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"The Great Gatsby": Comparison of The Movie and The Book

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Published: Dec 16, 2021

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Works Cited:

• Furuhata, Y. (2011). Beyond Boundaries: Genre, Narrative, and the Liminal Experience in Miyazaki's Spirited Away. Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema , 3(1), 23-39.
• Lissauer, G. (2015). The Name Game: Spirited Away and the Power of Identity. In A. McMurray & R. Barton Palmer (Eds.), Dreams Rewired: Romanticism , Modernism, and the Cinema of Dreams (pp. 157-173). Amsterdam University Press.
• Matsunaga, K. (2010). Miyazaki's Spirited Away: Film of the Fantastic and Evolving Japanese Folk Symbols. Journal of Religion and Film, 14(2), 1-20.
• Penney, M. (2009). Spirited Away and the Conventions of Japanese Coming-of-Age Narratives. Japanese Studies, 29(2), 239-249.
• Rosenberg, A. (2014). Spirited Away and the Art of Surrender. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/06/30/spirited-away-and-the-art-of-surrender/
• Shingler, A. (2018). Spirited Away: An Interpretation of Its Symbolism. Mythlore, 36(2), 153-168.
• Stroud, S. R. (2013). Good and Evil in Miyazaki's Spirited Away. In M. J. Valdivia (Ed.), The International Handbook of Children, Media, and Culture (pp. 281-298). John Wiley & Sons.

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The Great Gatsby: 9 Big Differences Between The Book And Movie

Here's a rundown of the changes.

Putting together a film based on a highly acclaimed literary work full of phrasings and lines of dialogue that have forever been burned into readers' minds is largely a thankless task. Creating a film that maintains the heart and soul of such a literary work and even many of its most graceful lines is nearly impossible to accomplish, and in that aspect, director Baz Luhrmann has plenty of troubles with The Great Gatsby . F. Scott Fitzgerald's descriptive sentences are almost as important as his dialogue and tossing some of the finest lines from the book into ashy script on the screen isn't the best way to make the most of those moments. Nor is taking creative license in certain big moments in order to speed up the storytelling process.

In other ways, Luhrmann owns his portrayal of The Great Gatsby , keeping the energy and the often frenetic pace of the twenties by speeding forward into nights of partying and langouring through days of idle play. Like the director's other works---especially Moulin Rouge -- The Great Gatsby is noticeably, unmistakably Luhrmann's and whether or not you believe in his vision is largely dependent on your tolerance of the man's idea of spectacle. It would be nearly impossible to outdo Mr. Fitzgerald, and so Luhrmann tries to visually gives us as different a world as possible while still maintaining the quality of the venerable writer's pages. It's not the movie Fitzgerald would have written, but he was never all that good at creating screenplays, anyway.

Following are the nine biggest changes I noticed in my screening of The Great Gatsby . Feel free to remark on any changes you feel may have been more noticeable. There are many spoilers in The Great Gatsby book to movie comparison. Do not delve in if you want the film to be a surprise .

To give a frame to Nick Carraway's narration, Luhrmann introduces us to a broken Nick, who is working with a doctor to recover his health after troubles with alcohol. This seems a little distasteful, since Carraway comes across as a mostly careful and considerate individual. Asking us to see him out of sorts after Gatsby's death is more than a bit of a stretch, especially as Luhrmann also tasks the character with writing The Great Gatsby .

We learn Jordan Baker is an athlete nearly immediately. Though this in itself doesn't mean much, her entire storyline is sped up and her unlikely romance with Nick is cut out for the sake of time. In the book, the two only ever seem to have a casual affection for each another, especially as Jordan is shown to be dishonest, but in the film, she's a blank canvass we never get to know all that much about. This actually makes her character quite a bit more mysterious and likable, though.

Not only is Jordan a tepid version of her novel character, Daisy also lacks a certain spark and an underlying pettiness that propels her character forward in the book. Instead of offering a voice ringing like money, she offers a weak will and a damsel-in-distress persona that doesn't suit the character, or actress Carey Mulligan , either. In the book, she's careless. Here, she's more often thoughtless.

We get an early hint that Gatsby is wistful and waiting for someone before Carraway even goes to New York and gets roaring drunk. He sees his neighbor out on the dock late in the evening, staring across the harbor. It's easy for audience members who have read the book to decipher what he is thinking, but the small moment certainly gives fans an extra foreshadowing of the big reveal in the book.

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While Fitzgerald's book always feels very much a product of a particular period in time, Luhrmann's work always seems like one grand costume party, irrevocably modern and full of rap music. He pairs this with quiet moments between our main characters that give us a breather and result in a stylistic film that manages to feel like Fitzgerald's book and nothing like it at all.

When Nick luncheons with Gatsby and Mr. Wolfsheim, Luhrmann takes us through a secret door in a barbershop and into a speakeasy full of dancing women and at least slightly corrupt men. To prove a point about corruption, Luhrmann even places the police commissioner on the premise. It's a little heavy-handed, but who doesn't want to see a speakeasy in a movie set during prohibition?

When Gatsby is verbally attacked by Tom in New York, much of the dialogue is the same. However, when Gatsby begins to lose control, begins to realize that Daisy is present in the room but may be out of his grasp, his "face that could kill a man" morphs into a childish freak out where Gatsby even screams, "Shut up." The childish antic is a nice callback to the time Carraway chides him for behaving childishly before he meets Daisy for tea.

Tom Buchanan becomes a super villain by the end of the film, painting a murderous image into Wilson's head and convincing him to do the bad deed. Making Tom into an overt bad guy is convenient to the plot, but changing Tom from an unlikable guy into a ruthless villain seems lazy and too cheap of a behavior for the character.

In the end, when Gatsby goes swimming, waiting for Daisy to call, he is shot and taken away from his dream---of success, of getting the girl---while the phone rings in the background. Though we later perceive it is Carraway, for a moment, we get to see Gatsby's great hope swell once more, even as his life dims, and we get to wonder whether or not Daisy is on the line, and what she would say if she was.

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways. 

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How Faithful Is The Great Gatsby ?

Ever since Baz Luhrmann announced that he was adapting F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby­ —and especially after he revealed that he’d be doing it in 3-D—much digital ink has been spilled about the hideous sacrilege that was sure to follow. Nevermind that Luhrmann’s previous adaptation, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet , was quite true to both the language and the spirit of that legendary play; Gatsby , as David Denby puts it in The New Yorker this week, is “ too intricate, too subtle, too tender for the movies ,” and especially for such an unsubtle filmmaker as Luhrmann.

