Grapes of Wrath

Independently of each other, the novel and the fiction film can be conceived as systems, i.e. as autonomous sets made up of distinctive elements subject to constant interaction. In this way, the novel and the film system are built partly on the basis of the network of relationships between characters and situations that evolve in time and space of the represented diégesis. These elements are so intimately linked that, as systems theory teaches us, as soon as one of them changes, the other elements and even the entire system change. Moreover,although the novel and the film are initially considered in their entirety as global and autonomous systems, they also comprise subsystems: for example, the interactions between two or more characters can be considered as subsystems. However, these subsystems are permeable to change because they have to undergo, throughout the fictional narrative, more or less numerous and important transformations. In this sense, the fictional system and the film system must be understood as systems.