Alexis+Beren

I am comparing the movie A Walk to Remember to "Shrew."

A Walk to Remember is about a boy and a girl who are complete and total opposites. Jamie Sullivan is a reserved Christian girl and Landon Carter is your typical "bad-ass high school boy." In this movie Landon is our Katherine from "Shrew." He refuses to live by the rules and wants to be nothing more than his own person. The obvious plot on "The Taming of the Shrew" is that Petruchio is doing everything he can to change Katherine into an idea woman. In the movie Jamie, our "Petruchio" has to work with Landon who is very true to Katherine. Jamie sets a goal to change Landon and bring him out of his unhealthy ways of life. Through the entire first half of the movie Jamie skillfully "tames" Landon in a way that isn't conventional and not very obvious, just the way Petruchio tames Katherine in the end. One major difference I have to point out in the characters, other than the fact that the genders are reversed is that Jamie is extremely more reserved than Petruchio was. However, she is just as slick as Petruchio.

//Petruchio//: For then she never looks upon her lure. Another way I have to man my haggard, To make her come and know her keeper's call.//** (Act 4; Scene 1; 191-194)
 * //And, till she stoop, she must not be full-gorged,

In this monologue Petruchio is describing how he will tame Katherine. In the chosen lines above he has compared her to a falcon, and he shall tame her as one. He has devised a plan that will make Katherine be civilized towards him in order to get what she needs. The actions he plans on taking are, starving Katherine and depriving her of sleep until she realizes that she must do what he wants her to in order to regain her necessities.

In this scene of the movie Landon's best friend Eric is talking to him about Jamie. First he makes a comment about the fact that now Landon is doing things more like Jamie, that he isn't the rebel he used to be, and then Eric explains to Landon "This girl's changed you, and you dont even know it man." At this point in the movie Landon is starting to spend more time with Jamie and he is slowly being "tamed." He no longer hangs out with his crew of delinquents and he seems to care about others more. This relates to "Shrew" because it shows that Jamie has been taming Landon as Petruchio tame Katherine, by doing things that seem normal for themselves but have another motive behind them. In "Shrew" you get to read the thoughts Petruchio has so you understand the true motive behind his actions, but in A Walk to Remember you don't realize that Jamie is taming Landon until it has already occurred.

Landon has just brushed of Jamie at school in front of his friends. He denied the relationship they have in order to keep up appearances. In the scene pictured above Landon has come to apologize to Jamie for his actions, something he probably would not have done before he met Jamie. However she makes him feel guilty for what he did and refuses to help him. Landon tries to explain but his words just backfire on him, because Jamie switches them around for her purposes.

//Petruchio: For she's not froward, but modest as the dove; (Act 2; Scene 1; 309-310)
 * If she be curst, it is for policy,

Katherine has just tried to tell her father that she hates Petruchio and doesn't want to be with him, but Petruchio silences her by changing her words around to make Baptista believe that she is only acting that way because it is customary for her to act in such a way.

In this scene Jamie confronts Landon about the fact that he cares to much what other people think about him. He feels that he must keep up appearances in order to make it through the day.

**////Petruchio:// That she shall still be curst in company. (Act 2; Scene 1; 323-324)
 * //'Tis bargained 'twixt us twain, being alone,

Petruchio is explaining to Bianca's suitors that Katherine and him agreed that she would continue to act like a shrew in public because it is customary for her, and she feels like she needs to continue to act that way. //** There are many things that connect A Walk To Remember to "The Taming of the Shrew," and they are all based around the changes in a relationship that take them from a pair of people that hate each other and are forced to interact, to a couple that have fought through many changes and differences to love each other in the end.