So the argument goes, anyway. In fact, Fitzgerald’s novel, while great, is not, for the most part, terribly subtle. And though it has moments of real tenderness, it also has melodrama, murder, adultery, and, of course, wild parties. In any case, we can put aside, for the moment, the larger question of whether Luhrmann captured the spirit of Gatsby , which is very much open for debate . There’s a simpler question to address first: How faithful was the filmmaker to the letter of Fitzgerald’s book?

Below is a breakdown of the ways in which the new film departs from the classic novel.

The Frame Story Luhrmann’s chief departure from the novel arrives right at the beginning, with a frame story in which the narrator Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), some time after that summer spent with Gatsby & co., has checked into a sanitarium, diagnosed by a doctor of some sort as “morbidly alcoholic.” Fitzgerald’s Nick does refer to Gatsby as “the man who gives his name to this book ” (emphasis mine), so the idea that The Great Gatsby is a text written by Nick is not entirely original with Luhrmann—though the filmmaker takes this much further than Fitzgerald, showing Nick writing by hand, then typing, and finally compiling his finished manuscript. He even titles it, first just  Gatsby , then adding, by hand, “The Great,” in a concluding flourish. ( Fitzgerald himself went through many more potential titles .) As for that morbid alcoholism, Nick claims in the novel that he’s “been drunk just twice in my life,” but the movie slyly implies that he’s in denial, by showing him cross out “once” for “twice,” and then, in the frame story, suggesting that it was far more than that, really.

Jordan and Nick The plot of the film is pretty much entirely faithful to the novel, but Luhrmann and his co-screenwriter Craig Pearce do cut out one of the side stories: the affair between Nick and Jordan Baker, the friend of Daisy’s from Louisville who is a well-known golfer. Daisy promises to set them up, to push them “accidentally in linen closets and … out to sea in a boat,” a line the screenplay keeps—but then, in the film, the matter is dropped. Luhrmann’s Nick says he found Jordan “frightening” at first, a word Carraway doesn’t apply to her in the novel—and later at Gatsby’s we see Jordan whisked away from Nick by a male companion, which doesn’t happen in the book. In the novel, they become a couple and break up near the end of the summer.

The Apartment Party The film, like the novel, is a series of set pieces, including an impromptu party that Tom throws in a Manhattan apartment he keeps for his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, wife of a Queens mechanic. Nick accompanies them, and the film shows Nick sitting quietly in the apartment’s living room while the adulterous couple have loud sex in the bedroom. Fitzgerald doesn’t spell out anything so explicit—but something like that is implied: Tom and Myrtle disappear and reappear before the other guests arrive; Nick reads a book and waits. Luhrmann also shows Myrtle’s sister Catherine giving Nick a pill that she says she got from a doctor in Queens; that’s not in the novel at all. Luhrmann’s Nick wakes up at home, half-dressed, unsure how he got there, while Fitzgerald’s narrator comes to in an apartment downstairs from Tom and Myrtle’s place, owned by one of their friends (and party-guests); he then goes to Penn Station to take the 4 o’clock train home.

Lunch With Wolfsheim In the book, Gatsby takes Nick to lunch at a “well-fanned 42 nd Street cellar,” where he introduces his new friend to Meyer Wolfsheim, a Jewish gangster. In the movie, Gatsby and Nick go to a barber shop with a hidden entrance to a speakeasy, and once inside they see not only Wolfsheim but also the police commissioner—who, in the book as in the film, Gatsby was “able to do … a favor once.” They also see there (if I understood things correctly) Nick’s boss, whom I believe Luhrmann has turned into Tom’s friend Walter Chase. (In the novel, those are two different people, neither of whom we ever actually meet.) The speakeasy features entertainment from a bevy of Josephine Baker-like dancers, who are not mentioned in the book.

Race At least one reviewer—David Denby again—has protested Luhmann’s decision to cast an Indian actor, Amitabh Bachchan, as Wolfsheim, a character based on notorious Jewish gangster Arnold Rothstein. But faithfulness in this case probably would have meant anti-Semitism, since it is very hard to defend Fitzgerald’s characterization of the “small, flat-nosed Jew” with a “large head” and “two fine growths of hair which luxuriated in either nostril.” Casting Bachchan preserves the character’s otherness while complicating the rather gruesome stereotype Fitzgerald employed. Luhrmann appears to have given some thought to this, given that he faithfully keeps key passages from the novel about race: Tom’s trumpeting of a racist book called Rise of the Colored Empires (which had a real-world inspiration ), Nick’s glimpse of apparently wealthy black men and women being driven into Manhattan by a white chauffeur, and Tom’s later diatribe about “intermarriage between black and white.”

The Finnish Woman and Ella Kaye Did you know that Nick Carraway had a maid? This is easy to forget, since Nick seems generally financially a bit strapped, certainly in comparison to his rich neighbors. But in the novel he employs “a Finnish woman who made my bed and cooked breakfast and muttered Finnish wisdom to herself over the electric stove.” She makes a few appearances in the book but is understandably cut from the movie. So is Ella Kaye, the seemingly conniving woman who manages to snag the inheritance of Dan Cody, the rich, drunken yachtsman who first prompts Gatsby on his road to wealth and artifice. In the movie, Cody’s wealth goes to his family.

Gatsby’s Death and Funeral Near the end of the book, Gatsby is murdered by George Wilson, the mechanic husband of Tom’s mistress, who has gotten it into his head that Gatsby killed her—and that, what’s more, he might have been the one she was sleeping with on the side. Fitzgerald doesn’t depict the murder: The book says that Gatsby grabbed a “pneumatic mattress” (i.e., a floater ) and headed to his pool, then Gatsby’s chauffeur hears gun shots. Luhrmann ditches the pneumatic mattress and adds his own dramatic flourish. In both book and movie, Gatsby is waiting for a phone call from Daisy, but in the film, Nick calls, and Gatsby gets out of the pool when he hears the phone ring. He’s then shot, and he dies believing that Daisy was going to ditch Tom and go way with him. None of that happens in the book.

Gatsby is, in both versions, lonely in death, but the film is even crueler to him in this regard, dropping the last-minute appearance of his father and the unexpected arrival at the funeral of a man who Nick previously met in Gatsby’s study. This is the same man who famously points out that Gatsby has real books, but hasn’t cut the pages. We meet him in the movie in that study, but he makes no mention of the books, and his subsequent appearance is dropped entirely.

Read more in Slate about The Great Gatsby .

