Abstract: This is a comparison of the relationship of Enid and Becky in the film and graphic novel of Ghost World. This was my first experience comparing film to literature and so the film descriptions are less of an analysis and more of mere description. This was my own work and never researched for supporting arguments. I look at several scenes from both the movie and graphic novel and compare how the relationship of the girls change over the story line. While both story lines have the girls grow up and apart after they graduate from high school, the film and movie take different approaches. The film focuses on former oddball Becky trying to mainstream into the real world, while Enid desperately tries to find her place in the real world while not changing who she was in high school. In the graphic novel, Enid is trying to discover who she is, but she feels hindered by Becky, who is the one who doesn’t wish for her high school days to change.
Ghost World is a story of two girls, Enid and Becky, who face the challenges of growing up while still trying to hang on to the past. While the graphic novel, written by Daniel Clowes represents Enid as the dominant personality, the movie adaptation directed by Terry Zwigoff places the girls on equal footing in the relationship. In the graphic novel, Enid dictates the conversation and makes the decision of what they are going to do, even if Becky does not express interest in the activity. In the movie, Becky has, if not equal, at least more so of a say in what they do. The differences in the relationship structure changes the dynamic of the girls relationship, so that the movie presents the girls slowly drifting away, while the graphic novel presents a quick ending after a long, and one-sided, friendship.
The graphic novel opens with two separate pictures of Becky and Enid; one of the girls, possibly around the age of ten, standing side by side at a grave, and one that depicts the girls in cap and gowns with Enid raising her middle finger. With these two quick snapshots located on the index page, the reader understands before the novel has begun the relationship of these two girls has already existed for a long time. The graphic novel opens with the girls watching t.v. together. Enid tells Becky about two people that she swears are Satanists. When Becky is portrayed during this scene she is watching the television, and while she does respond with appropriate responses, she is not engaged in the conversation. Enid proclaims that they “have to follow them someday” (14). Becky in obviously not enthused by this prospect but relents when Enid gives her a hard time. Zwigoff changes the scene so the girls are together when Enid sees the Satanists.
The Satanist scene opens with Enid sitting in the diner sketching the Satanists in her sketchbook; she is so engrossed in drawing the man and woman that she does not respond when Becky sits down, Becky has to speak to get her attention. This diner scene begins the divergence of Enid and Becky’s paths in the movie.
Becky asks about the time frame of looking for an apartment, but Enid casually blows Becky off making an excuse about her summer school. Becky notes that “it’s so weird that [they’re] finally out of high school.” Enid looks slightly uncomfortable at Becky’s sentiment, she shifts both her body and her eyes, but she responds with a non-committed “yeah, it really hasn’t hit me yet.” While Becky is excited about the prospect of moving forward, Enid is still hanging on to the past. When the Satanists leave, Enid excitedly proclaims they should to follow them, and Becky responds excitedly with a “totally have to.” Becky is not the passive follower from the novel, she is an active participant in Enid’s ideas.
As the girls follow the Satanists the scene in the movie shifts to a scene that happens much later in the graphic novel. Instead of Enid dragging Becky across town on a city bus to an unknown destination, the girls stumble across the new 50’s diner. The dynamic of the relationship is again changed by this simple shifting of scenes. Enid has not dragged an unenthusiastic, but willing, Becky across town. Zwigoff changed very little about the actual scene from the book. The conversation is condensed to focus on the search of the personal ads, which is still Becky’s idea, as is her follow up suggestion of calling the man from the ad. By Zwigoff placing Becky’s suggestion at the beginning of the movie, instead of the middle, he is placing Becky on equal footing with Enid. In the novel, Becky’s suggestion to check the personal ads, and then to call the man in the ad, is contrasted against a prank call that Enid had made earlier. By having Becky make the suggestion in the middle of his novel, Clowes has already enforced Enid as the dominant figure. Becky making a suggestion for an activity for them to do represents a break in their relationship.
