The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
Novel vs. Film
Emma Wachholz Due to the effects WWI had on the country, America, especially New York, became a booming population of wealthy partyseekers, war heros who wanted to forget, and bootleggers providing incredibly cheap alcohol to the majority. In the novel
The Great Gatsby
, F. Scott
Fitzgerald writes about the American Dream in the 1920s and the problems it can bring to pass.
The director Baz Luhrman created a film in 2013 inspired by this novel that is criticized as overemphasizing the glitz, glamour, and materialism of the story. In relativity of other films based off a novel, Luhrman’s interpretation of
The Great Gatsby covers most if not all of
Fitzgerald’s main themes and ideas he intended to portray to the reader. The main theme of this book, in which all other themes support, is the American Dream and how it can create an illusion of happiness to many of those who try to obtain it. Jay Gatsby, one of the main characters, is one of these indiviuals who strive for the American Dream, yet fall short. In the novel, Gatsby throws tremendous parties in hopes of one day finding his lover,
Daisy Buchanan. After jumping through a variety of hoops, he is able to be reunited with Daisy and intends on living his life with her from then on. At the climax of the story, Gatsby desperately tries to convince Daisy to confess her love for him and only him, but she ends up choosing her husband, Tom. The narrator, Nick Carraway, explains to the reader that Gatsby had
this impossible illusion he could not grasp. Gatsby tried to cover his loneliness and desire with what he believed could make him happy, which is precisely the illusion of the American Dream.
In Luhrman’s film version of this, he portrays this delusion quite skillfully. Especially in the climax of the film, the scene in which Gatsby is confronted by Tom about his wife’s affair with him, viewers can see the walls that come down around Gatsby as he
Novel vs. Film
Emma Wachholz Due to the effects WWI had on the country, America, especially New York, became a booming population of wealthy partyseekers, war heros who wanted to forget, and bootleggers providing incredibly cheap alcohol to the majority. In the novel
The Great Gatsby
, F. Scott
Fitzgerald writes about the American Dream in the 1920s and the problems it can bring to pass.
The director Baz Luhrman created a film in 2013 inspired by this novel that is criticized as overemphasizing the glitz, glamour, and materialism of the story. In relativity of other films based off a novel, Luhrman’s interpretation of
The Great Gatsby covers most if not all of
Fitzgerald’s main themes and ideas he intended to portray to the reader. The main theme of this book, in which all other themes support, is the American Dream and how it can create an illusion of happiness to many of those who try to obtain it. Jay Gatsby, one of the main characters, is one of these indiviuals who strive for the American Dream, yet fall short. In the novel, Gatsby throws tremendous parties in hopes of one day finding his lover,
Daisy Buchanan. After jumping through a variety of hoops, he is able to be reunited with Daisy and intends on living his life with her from then on. At the climax of the story, Gatsby desperately tries to convince Daisy to confess her love for him and only him, but she ends up choosing her husband, Tom. The narrator, Nick Carraway, explains to the reader that Gatsby had
this impossible illusion he could not grasp. Gatsby tried to cover his loneliness and desire with what he believed could make him happy, which is precisely the illusion of the American Dream.
In Luhrman’s film version of this, he portrays this delusion quite skillfully. Especially in the climax of the film, the scene in which Gatsby is confronted by Tom about his wife’s affair with him, viewers can see the walls that come down around Gatsby as he