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Essay: The Great Gatsby – differences and similarities between film and book

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After reading the book, and watching the film there are many differences and similarities that I was able to determine. One of the major differences between both of the works is the meeting between Jay Gatsby, protagonist, and Nick Carraway, narrator. However, the similarities were much more substantial than differences. Gatsby and Nick met at a party that Gatsby had thrown at his mansion. Nick was invited due to the fact that he was Gatsby’s next door neighbor. The plot in the book is the same as the movie, although some of the details are inconsistent in one over the other. In the text, Jordan Baker and Nick bump into each other at one of Gatsby’s extravaganzas, and Jordan goes off to search for her friend Gatsby, who she wanted Nick to meet. They aren’t able to find him. At another point in the story, they end up sitting at a table with some other people. “We were sitting at a table with a man of about my age…’Your face is familiar,’ he said politely” (51). The two men began talking about the war until the conversation turned towards the party. “This is an unusual party for me. I haven’t even seen the host. I live over there… and this man named Gatsby sent over his chauffeur with an invitation… ‘I’m Gatsby,’ he said suddenly (52). The meeting in the movie, however, occurred much differently. They were still at one of Gatsby’s parties, but Gatsby had met Nick in a crowd of people. It appeared as though Gatsby had been searching for him, and when they met, Gatsby knew exactly who Nick was. In the novel, this did not happen. A second major difference that we experience between the movie and the book was the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. In both works, the two were reintroduced through Nick. They both had attended the tea party at Nick’s and their love was rekindled during that event. Gatsby asked Jordan to suggest to Nick the tea party. “‘He wants to know-‘ continued Jordan ‘-if you’ll invite Daisy to your house some afternoon and then let him come over'” (83). “She’s not to know about it. Gatsby doesn’t want her to know. You’re just supposed to invite her to tea” (85). After the invitation was extended to Daisy, some light began to shed upon the small differences. In the movie, Jay Gatsby is already waiting in Nick’s house when Daisy arrives. In the book, Gatsby shows up later on. “An hour later the front door opened nervously and Gatsby in a white flannel suit, silver shirt and gold colored tie hurried in” (89). From this point, Daisy and Gatsby began to see each other. In the book, not all encounters were elaborated upon, but the excessive amount of time they spent with each other was implied. “[Daisy’s husband] was evidently perturbed at Daisy’s running around alone, for on the following Saturday night he came with her to Gatsby’s party” (110). There were several scenes in the movie of Nick and Daisy having tea together, going into town together, and going to a park together. The subtle relationship they had was described in the novel as well as the film, but it was certainly elaborated more in the movie version. Finally, the last difference can be found within the final incidents of the Great Gatsby. The ending of the story is full of deaths. The first one we encounter is Myrtle, Tom’s mistress. The events leading up to her final moments are described in the novel with a substantial amount of detail. “‘I’ve got my wife locked up in there,’ explained Wilson calmly. ‘She’s going to stay there till the day after tomorrow and then we’re going to move away…. A moment later [Myrtle] rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting; before he could move away from his door the business was over… [The car] didn’t stop… Michaelis and this man reached her first but when they had torn open her shirtwaist… they saw that her left breast was swinging loose like a flap and there was no need to listen for the heart beneath. The mouth was wide open and ripped at the corners as though she had choked a little…” (143-145). The movie, on the other hand, did not provide as much information about the death as the book did. The film shows a crowd around Myrtle’s dead body, but the accident is not shown in as much detail as we read about. After George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, was exposed to the fact that the car that killed his wife belonged to Jay Gatsby, he immediately sets out on a manhunt for Gatsby. He arrives at Gatsby’s with a loaded revolver. The movie shows the scene where Gatsby is swimming in his pool, feeling uneasy waiting for Daisy to call him about their plans together. He keeps looking at the patio and chanting Daisy’s name. WIlson hides behind a curtain on the patio and proceeds to aim his gun at Gatsby’s back. He pulls the trigger, and Gatsby falls back into his pool. Another gunshot is fired when Wilson decides to bite the bullet as well. In the novel, Gatsby’s death is not described as much as it is in the movie. It’s barely mentioned that they found him in the pool with blood floating around him and “…the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass…” (170), rather than in the patio. The Great Gatsby we watched in class followed the novel very closely. There were some minor parts that were made different because in the novel the events were all from Nick Carraway’s point of view. Although not 100% detailed, I think the movie is an exceptional representation of the novel. At the time of reading, it was hard to put faces on the characters but the movie helped me fill in that blank spot.

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The Great Gatsby: Film and Novel Comparison Essay Sample

The Adaptation of The Great Gatsby (2013 directed by Baz Luhrmann) displays the difference between the wealthy and working class through the self-indulgent image of the rich. Comparatively the book (Named the Great Gatsby as well) that it is adapting explores the reality of “The American Dream” through the degeneracy of the 1920s lifestyle of the wealthy. Both texts portray the deceitful nature of past American society, but they differ in several key elements. Some of these include the Billboard/Eyes of Tj. Eckleburg and The Narration of Nick Carraway. All these components have the use/meaning in both the book and the film. Although the way the composers express the components is where the main difference is.

The eyes of TJ. Eckleburg is a key component in the novel as well as the film. It represents the figure of God staring down judging American Society as a Moral Wasteland. There are a few differences of this component when you compare the book to the film. In the novel the Billboard of TJ. Eckleburg is subtly mentioned “Over the Ash heaps the giant eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg kept their vigil”. Where in the movie the message of T.J. Eckleburg shoves itself into the face of the viewer. This can be seen when Myrtle gets hit by Daisy Driving Gatsby’s car and she gets sent flying into the air just so the director can put a close shot of the billboard. This demonstrates the difference in style between the two texts. The Film is nothing like a mystery while the Novel wants you to try and figure things out. The Owl eyed man is a direct reference to the billboard in the novel. His character represents the “True American Dream” by doing things that he knows are morally right unlike Gatsby who tries obtaining money-oriented products to impress/attract Daisy. At one of Gatsby’s parties, when Owl Eyes was first introduced in the novel, he was found in the library appreciating Gatsby’s array of books. “A stout, middle-aged man, with enormous owl-eyed spectacles, was sitting somewhat drunk on the edge of a great table, staring with unsteady concentration at the shelves of books.” He cherished knowledge more than money. A legitimate American Dream. Owl Eyes is a symbol of the perseverance of the undefiled American Dream, the real one, not the false and materialistic ideal one Gatsby so desperately desires. Owl Eyes is nevertheless the “True American Dream”. Owl Eyes is mostly cut from the film. He still appears in the library but not at Gatsby’s funeral. This reveals the main difference between the film and the book. Both the book and the film do cover the Reality of the American dream, but the novel really emphasises it more. While the film doesn’t emphasis the reality of the American dream as much it brings the text into a modern context by showing the difference between the wealthy and the working class through the self-indulgent image of the rich. This resonates more with a modern audience then if the film tried to present a story mostly around the American Dream.

