know not
which one she was”(Kirn 310). The book and the movie differ in their goals in Ryan’s
life the movie centered on a love story with Alex and the book centered on Ryan
his way of life and the women who influenced him.
Paramount, 2009. Film.
Kirn Walter. Up in the Air. New York: Doubleday, 2001. Print.
Your essay has really solid arguments on the differences between the two. In a few places I would suggest working on the "why" for the differences and check for spelling in a few spots. Otherwise it was great and I liked your argument on why they left his mom completely out of the movie.
ReplyDeleteI have to say you did a good job noticing the differences on the topic you chose. I noticed you don't have a really solid thesis. It always helps me to write the body of my paper if I answer the argument my thesis is making. You have a lot of argument you just need to base it around that thesis statement. Also you have quite a few grammatical errors throughout your paper. Oh, and you didn't use a secondary source to help your argument.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job at comparing the characters but our teacher wanted us to also talk about the economy change. There was a lot that had happened from 2001 to 2009, our economy was crashing. Maybe in your final draft include some of the economic problems as well.
ReplyDelete