An obvious strain in the movie relationship is when Enid shows up at Becky’s work wearing the latex mask from an adult novelty shop. In the graphic novel, Enid calls Becky on the phone to tell her about going to the novelty shop. Zwigoff has changed this scene from the girls talking about Enid’s loss of virginity to Becky pushing Enid about getting a job. Becky’s shift away from high school is picking up speed, while Enid is still clinging to what she knows. Becky tells Enid “You’ll see, you get totally tired of all the creeps, and losers, and weirdos.” Enid’s face conveys a sense of shock at Becky’s changing attitude. With her “you’ll see” Becky displays her feelings of being more experienced than Enid. When Becky shifts the conversation to Enid finding a job, Enid looks down and begins to blow off the importance that Becky attaches to the idea. Becky looks exasperated, but all she responds with is her disbelief that Enid went to the novelty shop without her. The strain is felt by both girls, but neither is ready for the final break.
The final break happens in the novel and in the book while discussing living together. The discussion of Becky and Enid living together in the novel takes place over two pages. Becky is feeling the potential loss of Enid’s friendship if Enid goes away to college. Becky suggests that she could follow Enid to Strathmore, not to attend college but merely to live with Enid, but Enid does not want Becky to come. Becky is the one that does not want anything to change, she is frightened of her life being different, but Enid wants to change, she wants to forget who she’s been up until this point, and to Enid, Becky represents what Enid wants to forget. After this discussion, the relationship doesn’t exist anymore. Becky and Enid talk one last time, but the conversation is of two acquaintances rather than of two best friends. In the movie, the discussion is an actual fight between the friends. Enid accuses Becky of “still living out some seventh grade fantasy.” Becky retorts that Enid will be living with her dad for the rest of her life. Becky is ready to embrace the grown-up world and Enid just wants things to stay the way they are. As with the novel, there is another meeting of the girls. Becky has taken charge of her own life and has begun to move herself into an apartment. Enid while saying she’s going to be bringing her stuff later, still appears to be uncertain about the change. Enid never shows back up with her stuff.
The goodbye between the girls takes place in different ways in the movie. In the novel, Enid watches Becky through a glass window and says “You’ve grown into a very beautiful young woman” (80). Those words are the only ones on the page. This silence of Enid’s is juxtaposed against almost an entire novel of Enid talking, this silence is the end. These few words represent Enid’s realization that not only is everything changing, everything already has changed. They aren’t little girls anymore, and it’s time to live as adults. This is the first real compliment she has paid to Becky. Enid has realized that the dynamic of their relationship has changed, Becky no longer needs Enid. The final boxes show Enid getting on the bus and leaving town, on her journey to finding herself. In the movie, the final goodbye is a reworking of a scene from the book. The girls sit on the bus-stop bench holding hands. In the book the bench represents several changes: the Satanists have apparently separated and Norman is no longer there due to the bus-stop being re-activated. In the movie the bench is not Norman’s bench, but it still represents the final change for the girls. They sit quietly, holding hands. Becky looks sadly at Enid and asks, “What are you going to do now?” Enid does not know, but Becky is not included in her unknown plans. Becky leaves to go to work, representing the different shift in the girls’ maturity and the girls shift away from one another. As Becky and Enid hold hands they look at one another with concern. This goodbye is a sad one for both of them. Becky stands and gently rubs the top of Enid’s hand with her thumb. The simple gesture is often seen between people who care for one another, it is both stimulates the nerve endings on the hand as well as comforts the recipient of the gesture. It represents their kiss goodbye. They drop their hands simultaneously, neither one pulling away from the other, while at the same time, it is Becky who walks out of the shot.
In both versions of Ghost World, the ending of the friendship is hard for both girls. In the movie, Becky and Enid are two strong girls who drift apart as Becky continues to grow. The novel depicts Becky as a needy accessory to Enid’s life. In the novel it is Enid who is ready to move on, and the separation comes as Becky realizes she is no longer wanted. Within the scope of the movie, the girls were allowed to grow and drift apart rather than an abrupt change coming from an identity crisis that Enid is facing in the book. This growth is allowed by the shift in Becky’s role in her relationship with Enid.
Youmakemehappy's Weblog 