The narrative voice of Nick Carraway is crucial component as it exposes the dissipation and questionable morality of the wealthy classes in 1920s American society in both the novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ and the film. Both texts focus on the arrival of the mysterious character, Jay Gatsby, who throws lush parties and gains “new money” in a contentious way. Nicks proclaims, “I am inclined to reserve all judgements”, which is a contrast to what he stated later which was that he “disproved of him (Gatsby) from beginning to end.” This exposes his moral high ground. The tension in the novel heightens due to Nick’s complex character and unpredictable narration and his difference of justification and disposition is exemplified when he says, “I was within and without simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” Both Fitzgerald and Luhrmann use Nicks narration to make righteous comments on the fraudulent nature of 1920s America. Nick in the film is seen writing the story. The film cuts to him at points with a close shot of him typing it out. With his typed words underlying his narration becoming the foreground for his character. This juxtaposes his background character in the novel. At Myrtle and Tom’s Apartment in New York a montage of increasingly drunken behaviour ensures, even with nick saying he has “never been drunk above twice in his life”. The director makes sure that Nick’s Narration is of up most importance but curtails when making a moral decision on his own character. Comparatively Fitzgerald does this in the last chapter when Nick proclaims to Jordan that he is “five years too old to lie to myself and call it honour”. Luhrmann’s Decision to make Nick foregrounded and righteously neutral undermines the complex voice of Nick in the novel.

The Eyes of T.J Eckleburg and the narrative voice of Nick Carraway are key components of both the film and novel of the Great Gatsby. They both express the deceitful nature of past American society even if in different contexts. The film may not be as mysterious as the novel or as much about the American dream and more about the difference between the working and wealthy class. But they were both made to question your own morality in their own respective ways.

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Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” Book and Movie Comparison

The book that I have read numerous times and never get tired of is “The Great Gatsby” by F.S. Fitzgerald. The novel describes the life of American society after World War I, rises a problem of tragic love and depiction of the American dream. Every time I go through the novel, I have a new vision of the main problems raised in the book. The failure of the American Dream is shown with the help of society of those times that was searching for leisure, a facile way of earning money, and public acceptance. The tragedy of love between Gatsby and Daisy is seen through Gatbsy’s dreams and false interpretation of Daisy though from first sight the reader feels sorry for the main character and wants to blame his lover for the tragic ending. However, it is hard to blame Daisy for unfaithfulness and hesitation when Gatsby prioritizes incorrect issues in winning their relationship back. Making parties in the hope to see her, and becoming rich to make one step closer to her position in society could not help Gatsby win Daisy back. The deeper I go through the plot, the more I understand the problem of the main character and his pain.

“The Great Gatsby” was filmed by a talented director Baz Luhrmann, and it can be called a successful interpretation of Fitzgerald’s work. Illustrating the fashion and behavior of modern society, its inequality and demands quickly take the one who watches the movie deep into the story. During the film, the director saved the important weather factor as the background of various scenes such as this: “Outside the wind was loud and there was a faint flow of thunder along the Sound” (F.S. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, p175). The film made according to the novel is a good example of detailed and careful work of talented people, and I enjoy watching it the same as reading the book.

The film can be called a faithful interpretation, however, it still has some personal analysis of the director. Baz Luhrmann shows Nick, the storyteller in both the novel and the movie, and at the end of the film as the author of the book. During the novel, the writer was never straightly referencing himself. Critics compare some facts from Fitzgerald’s life with the story of Gatsby but it was never obvious and straight written in the book.

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Extras/Book/Film: EXAMINING THE GREAT GATSBY: MOVIE VS. BOOK

by Aveline MacQuoid on November 24, 2022

in Books , Extras , Film

EXAMINING THE GREAT GATSBY: MOVIE VS. BOOK

The Great Gatsby is a novel that has been made into two movies; one in 1926 and another in 2013. Both movies are based on the book written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. While the book is considered to be a classic, the movies have received mixed reviews.

Online reference on The Great Gatsby 

When it comes to writing college essays on The Great Gatsby, there are several topics to consider. You could discuss the role of money in the novel or the way that Fitzgerald uses symbols to create meaning. Alternatively, you could analyze one of the book’s main characters, such as Gatsby or Daisy, or explore the role of gender in the novel. 

Fitzgerald’s writing style helps to bring the era to life for modern readers. In addition, the novel’s themes of love, betrayal, and greed continue to resonate with readers today. As a result, it is no wonder that so many college students choose to write essays on The Great Gatsby. 

There are different approaches that students can take while writing essays on this great story. No matter what approach you take, it offers a wealth of material for thoughtful essays. There are some considerable differences between the movies, which can confuse a student who is writing a research paper on this great story. But to make sense of it all, free essay examples and a lot of essays on “The Great Gatsby” for students on GradesFixer are available for references. It improves writing and makes students more confident when submitting their papers.

The storyline 

It narrates the story of a rich man by the name of Jay who is obsessed with his married lady love, Daisy Buchanan, with whom he has an affair. But they are unable to be united due to their social classes. The story tragically ends with his death and the lady driving off with her husband. 

Scott Fitzgerald wrote the novel The Great Gatsby and published the book in the year 1925 against the roaring twenties backdrop. It is praised for its social commentary on the Jazz Age, which is filled with ambition and hope for the great American dream. It remains the most widely-read and popular book of the century. 

The Great Gatsby is considered a great novel in America and has been adapted into a couple of films. In 1974, it was adapted into a movie of the same name starring Mia Farrow and Robert Redford. The recent movie adaptation release was in 2013, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It received praise for its soundtrack and visuals. 

The Great Gatsby differences between the movie and book 

One of the most obvious differences is that the book is told from the perspective of Nick Carraway, while the movie focuses on Gatsby himself. As a result, the book provides a more nuanced portrait of Gatsby, delving into his past and motivations for throwing lavish parties to win over Daisy Buchanan. 

The movie paints Gatsby as a somewhat one-dimensional figure, emphasizing his wealth without fully exploring his character. Critics of The Great Gatsby book point out another difference between the two versions. And that is that the book contains a much more detailed account of Gatsby’s relationship with Daisy, while the movie glosses over this part of the story. 

The Great Gatsby movies comparison 

While The Great Gatsby scenes in the movie were well-received, it was not without their critics. Some viewers, when comparing The Great Gatsby movie vs book, felt that it strayed too far from the original novel, while others complained that it was simply too long. 

However, there are also many similarities between the book and the movie. Both tell the story of Jay Gatsby, a wealthy man who is obsessed with a former flame. Both versions make use of flashbacks to fill in Gatsby’s backstory, and both include a tragic ending. And there is no denying that both versions capture the essence of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel. 

