Cano-1Dan CanoMrs. FicarrotaEnglish 10 Honors9
December 1996 The Chamber: A Look Into the Novel and Film
Stories about crime prove to be a strong part of America's entertainment
in this day. In The Chamber, John Grisham writes about a Klansman who
is convicted of murder and a grandson who tries to save his grandfather
is on death row. This story is now a major motion picture.This story
carries a strong emotional following to it because it both questions and
supports the death penalty in different ways. Grisham shows this when he
writes: " ' I've hurt a lot of people, Adam, and I haven't always stopped to
think about it. But when you have a date with the grim reaper, you think
about the damage you've done.' " The messages about the death penalty
are brought about in different ways in the film and in the novel. Although
the novel and film adaptation of The Chamber have some significant
differences, the plot and character perspectives are used to convey a
political message about the death penalty. (378) The various
characters in The Chamber have different traits and backgrounds that
affect their perspectives on certain issues. Sam Cayhall is one of the
main characters in the story whose background is filled with hate because
of his connection with the Klan. "The second member of the team was a
Klansman by the name of Sam Cayhall," "The FBI knew that Cayhall's
father had been a Klansman, . . . " (Grisham 2-3). Sam, who is brought
up under the influence of the Ku Klux Klan, uses "politically incorrect"
terms for other minorities when he talks with Adam Cayhall in death row. "
' You Jew boys never quit, do you?' ", " ' How many nigger partners do
you have?' " " ' Just great. The Jew bastards have sent a greenhorn to
save me. I've known for a long time
Cano-2that they secretly
wanted me dead, now this proves it. I killed some Jews, now they want to
kill me. I was right all along.' " (Grisham 77-78). These statements reflect
Sam Cayhall's intense hate for others which is derived from his young

case becomes news again. Grisham tells about Lee's problem with
alcohol in many ways. " 'All right, dammit. So I'm an alcoholic. Who can
blame me?' " (302). " 'No you won't, Lee. You're not drinking any more
tonight. Tomorrow I'll take you to the doctor, and we'll get some help.' "
(304). Lee is Sam's daughter, and therefore she had to live with the
memory that her father was a murderer. The plot and characters have
some differences between themselves in the novel and the film. The
melodramatic film takes away from the novel's descriptive plot. The first
major difference I noticed was in the level of detail. The novel seemed to
be much more descriptive than the film. The film basically focused on the
relationships between the characters which left out much of the novel's
detailed plot. The major part of the novel's detail which was left out of the
film was the characters. There were characters written about in the novel
that were not included in the film. The first, and most significant was
Jeremiah Dogan. Dogan was the Imperial Wizard for the Klan in
Mississippi in the beginning of the book. He is the one who set's up the
entire bombing which Sam Cayhall is convicted of single-handedly doing.
"He was not stupid. In fact, the FBI later admitted Dogan was quite
effective as a terrorist because he delegated the dirty work to small,
autonomous groups of hit men who worked completely independent of
one another." (Grisham 2). The difference between the film and the
novel that disappointed me most was the minor but
Cano-4highly significant changes of the plot. In the novel, the first three
chapters of the book describe the events leading up to the bombing in
detail. The movie starts with the actual bomb going off itself. The
beginning of the book that was left out was one of the most interesting
parts of the novel and should not have been left out of the film. (Grisham
1-22). John Grisham, the author of The Chamber, does not approve of
Universal's film adaptation. "As his asking price has soared,
so has his involvement. Grisham had approval of the script, director and

justice. These are the two sides of the coin which is the death penalty in
The Chamber. As Grisham writes it, Ruth Kramer's situation is well
described by Lee in this line: " 'Bitter? She lost her entire
family. She's never remarried. Do you think she cares if my father
intended to kill her children? Of course not. She just knows they're dead,
Adam, dead for twenty-three years now. She knows they were killed by a
bomb planted by my father, and if he'd been home with his family instead
of riding around at night with his idiot buddies, little Josh and John would
not be dead.' " (61). The Chamber is a story about life and death and how
it is treated by different people. In the film, The Chamber more about
relationships. " 'The film is about a young man, very alone in the world,
connecting with his grandfather and trying to understand who he is.' "
(Greer 4). Despite the differences between the two, The Chamber proves
to show a political message on the infliction of the death penalty in
America.