Social Studies Similarities and Differences

Author's Note: I wrote this essay about similarities and differences between the movie The Patriot and the book Hope's Revolutionary War Diary.

Many deaths during the 1700’s were a result of the war. People that were not part of the British Army were effortlessly killed. Luckily for Hope, she was a girl and during this era most women and young girls were spared and were responsible for the care of the household and other children. Some of the citizens desired war because they didn’t want the king to take over their land. Other citizens wanted their freedom and felt that they had no other choice but to fight for it.

A similarity between Hope’s life and the lives of all of the characters in the movie, The Patriot, was that they both had families that were separated. When the father had to leave for war with his son in The Patriot, he was forced to leave his other children behind with their aunt, because their mother died. In the story, Hope’s Revolutionary War Diary, Hope’s father and brother went to war separating them from Hope and the rest of their family. During the war, Hope’s brother is captured and held as a prisoner of war. In the movie, one of the generals captures seventeen men from the militia. The men that were captured were prisoners, but eventually someone comes to save them and they are able to be set free. Hope’s brother was also released from prison and allowed to go home, but had to stay hidden so the British wouldn’t kill him.

In the movie, the father had to take his children to hide them because he didn’t want any soldiers to kill them. The movie and story are similar in the way that the British invaded both of their homes and villages. The British would deliberately set the houses and churches on fire. The buildings burned to the ground and killed some people that were in the houses. One day when Hope was outside in the town in the distance she could see the soldiers marching toward her to begin their invasion of her town. In the movie, The Patriot, the children woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of horses footsteps, another unwanted invasion. The little girls had to wake up their aunt and immediately go into hiding. The British burnt down their house, but they were able to escape before succumbing to the smoke and fire.

There are many more similarities, but one difference between the movie and the story is that the story was based on the point of view of Hope, a young girl. The reason I believe it was from her point of view because the story was told based of entries from her diary. In the movie, they had many different points of views, switching from character to character. For example, they switched from the father to the son, to the children. If the book talked about how other people were seeing the war then it would have been similar to the movies changing view points.

Another difference between the two is Hope’s father wasn’t a significant character in the war. His role was that of a soldier that fought hard but he never was promoted within the ranks of the military and he never desire to do so. The father in The Patriot took on more of a leadership position in the war compared to Hope’s father. The father in the movie made and commanded his own militia and was in charge along side of his son.

In conclusion, there were many things that were similar and many things that were different when comparing the book We are the Patriots and the movie, The Patriot.