Should students watch the movie? 

There are many reasons why students should watch the movie . First, it can help them to better understand the book. The film provides a visual representation of the characters and settings, which can be helpful for students who are struggling to picture them in their minds. Additionally, the film can give students a deeper understanding of the plot and themes. 

The Great Gatsby is simply a great movie. It is well-acted and well-crafted, and it provides an enjoyable experience for viewers of all ages. For all these reasons, students should watch The Great Gatsby movie. 

Conclusion 

The Great Gatsby is a great read of all time that captures the imagination of the reader and resonates at every level. If you’re looking for a more traditional take on the story, then go with the 1974 film. However, if you’re open to seeing The Great Gatsby in a new light, then check out the 2013 adaptation.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, how to write a compare/contrast essay for the great gatsby.

Book Guides

These compare/contrast essays are an opportunity for you to tie the character similarities and differences to larger observations about society and class, the American Dream , or identity in the novel. They also allow you to practice standard English class skills: close reading, using lines from the text as evidence, and taking a stance and presenting a supporting argument in an essay.

We’ll go over some basic dos and don’ts for writing compare/contrast essays before diving into some analysis of the most asked-about character pairings. Keep reading if you have a Compare/Contrast assignment on the horizon!

Article Roadmap

• The do's of a compare and contrast essay
• The don'ts of a compare contrast essay
• Why some characters are paired for comparison more often than others
• Nick and Gatsby
• Tom and George
• Tom and Gatsby
• Daisy and Jordan
• Daisy and Myrtle

What to Do in a Compare/Contrast Essay

Like anything you write for English class, your essay should be clearly organized, with a thesis statement (a one-sentence summary of your argument), and topic sentences for each body paragraph.

And you should definitely have an overall argument! The point of the compare/contrast essay isn’t for you to just list the differences and similarities between two characters, you need to take those observations and make a larger argument about the novel as a whole . That larger argument allows you to practice writing an essay that contains an argument, which is a skill that nearly all English teachers are focused on building.

To take a quick example, don’t just list the differences between Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Instead, make an argument like, “Fitzgerald’s portrayal of wealthy New York society through Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan allows him to critique both old money and the newly rich, while reserving his most pointed critiques for the old money crowd.” (Obviously, that’s just one example, and there are dozens of potential arguments you could make while comparing and contrasting characters in Gatsby!)

Make sure to address your larger argument in each body paragraph as you draw out the similarities and differences between the two characters. Don’t get caught in the weeds as you tease out the many differences and similarities in each character pair. Always link back to the bigger picture.

Finally, analyze each quote you use – in other words, don’t stick a quote in your essay and do nothing with it. Make sure to explain how and why the quote demonstrates a key similarity or difference, and what that means for your bigger argument.

What to Avoid in a Compare/Contrast Essay

Don’t just list differences and similarities without an overarching argument . Although you can definitely start brainstorming by making a list of similarities and differences, just presenting that list in essay form won’t get you a good grade, since you need to go deeper and explain what the similarities/differences suggest about the novel as a whole.

And, on the other side, don’t make big claims without some evidence from the text to back them up . For example, don’t say “Tom is selfish while Gatsby cares about others.” Prove those two separate claims (Tom is selfish” and “Gatsby cares about others”) with relevant lines from the book. (And if you’re having a hard time locating good quotes, find a digital version of Gatsby you can search using the CTRL-F function. It’s a lifesaver when gathering relevant quotes for an essay!)

Why Are These Characters Paired Most Often?

We will tackle these major pairings in the next sections of this article:

Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby

Tom buchanan and jay gatsby, tom buchanan and george wilson, daisy buchanan and jordan baker, daisy buchanan and myrtle wilson.

Before we dig into the analysis, you might be wondering: “why are we only comparing characters of the same gender?” or maybe “why not other pairings? Why not Jordan and Myrtle, or Nick and Tom?” We are focusing on these specific pairings because they are by far the most commonly asked about pairs in essay prompts and discussion topics for The Great Gatsby . And we want this guide, first and foremost, to be helpful to students as you work on assignments involving Gatsby!

Furthermore, these pairings help teachers get you to explore some of the novel’s larger themes . For example, comparing Daisy/ Myrtle or Tom/George can help you explore the differences between the wealthy and the working class . Comparing Daisy/Myrtle or Daisy/Jordan can help you explore the changing status of women during the 1920s. Comparing Tom and Gatsby can get at the old money/new money divide. Finally, differences between Nick and Gatsby raise some of the novel’s larger questions about the American Dream , repeating the past, and identity. In short, these pairings have become common because they each allow fairly easy access to one of the novel’s larger issues.

That’s not to say you couldn’t also explore some of those themes by comparing, say, Jordan and George, or Daisy and Gatsby, but cross-gender compare/contrast essays can be challenging because the status of women and men is so different in the novel. If you are interested in seeing how a particular male and female character are paired, you may be better off studying them through the lens of love, desire, and relationships in the novel, or through the way they relate to one of the novel's symbols or motifs.

With those thoughts in mind, let's jump into the top 5 pairings! For each pairing, we will suggest a few possible larger arguments you can either build from or disagree with, but these are far from comprehensive! You should add to our analysis of the characters and come up with an argument you’re excited about.

Quick Note on Our Citations

Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text.

Although Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway vary both in outlook and temperament, they are also alike in interesting ways. Despite somewhat similar desires, attitudes, and social positions, Nick and Gatsby make very different choices during the novel.

Love and Romance . Nick and Gatsby both want women that are out of their reach, although in different degrees. Daisy is miles above Gatsby in terms of social class. Jordan and Nick are of the same social status, but Jordan doesn't seem free to make her own decisions since an aunt controls her financial life. There is a significant passion gap between Gatsby and Nick as well. Gatsby obsesses over Daisy - he has thought of nothing else for five years, going as far as to buy a house across the bay from her just in case she notices. Nick, meanwhile, is attracted to Jordan's cool and self-sufficient demeanor, but he is clearly not in love with her, as he himself notes ("I wasn't actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity" (3.159)). 

Approach to Women.  Both men are not particularly interested in the inner lives of the women they want to be with. Gatsby is devastated when Daisy doesn't want to renounce her relationship with Tom completely. Similarly, Nick cavalierly discounts Jordan's penchant to lie, cheat, and generally be cynically uninterested in other people, and then is deeply disappointed when she acts this way after Myrtle's death.

