God is in the RiverThe short story A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean is a fairly simple book to read, and for For this reason, the quiet beauty of his writing can be easy to miss. Maclean's gentle style presents the story clearly and succinctly and draws parallels that can only be seen in the details. The novella treats fishing and the natural world as a religious experience and lends to these material things the grace of spirituality. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay The fact that Maclean's father was a preacher lays the foundation for this religious worldview, but it is not on this evidence that the point of view is expressed. “Going fishing” is considered a panacea, especially for immoral behavior. Several times throughout the book, characters can be heard saying this phrase with the deference they would say "going to church." Early on, the reader is told that Norman and his younger brother were taught to treat the river with respect and that they were not even allowed to fish until they knew how to properly handle a rod – out of respect for the fish. Maclean tells the story of how a fisherman attempts to create a perfect world from his craft, which is perhaps the ultimate goal of religion: perfection from imperfection. This sentiment expresses the beauty and subtlety of what is actually an overarching metaphor throughout the novel: the precision and honesty of fishing as an act of religion. However, watching the film, much of the subtlety is lost. Attending a peer-led viewing of the film A River Runs Through It, the thing I was most aware of was the awkward, almost discordant silences and conversations between the characters. In the short story, author Norman Maclean talks about how his family was just a word and when reading, one had the feeling – as well as being bluntly stated – that there were always non- said. This attitude was amplified in the film and had me constantly searching for faces and dialogue to address my feeling that something was missing. Due to the age of the film, it was difficult to tell whether this was a device or simply the result of less than excellent acting. However, after watching an interview with director Robert Redford, I know that the film made an honest attempt to stay true to the short story, and I believe for this reason that the film created this discomfort intentionally. I found it interesting that the movie changed the timeline. events quite substantially as well. In the book, Norman has already been married to his wife for the second half of the novella. In the film, all of the events in the book occur before Norman and Jessie get married, ending with them planning to get married, but have not yet done so. I don't see any real gravity in this choice, other than as a storytelling device. The departure of Norman and Jessie for Chicago puts a definitive end to the story and marks the definitive break in the closeness of Norman's family. Even though the book was able to conclude its story in a more natural way, the film had to respect its time limit; marriage constitutes both the end of one era and the beginning of the next. By attending some of the workshops offered during the joint reading, I was able to gain a more personal understanding of the lives of the characters in A River Runs. That would have led to this. At a conference, a man who had fly fished his whole life came to talk about the lifestyle.