Borrowing Mode as Film Conversion Process in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain: Film Adaptation Theory

Adaptation is the process of transforming a literary work into another form such as novel to film and television series. Usually, film is adapted from bestselling novel because of its popularity and interest rate of the story and the adaptation process has its own way depends from the source itself with specific changes occurred, such as novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is adapted into film with same title by Norman Taurog. From this explanation, it is obvious that this study is focuses on the comparison between novel and film and the film adaptation process using narrative elements. This study aims to describe and explain the process of adaptation with narrative elements involved on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer novel into film.

To find out the literature comparison point, the theory of adaptation by Andrew Dudley and Linda Hutcheon is used. Whereas to analyze the process of film adaptation, the theory of adaptation by Andrew Dudley and Linda Seger is used. There are three points in literature comparison or variety differences and six processes of adaptation or crafting a scene. Those three points are Plot, Character, and Setting that often become the compatibility of adaptation work. Whereas those six processes are Literary Purpose, Moment Prediction, Conflict Emphasization, Development or Changes of Character, Point of View “POV” Usage, and Perfect Beginning and Ending.

This study is conducted using qualitative design because the data is collected and analyzed in form of words, utterances, character’s dialogue, and story narration in two sources of data, whilst the key instrument of this study is the writer himself. After analyzing both the novel and film, it can be concluded that it has twelve processes of adaptation in total (three points in variety differences plus nine detailed processes in crafting a scene). These processes involve the aspects of narrative elements which often available both in novel and film that consists of the plot, character, and setting in order to preserve the rule of adapting the literary work.