| In the Book |
In the Movie |
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Jamie was meek with few friends. She was sad when she was picked on. |
She had uncool friends. She wouldn't take being teased. She didn't care what people thought and liked herself. |
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Landon was initially unfocused, but not a bad kid. |
He was aimless, self centered and a rebel until Jamie showed him the way.
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Landon became school student body President after his father forced him to run. |
He doesn't run. |
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The story begins with Landon Carter at age 57 remembering what happened when he was 17. |
It begins with a mean prank Landon pulled when he was 17. We eventually hear from Landon when he is 21 years old.
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There is tension between Landon and his father because Landon is not outgoing enough. |
Landon hates his father because he abandoned his family and has a new one. |
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Landon asks Jamie to a dance because no one else is available. |
Landon and Jamie interact as part of his punishment for his prank.
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At the dance Jamie helps Landon after he is threatened by Lew. At the end of the night he admits she was a great date. |
Landon is using Jamie to help him learn his lines for the play and treats her poorly around his friends. As he gets to know her, he starts to like her. |
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Landon plans to go to college. |
He has no goals past high school.
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Jamie and Landon hang out at her house. They fall in love slowly. |
They date and have many romantic encounters. They fall in love quickly. |
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When Landon learns of Jamie's illness he is afraid and uncomfortable to be around her. He is afraid he will offend her. |
Once he learns of her illness, he is dedicated to her.
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Landon's friends tease him about Jamie but they never mock her to her face. They know she is a good person and has god on her side. |
Landon's ridicule Jamie to her face, even pasting her head on a almost nude woman's body. Landon punches his old friend and is publicly with Jamie after that. |
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Eric and Margaret visit Jamie after they find out she is sick to apologize for being rude. They give her money they collected for the orphanage. |
Eric goes to see Landon and apologizes to him after they find out she is sick.
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Jamie tells Landon it is her dream to be married. |
She has a long list of things she wants to do, including being in two places at once. Being married in the same church as her mother is at the top of her list. |
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Jamie is very sick during the wedding and needs a wheelchair and nurse during the ceremony. |
She is in remission during the wedding.
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Jamie doesn't sing in the novel. |
In the movie, Jamie sings "Only Hope". |
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In the book, Landon's friends simply made fun of his attraction to Jamie, and often teased him, even when he denied that he liked Jamie. They never ridiculed Jamie to her face, knowing that she was a better person than all of them. In fact, they were intimidated by her and did not want to get on her "wrong side", feeling she had an "in" with God. |
In the movie, Landon (before he changes) and his friends mock and ridicule Jamie to her face, but she remains above-it-all and defending herself, while sometimes mocking them right back. In one scene, Dean asks Jamie, "If there is a higher power, why is it He can't get you a new sweater?" and Jamie replies, "Because He's too busy looking for your brain". Both Dean and Eric are secretly impressed with how Jamie defends herself so well with their teasing her.
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In the book Landon's parents were married (though his father was a politician and away much of the time). |
In the film, In the movie Landon's father was a cardiologist who had left the family and remarried. |
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Jamie doesn't drive. |
She could drive
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Jamie couldn't drive. |
She could drive.
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Jamie and Landon practice together and he walks her home, they bond during their frequent walks to her home. |
They fall in love more quickly in the movie and don't walk to her house together.
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This doesn't happen. |
Landon is a self proclaimed bad dancer, and asks his mother to teach him how to dance. |
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These events do not occur. |
Landon buys/dedicates a star to Jamie, gives her a tattoo (a fake tattoo), builds a telescope for her among a few other very romantic things not mentioned in the book.
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The book ends with the 57 year old Landon still loving Jamie and wearing her ring. It doesn't clearly state that she died. |
It is clear she has died. It ends with Landon returning to see Jamie's father to give him back Jamie's mother's book. He tells him he has become a success because of Jamie. |
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Takes place in the 1950s |
Takes place in the 1990s
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The play centers on Christmas, and Jamie plays an angel. The play includes Hegbert's struggle as a father. |
The play depicts the Prohibition Era, and Jamie plays a singer. Hegbert's struggle subplot is dropped. |
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Jamie is a blond who wears her hair in a bun. |
Jamie has brown hair, commonly worn in a ponytail.
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Landon willingly takes part in the play. |
Landon is forced to be in the play as punishment for the prank that went wrong. |
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Jamie does not sing in the play. |
Jamie is a singer, and sings in the play. It is Mandy Moore after all.
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Jamie volunteers at an orphanage. |
Jamie tutors junior high students. |