Class and Social Standing.  Although both Gatsby and Nick are outsiders to the wealthy communities of East and West Egg, Nick is a much more in-between character socially than Gatsby. Nick is familiar with the ways of the old money crowd because of his own family's privilege and the fact that he is related to Daisy. Gatsby is not only self-made, but is a criminal who is desperate to pass as part of the old money elite without knowing its customs or rules of behavior. What isolates Nick from East Egg life is his Midwestern values and the importance he places on morality and decency. Gatsby is isolated from everyone by the fact that he can never actually be himself - he is always playing a role and putting on his "Oxford man" persona. It may be this sense of feeling out of place that connects them.

Outlook and Temperament.  Gatsby is an optimist (almost to a delusional degree) while Nick is a realist who finds Gatsby's idealism inspiring and admirable. Gatsby believes in his ability to shape his own life and future, which makes sense since he has managed to transform himself from a farmer to a successful gangster, to impersonate an "Oxford man," and to accumulate a fantastic amount of wealth in a very short time. This belief in his power translates to Gatsby being sure that he and Daisy can go back to their month of idyllic love ("'Can't repeat the past?', he cried incredulously. 'Why of course you can!'" (6.129). Nick tries his best to be an objective realist and to reign in his tendency to judge others. He is deeply in awe of self-directed men like Gatsby, and even Wolfshiem (Nick is amazed to think that one man could be behind a huge event like the rigged World Series). 

Ambition.  Gatsby dreams of greatness. As a young man his mind “romped like the mind of God,” and so as an adult, he seems to have made good on this promise by buying the most ridiculous mansion and throwing the most extravagant parties (6.134). Nick is much less ambitious in comparison. While he comes to New York seeking excitement, he doesn't want to be the wealthiest bond salesman on Wall Street or to have the biggest house. He is happy to be an observer at the edge of the drama rather than being in its midst.

Nick and Gatsby Essay Ideas

Here are potential arguments to build on or disagree with based our observations. These are certainly not the only possible arguments, so be creative! Make sure your essay considers what the similarities and differences between Nick and Gatsby reveal about the novel as a whole.

• Nick is a passive person and Gatsby is active, which is why Gatsby is the hero and Nick simply the observer.
• Nick has much more in common with Gatsby than he thinks he does, which explains why he becomes so enamored of him.
• Nick serves as a foil (someone who serves as a contrast) to Gatsby, which makes Nick the best possible observer of Gatsby.
• At the end of the novel, Tom says that Gatsby “threw dirt in [Nick’s] eyes, just like Daisy’s,” meaning that both Nick and Daisy were taken in and could never see the true Gatsby: a narcissist and a criminal. Tom is right - the whole novel is Nick trying to spin a negative character into a positive one.

As they battle over Daisy’s love, Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby sometimes seem surprisingly similar - particular in their self-centeredness, wealth, and concern with appearances. At the same time, these surface parallels point to major conflicts in their social class, and say a lot about the world of the novel.

Appearance.  Gatsby is driven by his materialism to be very invested having fashionable clothes, a beautiful mansion, and visually overwhelming parties - for him, the outfit is the thing that makes the Oxford man . Meanwhile because Tom doesn't have to dress the part of the moneyed elite to be one, he is instead very attuned to the behavior of others. This is why he immediately sees how fake Gatsby's persona is, both because of Gatsby's overly ostentatious clothes, and because of how much Gatsby misreads the fake invitation from the Sloanes. Tom is never fooled into thinking that Gatsby is anything other than an upstart, and mostly likely a criminal one.

Self-Centeredness.  Tom and Gatsby are both completely selfish, and fully convinced that their desires have to be acquiesced to by those around them. Tom, for example, starts his affair with Myrtle by pressing himself against her on a train platform - basically, his version of flirting is bodily assault. Gatsby, meanwhile, also thinks nothing of starting an affair with a married woman, assuming that his obsessive feelings are enough to justify any behavior.

Wealth.  Despite the fact that both are unimaginably rich, these men come from totally different sides of the big money divide. Tom comes from old money and is forever worried about the encroachment of the nouveau riche, minorities, and others onto what he thinks is his. At the same time, Gatsby is the most successful of the novel's many ambitious social climbers, using his lack of ethical scruples to parlay his criminal activity into a higher social status.

Power.  Tom loves being powerful and wields his power directly. He is physically aggressive and uses his body to threaten and intimidate (Nick, for one, is clearly very cowed by Tom's bulk). He is also quick to violence, whether it's socially sanctioned - like his football accomplishments - or not - like when he breaks Myrtle's nose without a second thought. Gatsby also holds significant power, but his methods are much more indirect. Still, whether he is offering Nick some illegal bond trading action, or showing off his get-out-of-a-ticket-free card to a cop on the highway, Gatsby is clearly happy to be in control of a situation.

Love. Tom and Gatsby both seem to be in love with Daisy. But what does that really mean to each of them? For Tom, Daisy is clearly partly appealing because she completes his horse-riding, East Egg, 350-thousand-dollar pearl necklace lifestyle. He cheats on her because he clearly has never denied himself anything, but he also understands Daisy as a person. He knows that she is too weak to leave him, but he also loves her enough to tolerate her affair with Gatsby and to stay with her after Myrtle's murder. Gatsby's love, on the other hand, is in some ways purer because he so idealizes Daisy and connects her to all of his other hopes and dreams. But this love is overly pure - he doesn't really seem to know Daisy as anything other than an idealized object, and is incapable of accepting that she has led a life apart from him for five years.

Tom and Gatsby Essay Ideas

In a compare/contrast essay, you can’t just present a list of similarities and differences. You also need to have an underlying argument you’re supporting. Feel free to take these at face value or as jumping-off points for your own thoughts.

• Tom loves Daisy as a person, Gatsby loves her as an idea.
• Both Tom and Gatsby’s tendency to control women and see them as prizes reveals the misogyny of the 1920s.
• Although Tom sees Gatsby as someone from an entirely different class than him, what they have in common (selfishness, affairs, obsession with appearances) makes a larger argument for an overall moral hollowness of the rich of any class.
• We see both Gatsby and Tom through the eyes of Nick, who worships one of them and hates the other. In reality, they are both much more similar than different, and their different treatment reveals Nick's insecurities and biases.

At first, most readers see Tom Buchanan and George Wilson  as opposites. But, these markedly different characters face very similar circumstances and offer two takes on masculinity and power in the novel.

Appearance and Presence.  Where Tom is strong and cowering, George is meek and shrinking. Tom exudes power and confidence while George tends to just fade into the background. These differences are borne out in the way these two men interact with the world. Tom is violent towards others, while George’s instinct is to be passive or to try and escape situations, the notable exceptions being his locking up of Myrtle and murder of Gatsby. Tom is confident, privileged, and assured while George is timid; George is “ruled by his wife” where Tom is selfish and acts on his own desires.

