Analysis Of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, elegantly captures the essence of the Jazz Age, the soaring prose reflecting a time defined by glittering dynamism and evolution while underscored with rampant excess and moral decay, as detailed in Nick Carraway’s account of his experience in New York City. Although the titular character’s motivations, the pursuit of the time he lost with Daisy, is the main force driving the plot of the novel, The Great Gatsby is undeniably a coming-of-age novel revolving around its narrator, who is arguably one of the few dynamic characters. Despite turning thirty years old at the book’s climax, Nick’s emotional growth, maturation, and loss of innocence result in a character that fulfills the conventions of this
The film, taking advantage of its medium, utilizes contrast in order to highlight the change that Nick undergoes, particularly in the beginning. The dark shots of Nick at the start, looking worn after his experience in New York, is jarring against the following scene of Nick, entering the city for the first time, shot in bright light colours: this visual contrast, aided by Tobey Maguire’s wide-eyed portrayal, serves to emphasize the vast development in Nick’s character, caused by the journey he undergoes. This evolution is particularly prominent in the film, even when compared to the novel. Although Nick witnesses, and partakes in, immoral behaviour in the novel, which results in his return West, longing for a world that is, “uniform, and at a sort of moral attention for ever” (3), the film continues to elevate Nick’s awareness of the moral depravity of the lifestyle surrounding him. For instance, by the time he is in the sanitorium, Nick is evidently familiar with the rampant alcoholism that seems to be a product of the times, as Luhrmann demonstrates through the integration of Fitzgerald’s quotations. In the introduction of the film, Nick reflects that, “The more in tune with the times we were, the more we drank”, an addition taken from Fitzgerald’s own writing. Through his melancholy contemplation, Nick’s
Although the events of those months clearly reverberated with Nick in the novel, sending him retreating into the familiarity of the West, the film stresses this point strongly: by the end of his time in New York, Nick removes himself entirely from society by entering the sanatorium with the diagnosis of morbid alcoholism, anxiety, depression, and insomnia, undoubtedly the result of the trauma he faced. Yet, as a result of this upheaval, Nick achieves his goal of becoming a writer; prior to the events of The Great Gatsby, he noted that he had not been able to write well, stemming from his emotional immaturity and lack of understanding about the world before witnessing them firsthand. Furthermore, in continuation of Nick’s reliability, exclusive to the film, and his increasingly realistic perception of the world, Gatsby’s character is less idealized and the darker side of him is shown. Although Nick clearly still admires him, noting, as he did in the novel, that Gatsby was, “the only one exempt from his [negative] reaction” (4), the more impartial presentation of the titular character is a man who orders his servants to beat a man who causes a disturbance at his party, who lashes out violently in response to