Melissa Learish
Mrs. Rutt-Houser
AP Senior English: Period 2
14 April 2015

The Devil [and I] Wears Prada

It is every girl’s dream to graduate college, move to the big city, and risk everything in order to fulfill their dream. In fields such as writing, publishing, and editing, one must be willing to start from the bottom in order to claw their way to the top. One must take any job available to them that will potentially create powerful connections to help pursue their goals. Andrea Sachs is no exception. Fresh out of college, she acquires a job in New York City that every person trying to break in to the fashion industry would die to have: junior personal assistant to the editor in chief of Runway magazine, Miranda Priestly. Ironically enough, Miranda is anything but
“priest”-ly. She takes advantage of Andrea, forcing her to complete humiliating, impossible tasks for her. To make matters worse, Andrea does not exactly fit the image of someone working at
Runway magazine in terms of her mentality and her physical appearance. Awkward, a size six
(practically obese in her line of work), and at the bottom of the corporate food chain, she is less than thrilled to be put into this position. However, she keeps her goal in mind, and this encourages her to put on a happy face as she absorbs the torment she receives from her colleagues. Outside of the office, Andrea lives with her boyfriend. The stress of Andrea (Andy)’s job takes its toll on their relationship, and it eventually breaks under the weight. The story concludes in both the film and the novel with Andy quitting her personal assistant job to fulfill her dream of writing. Director David Frankel and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna attempt the complexity of the story in the film adaptation, released in 2006. The film differs greatly from the novel, although the general idea of the tormented Andy being changed by society taking its toll on her personal life and her personal views of herself remain the same. The similarities, however, are relatively sparse. Certain developments in the plot and significant details of Lauren
Weisberger’s novel The Devil Wears Prada are deviated from or omitted entirely in David
Frankel’s film adaptation which, therefore, slightly decreases the intensity of the theme of the novel: staying true to oneself and resisting the pressure of conforming to meet social standards created, in this case, in the workplace, fashion industry, and the city. Author Lauren Weisberger used her own personal experiences to write her New York
Times Bestseller novel, as many authors do, by reflecting on her time spent as a young writer in
Manhattan looking for her big break. After traveling all over Europe, Asia, and Africa following her graduation from Cornell University, she returned to the U.S to fulfill her dreams of becoming a known writer. Her inspiration for the novel was described by Weisberger herself as she says,
“My first job after returning to the U.S and moving to Manhattan was the Assistant to the Editor- in-Chief of Vogue, Anna Wintour. I became proficient in the language of stilettos and Starbucks before moving to Departures Magazine, where I wrote 100-word reviews by day and took writing classes at night” (Weisberger). Critics’ assumptions have stated that the character of
Miranda Priestly was a parallel to Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, and Weisberger was projecting her frustration onto this extremely overemphasized persona. Weisberger, however, denies these allegations. It is easily understood that the awkward, out-of-place persona that
Weisberger creates for Andy Sachs is a reflection of how the author felt while in her Assistant position at Vogue. In both the text and the film adaptation, Andy is repeatedly reminded that she is too many sizes larger than the rest of the employees, even though she is the same size as everyone else. They tell her that her clothes are wrong, her work ethic is wrong, and that her personality is wrong. The physical appearance of Andy is one of the few things that is not changed in the film from the original text. Referring back to the original theme, the first time that
Andy allows her colleagues to change her appearance to conform with their standards is also the first time that we see her beginning to abandon her true morals and values. At the same time,
Weisberger includes instances of “reality checks” that Andy experiences as she performs these ridiculous tasks for Miranda. For example, after nearly crashing her car, panicking about the possibility of losing her job, and becoming near hysterical with stress, Andy discovers that her most recent assignment is to retrieve Miranda’s Porsche in order to pick up Madelaine,
Miranda’s French bulldog puppy. This would be enough to drive anyone to insanity, but Andy instead questions her motives for why she is completing these asinine tasks. Weisberger writes,