Reaction to Adversity. There is a dramatic difference in the way the two men react to the fact that their wives are cheating on them. Tom notices Daisy’s love for Gatsby and immediately starts making power plays. On the other hand, George discovers Myrtle’s affair and is undone by it. Nick compares the two men in a memorable description:

“the shock had made him physically sick. I stared at him and then at Tom, who had made a parallel discovery less than an hour before--and it occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well. Wilson was so sick that he looked guilty, unforgivably guilty--as if he had just got some poor girl with child" (7.160).

In this description, Tom is “well” and George is “sick.” These are certainly arresting ways to describe Tom's more traditional masculinity and George's less overtly masculine character. Tom is self-assured in the face of adversity and immediately takes action to win Daisy back, insisting on driving Gatsby's car, bullying those around him into driving to Manhattan, and using his romance skills to remind Daisy of the pluses of their relationship. Meanwhile, George's weakness makes him look sick and guilty as he contemplates Myrtle's betrayal and is driven to violence to reassert his power over her.

Approach to Women.  Both Tom and George assume they know what’s best for their wives: Tom dismisses Daisy’s professed love for Gatsby despite their obvious closeness, while George is determined to take Myrtle out west once he learns about the affair. But, while it seems that Tom does fundamentally understand Daisy and is right about her unwillingness to leave their marriage, George is unable to hold on to Myrtle either emotionally or physically. She is killed trying to run away from him.

Tom and George Essay Ideas

Differences in attitude and outcome, despite a relatively similar situation, reveal some unexpected truths about the world of the novel. Argue the reverse of any of these topics for a really provocative essay!

• The fact that Tom manipulates George into killing Gatsby and then himself (which allows Tom and Daisy to walk away from the entire affair without consequence) shows the huge privileges of having money in the novel.
• Nick's approach to Tom and George shows his admiration of a physical, brutish, domineering kind of masculinity. 
• The fact that the relatively good guy turns into a murderer while the bad guy lives to cheat another day is a very cynical take on what happens in a world without a moral compass.

Despite Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker 's similar “white girlhoods” (1.140) in Louisville, their attitude and motivations are quite distinct, making them really interesting to compare and contrast.

Attitude and Outlook.  Both Daisy and Jordan display an entitled, bored attitude that’s typical of Fitzgerald’s depiction of the old money segment of wealthy New York society. The fact that they are introduced in tandem, both lying on the couches in their white dresses, speaks to their initially similar attitudes. But soon we see how different their takes on this kind of life are. Daisy is increasingly despondent, even nihilistic, asking in Chapter 7 , “what shall we do today, and tomorrow, and for the next thirty years?” (7.74).  Jordan meanwhile is a pragmatic opportunist, who sees possibilities everywhere, arguing that “life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall” (7.75). In other words, Daisy’s pessimistic attitude from Chapter 1 comes through again, while Jordan, despite coming across as cynical and sharp, actually still seems excited about the possibilities life has to offer.

Appearance and Personality.  Both Daisy and Jordan very alluring in their own way, though Daisy’s allure comes through her enchanting voice and feminine charms, while Jordan is masculine, “jaunty,” witty, sharp, and physical. Daisy maintains a squeaky-clean reputation despite moving with a fast crowd, while there are plenty of rumors about Jordan’s cheating in golf, and Nick comments on her dishonest attitude. More significantly, Daisy is incredibly self-absorbed while Jordan is very observant.

Role in Society.  Daisy seems caught between what society expects of her and some deeper, more powerful desires she can’t name, resulting in restlessness, depression, and her affair. Daisy is sticking to her prescribed societal role by marrying and having a child, while Jordan plays golf, “runs around town” and doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to marry, at least in the beginning of the novel. Perhaps Jordan is still somewhat optimistic about the possibilities of life since she hasn’t settled down yet, while Daisy realizes that nothing major in her life will change at this point. Jordan, meanwhile, is content to chase after fun and intrigue via other people’s bad behavior. And she doesn’t get dragged down by the tragedy in the book – on the contrary, she is callous in how little Myrtle’s death seems to shake her, coolly calling Nick the next day and asking him to meet like nothing has happened (8.50-61). Perhaps her motivations are a bit less accessible to the reader since her role was significantly downsized between some of Fitzgerald’s earlier drafts. But in any case, as we watch Daisy struggle in her marriage, what we see of Jordan is cool, calm, collected, and rather uncaring.

Daisy and Jordan Essay Ideas

So what are some possible conclusions we can draw from Daisy and Jordan’s characters? One of the most common strategies is to tie the differences between these women onto one of the book’s larger themes, like the role of society and class or the American Dream . Another is to think about an important feature of the novel, like Nick’s narration, and see what these two characters can reveal about it. With those strategies in mind, here are some potential arguments you could argue for or against!

• Jordan and Daisy, because they are generally disempowered, both use their sexuality in different ways to gain power, with different results.
• Despite Jordan’s overt cheating and lying, Daisy is, in fact, the more morally compromised person.
• The way Nick treats Jordan versus the way he describes Daisy reveals the novel’s preoccupation with Gatsby above all, to the detriment of the female characters.

While Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson obviously come from very different backgrounds and have conflicting motivations, they also have some surprising similarities.

Physical Appearance.  Daisy and Myrtle both derive power from their looks. Myrtle's comfort with her voluptuous body is clearly appealing to Tom, while Daisy's magnetic voice and ethereal presence obsess Gatsby. Throughout the novel, Myrtle is frequently reduced to being just a body - one to be used or violated by those around her. Tom sees little in Myrtle besides someone to either rub up against, have sex with, or punch at will; George resorts to imprisoning Myrtle while she eggs him on to "beat" her (7.314) the way Tom does; and finally, Daisy gruesomely rips Myrtle's body apart with a car. Meanwhile, Daisy's voice also serves to make her less of a person in her own right and more of an idealized, mythic figure from fairy tales. For Gatsby, Daisy's voice is appealing because it is "full of money" (7.105) - he is attracted to her not because of who she is, but because he sees her as a prize.

Social Standing.  Myrtle puts on the airs that Daisy has been born and raised with. This allows Myrtle to wield considerable social power within her group, as seen by how her guests fawn on her at the Manhattan party she throws. Daisy, in contrast, never exerts such overt power over a group – rather, she seems to move with crowds, doing what it expected of her (for instance marrying Tom despite still loving Gatsby). 

