What a Revolution! (Compare and Contrast)

This is a compare and contrast essay about the movie The Patriot and the book April Morning.

Has anyone close to you died before? Has anyone close to every gone into the war? Or maybe two people you know have gotten together and became a couple. These are all events that are similar between the movie The Patriot and in the historical fiction novel April Morning. Both of these stories or during the Revolutionary War and are filled with real life situations that happened during the late 1700’s. Even though these two true stories have a similar plot line they have other similarities and differences as well.

If you were to read or see both of these true tales you would learn that there are a lot of the same events that happen within them. In the book April Morning there is a fifteen year old boy named Adam who wants to join his cities militia. Adam’s dad who Adam does not get along with finally lets him do something that he wants to so that night they are suiting up for war. Tragically Adam’s dad Moses dies in the opening battle. The rest of the story explains how Adam has to be the fifteen year old man of the house and help is widowed mother through everything. As you will learn The Patriot and April Morning are a lot alike, they show the same setting, plot line, and even the characters are similar. The Patriot starts off as a family that is happy and loves to be with each other but then oldest son Gabriel comes running into the house wounded. His dad Benjamin who is a widowed father of seven children takes care of his son to recovery. Gabriel tells his dad that the British are close by so be ready. The British come and unfortunately kill the second oldest son Thomas. This forces Gabriel and Benjamin to go into the war to get revenge. They formed a militia around the city and they were off. Throughout the movie they faced the red coats lots of times but one time it was the worst. The British Colonel Tavington had killed Gabriel his father found him just in time to say their final good-byes. Now Benjamin was a widow of 5 children. During a long gruesome final battle Gabriel got revenge on Tavington for killing both of his sons by killing him and forcing the British to surrender. As you can see the two stories are a lot alike already.

In these two historical fictions that are both based on a true story are a lot alike. There are many ways that these stories are alike the first and main way is they are both in the time period of the Revolutionary War and both of the families live in Lexington, Massachusetts. Both stories have Lexington forming militias as well. That is one of the main similarities; another one is a main character dies in both stories. In April Morning the dad dies in the opening battle, but in The Patriot two boys die but the dad stays alive. Seeing that the dad died in April Morning he is leaving the mother widowed. Also in The Patriot, the movie starts off with the dad being a widow. That is another similarity. One more corresponding connection is in both the book and the movie a young kid goes into war. In April Morning Adam Cooper goes into war only being fifteen and in The Patriot Gabriel (who can’t be any older than 18) goes into the war. Finally in both adventures there are couples that start, in April Morning Adam and Ruth get together which was a very unexpected couple and in The Patriot Gabriel and Aunt Charlotte get together as well. Those examples are just among the many similarities.

Not only are these stories alike they are also different in ways as well. Besides the obvious differences one of the main differences is in the movie the dad and the son loved each other very much and always wanted to be around each other but in the book it was almost the exact opposite. Obviously the father and the son love each other in both narratives but in the book April Morning the father and son did not get along. Also in The Patriot there is one main bad British soldier Colonel Tavington but in the book there are many bad red coats there is not one main soldier. One of the more obvious differences is in the book the father dies (Moses) but in the movie the sons die (Gabriel and Thomas). This is about it for differences, in my mind there are more similarities than differences.

In conclusion, these stories are more alike than different. As you can see the numbers of similarities are significantly higher than the number of differences. I was overall pleased with both stories, I feel they have taught me a lot about the Revolutionary War and how it was fought and won. I would recommend this book and this movie to anyone who wants to learn about our history in our country. Remember, even if two stories have similar plot lines and settings they can be very different as well as similar in other ways.