“By the time we reached Miranda’s building, the pup was nearly hysterical. I tried to soothe her, but she could sense my insincerity- and besides, I had no free hands with which to offer a reassuring pat or nuzzle. So this is what four years of diagramming and deconstructing books, plays, short stories, and poems were for: a chance to comfort a small, white, batlike bulldog while trying not to demolish someone else’s really, really expensive car. Sweet life. Just as I had always dreamed” (Weisberger 6). This takes place very early in the novel, and happens less and less as the story progresses. In comparison, Frankel’s film adaptation includes far fewer instances of Andy being reminded of what she is really doing this job for. As a matter of fact,
Andy’s boyfriend, up-and-coming restaurant cook Nate Cooper, is the only one who seems to constantly remind Andy of her aspirations and true intentions as a hopeful writer. Andy ignores these “reality checks” from her boyfriend who only wants to help her reach her dreams. This will eventually contribute to the downfall of the relationship. An example of Nate’s not-so-subtle reminders to remember her goals and to not lose sight of what is important is seen during a fight after Nate discovers that Andy will be going to Paris instead of Emily. McKenna writes, NATE. I think it’s great. Going to Paris. A big opportunity. ANDY. I know, but it means I can’t go to California and- NATE. Please. You were never coming with me. ANDY. Look. I know you’re upset because I’ve been so busy, missed your birthday. NATE. Andy, please. I don’t care about that stuff. It’s you. You’re changing. ANDY. That’s not true. NATE. You used to be thoughtful, down-to-earth, no bullshit. When you started that job you laughed at the Runway girls, their vanity, their pettiness, the way they worshipped Miranda. And now you’ve become one of them. Some new creature. Mirandy. ( McKenna).
The reason Andy is not the one experiencing these “reality checks” as often in the film as she does in the text is because Frankel wanted to emphasize the immense amount of control that
Miranda has over her. She is no longer her own person, but a person that Miranda has shaped in her image. Andy, in a way, is more human in this sense throughout the film. It is easy for a person to conform and mold themselves without even realizing that it is occurring. The Andy persona that Weisberger creates in the text is one that would be less likely to emerge out of a person in that situation. Therefore, Frankel humanizes the character of Andy in order to create a more drastic contrast between the person that she once was, and the person that Miranda has shaped her into becoming. There are many important details that are included in the text of The Devil Wears Prada that are not included in the film. However, the film is also able to utilize visual and audio techniques to enhance the audience member’s experience and perception of the story. For this reason, and depending on factors such as preference, level of literary appreciation, and overall mental acuity, one may find that the movie offers a better representation of the theme of the story, which is to stay true to oneself and resisting the pressure to conform to social standards.
Many audience members who had read the novel prior to seeing the film found that the acting was comical and made for an interesting story, but the details that were changed were disappointing. For example, a reviewer on the popular movie rating site Rotten Tomatoes wrote of his experience from reading the novel to then seeing the film by writing, “Having read the source novel not too long ago, I was disappointed with some of the changes, but I have to say they were not bad changes. The Devil Wears Prada is a hilarious comedy with an always fantastic Meryl Streep (deserving of that Oscar nom.) and Anne Hathaway delivering a great performance. The story isn't much, but the characters are genuine and relatable. At the end of the day, The Devil Wears Prada is witty and good evening comedy” (Rotten Tomotoes). Some of the details may have been excluded because the director did not find them important to the story itself, but it may also have been in order to focus on the film techniques instead. One technique that was used often was Mickey Mousing. Often when something bad was about to happen, or when Miranda was making Andy perform another ridiculous task, the same suspenseful yet trendy and modern music would play in time to her motions (which normally included a lot of awkward running and tripping). Weisberger did an impeccable job of describing each action in a similar way. It is not uncommon for directors to leave out details of a text that would otherwise be found extremely important. When an audience member sees something, such as a symbol, that repeatedly occurs throughout the film, it may not be as noticeable because of the other sights, sounds, and experience that they are trying to absorb. Including a detail such as having Miranda
Priestly wear a white Hermes scarf every day probably wouldn’t make much of an impact at all on a film-going audience. However, when the reader picks up on the fact that the white Hermes scarf is such an immense symbol for Miranda’s false purity, it adds to the “devil” persona that
