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When novels are adapted for the screen, the fictional characters are inevitablytransformed in the adaptation process, and so is the thematic content. This studyconsiders the characters and the thematic content of a story as migrants who leavethe land of the novel in order to adapt to a life on the screen with transformed selfidentities.The five articles that this thesis is based on focus on what happens to therepresentation of adulthood when novels are adapted for the screen. The articles testmodels for analysing thematic representation using popular works of fiction such asAtonement, Fifty Shades of Grey, Gone Girl, Me before You, Room, Shutter Island, The DaVinci Code, The Martian, The Road, Up in the Air, and novels by Patrick McCabe.Because novel-screenplay-film adaptations comprise alternative versions of astory, with their complementary lines of reasoning, they constitute particularly richthematic representations and metaphors for what social adaptation requires. In thatcontext, the thesis regards novel-screenplay-film adaptations as processes and objectsat the same time, each version an integral part of a greater dynamic whole.Relating to current theories of the attraction of fiction, chapter 1 presents theaim of the study. Chapter 2 describes the novel-screenplay-film adaptation processas a non-linear, two-way process of adaptation and appropriation, and a receptionbasedmodel for regarded adapted characters as fictional migrants. Chapter 3outlines a pragmatic model, with the hero’s journey as a foundation, to analyse thestructure of thematic lines of reasoning in fiction in general and adaptations inspecific, together with thematic markers. The chapter also presents the markers ofadulthood used in the articles, before chapter 4 and 5 summarise and discuss the fivearticles and implications related to adaptation studies, pedagogy, and screenwriting.