The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil wears Prada is the classic story of a girl who has to choose between the shortest path to her goal and the right path. After trying the shortest path for a while, the girl finally gives it all up only a short while before she is about to succeed and starts again on the right path.

If you compare the novel and the book, both seem to convey a different message. While the book seem to preach following your heart to your goal, the movie has been twisted to advocate "Good wins over Evil" where Andrea is good and Miranda is Evil. Needless to say, I like the book better.



Andrea Sachs is a graduate in English and is about to start her career. She gets a lucky break in the Runway magazine as the junior assitant of the legendary Editor-in-Chief, Miranda Priestly. Though she joins a fashion magazine, Andrea's ultimate goal is to work for the New Yorker and she sees Runway as the shortest route to it. But after working with the "boss from hell" Miranda for about an year, she realizes that her priorities rest with her family and friends. She gives it all up and starts out on the longer route by writing short fiction.

All through this, Andrea comes out as a girl who is in a dilemna about what path to take even though her goal is always clear to her. When she is ignoring her family and friends, her conscious always keeps chiding her for this. At the end she has the guts to throw away a good chance of reaching her goal, when she needs to be with her friend. The novel ends with she and Alex, her boyfriend with whom she has a fallout because of her job, staying as friends but taking time away from each other. The movie shows them getting back together as if nothing went wrong.

Miranda Priestly's treatment of her juniors cannot be called pleasant at any time during the novel. In fact, she makes life perfectly miserable for them. But on the other hand, she is a successful professional woman who adores her daughter and spends considerable time on phone with her husband. This streak of her character has been completely turned around in the movie where she is shown to be divorcing her husband at the end.

Out of Andrea and Miranda, I would say that Miranda's character sketch is far more interesting.

In case you are in a dilemna over your career and would like to cross over to a field that seems to be closer to your heart, reading this book may give you the strength to take that final step.