Weisberger has created through Miranda’s character. Other small details, outlined in a comparison from thatwasnotinthebook include “Miranda is British in the novel, American in the movie, Andy sells her clothes to make money and gives a Chanel purse to her mother and a dress to a girl who had written to Miranda in the book, she gives all of her clothes to Emily in the movie, Andy’s relationship with her boyfriend is over in the book, it seems like they might rekindle their relationship in the movie, Emily is American in the book and British in the movie,
Andrea is a blonde in the book but is brunette in the movie, Alex breaks up with Andrea in the book, but Andy breaks up with Nate in the movie, Eduardo makes Andy sing and act out songs before buzzing her through, this doesn’t happen in the movie, Miranda always wore a white
Hermes scarf in the book, this doesn’t happen in the movie, Andrea’s boyfriend is named Alex
Fineman and he is an elementary school teacher in the book, her boyfriend’s name is Nate
Cooper and he is a cook in a restaurant in the movie, Christian Collinsworth is a young up and coming writer in the book, Christian Thompson is a famous writer and a bit older in the movie,
Andy graduated from Brown University in the book, she graduated from Northwestern
University in the movie, while in Paris Andy receives a call telling her that Lily has had an accident while drunk driving and she ends up in the hospital in a coma, this doesn’t happen in the movie, and after Libby’s accident Miranda wants Andy to stay and Andy realizes she is becoming more like her and tells her ‘F*** you’ and is fired, and in the movie Andy throws her cellphone into a fountain and walks away” (thatwasnotinthebook). Some details were changed for less significant reasons. For example, the only reason that Andy is blonde in the novel but brunette in the film is because Weisberger was modeling the character of Andy after herself, and
Weisberger has blonde hair. Also, brunette hair is socially seen as inferior to blonde hair, which adds to the “awkwardness” factor of Andy. The differences in colleges that Andy graduates from in the book vs film also is significant. She graduates from Brown University in the book, a reflection of Weisberger’s Ivy League education. It also creates the factor of wasting four years of hard work for her Ivy League degree just to do asinine tasks such as “Miranda had called this morning. It took only a few moments for her to outline what she wanted, although it took me forever to interpret it…So when she mumbled something about getting the Harry Potter books for the twins and having them flown to Paris, intuition told me this was going to interfere with my weekend…Emily looked at me with her usual mix of disgust and pity. ‘Since the book comes out tomorrow and they’re not here to buy it, she wants you to pick up two copies and bring them to Teterboro. The jet will take them to Paris,’ she summed up coldly, daring me to comment on the ludicrousness of the instructions’ (Weisberger 89). The instructions are even more impossible in the movie, when Miranda tells Andy not to get the books, but the manuscript of the book because the next book in the series was not released yet. Details like these are included/ excluded to exemplify the “devil” persona that describes Miranda and the “just trying to make it” attitude of Andy. In conclusion, Certain developments in the plot and significant details of Lauren
Weisberger’s novel The Devil Wears Prada are deviated from or omitted entirely in David
Frankel’s film adaptation which, therefore, slightly decreases the intensity of the theme of the novel: staying true to oneself and resisting the pressure of conforming to meet social standards created, in this case, in the workplace, fashion industry, and the city. The numerous film deviations from the original text plot are included because, while Weisberger is able to create a visual image in the reader’s mind using literary devices such as symbols, motif, imagery, etc.,
Frankel does not need to use these devices in order to convey the message. He is able to utilize film techniques to create a similar effect on the film-going audience. However, whether the story is being told to an audience member or to an avid reader, the message remains the same: do not let anyone, or anything, change your way of thinking. Keep your morals and values in mind even when your job and future career depends upon it. Stay true to yourself, and the experience will push you to where you want to be.

Works Cited

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The Devil Wears Prada. Dir. David Frankel. Prod. Wendy Finerman. By Aline Brosh McKenna. Perf. Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Stanley Tucci. 20th Century Fox, 2006.

"The Devil Wears Prada." Rotten Tomotoes. Flixter Inc, 2006. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.

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Travers, Peter. "The Devil Wears Prada." Rolling Stone. N.p., 23 June 2006. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.

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"What's the Difference between The Devil Wears Prada the Book and The Devil Wears Prada the Movie?" Differences between The Devil Wears Prada Book vs Movie Page 0. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.

Weisberger, Lauren. The Devil Wears Prada. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Print.