Love and Relationships.  Daisy and Myrtle’s marriages are strikingly quite different. Daisy and Tom are able to stay together even through serial affairs and murder. They end up loyal co-conspirators, protected by their wealth. Meanwhile, Myrtle has nothing but disdain for George despite his evident love for her. Still, both women use affairs with other men as a way to escape. Daisy wants to get away from an increasingly unhappy marriage and try to recapture the spontaneity and possibility of her youth, while Myrtle loves the status that her affair with Tom grants her. However, both learn that they can’t escape forever through their affairs. Obviously, their biggest difference is that Daisy gets to walk away from the novel unscathed, while Myrtle gets killed. 

Daisy and Myrtle Essay Ideas

Here are ways to write about these different women who face similar choices with dramatically opposite conclusions.

• Despite their similarities in action and motivation, Daisy is protected from any lasting harm by her wealth and old money status, while Myrtle is punished for the same behavior, revealing how the class system in America protects the wealthy.
• The novel refuses to give any inner life to women, and instead reduces them to their physical qualities no matter what social class they come from. Daisy and Myrtle's similar treatment by the narrator and by the men around them shows that gender trumps class when determining status. 
• Daisy and Myrtle’s similarities reveal how hollow the progress of the women’s movement really was at that point in time. Despite the big gains the movement made in the early twentieth century, including winning the right to vote and pushing for more freedom in how they could dress and act, both of these women’s lives aren’t vastly improved. They’re both trapped in unhappy marriages, they both rely on their looks/charms/sexuality to get what they want, and neither of them has even a chance of pursuing a fulfilling life through a career.

What’s Next?

Now that you’ve gone over the novel’s most popular compare/contrast pairings, check out our analysis of the novel’s romantic pairings in our guide to love, desire, and relationships in The Great Gatsby .

Have an essay about a symbol or motif? Get started with our symbols overview  and motifs overview.

Still a little hazy on some of the plot elements in Gatsby? Not to worry, we have you covered with our complete book summary !

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Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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The Great Gatsby Movie vs Book Essay

The Great Gatsby is a classic 1925 novel by the American writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald. The novel is a critically acclaimed representation of the American Dream, the hopelessness of social constructs, and the struggle to achieve prosperity. Fitzgerald explores the impossibility of recapturing the past and how it substantially impacts the future. The narrator of the story is Nick Carraway, a young World War I veteran from Minnesota who comes to New York in search of a better future as he observes other characters whose lives contrast with his own. The novel was adapted into a movie by Baz Luhrman as the director. The movie was officially released in 2013, featuring various Hollywood stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby and Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway. The director did an incredible job of bringing the classical storyline to life with an astonishing display of 3D technology. Nonetheless, putting together a movie based on a hugely acclaimed literary work with graceful lines, phrases and dialogues were quite challenging. Although, The Great Gatsby Movie and book portrayed similarities in coverage of class difference and the hollowness of the American Dream, the two adaptations varied regarding characters and action sequences.

Differences

The character of Nick Carraway is altered in the movie to give readers a deeper insight into the characters’ experiences and predicament in a shorter version. To provide a suitable setting for Nick Caraway’s narration, the director introduces him as a broken figure working with a doctor to recover from his alcohol troubles (Anushirvani & Alinezhadi, 2016). This demeanor varies significantly from the character in the book, which is most careful and considerate. Although this characterization seems distasteful, it gives Nick’s narration a suitable framework. In the novel, Nick claims, “I have been drunk just twice in my life,” which is different from the movie, which portrays him as a struggling alcoholic in denial (Fitzgerald, 1925). Perdikaki (2018) notes that Luhrmann presents the idea that Nick writes The Great Gatsby and even shows him writing the text by hand, typing, and compiling the complete manuscript. However, although the idea that Nick writes the book comes from the novel, Fitzgerald does not dive further into the process. In the movie, Nick first writes the title as just Gatsby and eventually adds the phrase ‘the Great” by hand.

Similarly, the character of the maid in the book is cut off from the scenes in the movie. In the movie, Nick seems financially distraught compared to his wealthy neighbors. Therefore, it is pretty easy to assume that Nick would not afford the luxury of a domestic worker. However, in the book, he refers to employing a Finnish woman who helped him with most of his household work. Nick narrates that he hired a “Finnish woman who made (his) bed and cooked breakfast and muttered Finnish wisdom to herself over the electric stove.” (Fitzgerald, 1925). The maid makes several appearances in the book but is completely cut off from the film. Successively, in the novel, Ella Kaye, a scheming woman, manages to steal the inheritance of Dan Cody, a wealthy and drunkard yacht owner.

Conversely, in the movie, Cody’s wealth is inherited by his family (Perdikaki, 2018). Likewise, the character of Jordan in the film is more mysterious and likable than in the book. Jordan Baker’s storyline is sped up in the movie because of time. Viewers learn about her abilities as an athlete almost in the opening scenes of the movies. However, Baker’s unlikely romance with Nick is cut off from the film, although the book only shows that they have a casual affection for each other.

Similarities

Although it is pretty impossible to put together an entire novel’s sequences into a two-hour movie, there are apparent similarities between the Great Gatsby movie and the book. In both movie and the book, there is rich figurative speech that emphasizes the contrast in lifestyles and outlooks on life between the different characters. The noble and romantic dream is hugely contrasted by the moral corruption presented in the characters of Tom ad Daisy. According to Anushirvani & Alinezhadi (2016), both the writer and director portray a deep contrast between the lifestyles of the West and East. Nick Carraway finds it challenging to adapt to the East because he is from the West.

On the contrary, Tom and Daisy portray the materialistic and fashionable lifestyle representing the East. Through Nick’s observations and experiences, the perception that history could be reversed recurs in the novel and movie. Nick narrates, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that no matter – tomorrow we will run faster.” (Luhrmann, 2013). Gatsby invites Daisy and Nick to his big house in both the book and the movie. He states, “I want you to come over to my house.” (Fitzgerald, 1925). Gatsby’s mansion represents his massive wealth and the class difference between the other characters.

In general, The Great Gatsby movie and the book share many similarities and differences that contribute to the compelling storyline, theme, and plot. Although, at the same time, most characters maintain much of their personalities from the book, the movie altered several scenes and interactions, possibly due to time and visual impressions of various settings. Nonetheless, the Great Gatsby remains a classic story about the varied perception of attaining the American Dream that is presented remarkably in both the book and the movie.

• Anushirvani, A., & Alinezhadi, E. (2016). An analytical study of the 2013 cinematic adaptation of The great gatsby.  International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences ,  68 , 73-85.
• Fitzgerald, F. (1925).  The Great Gatsby  (1st ed.). Charles Scribner’s Sons.
• Luhrmann, B. (2013).  The Great Gatsby  [Film]. Hollywood; Village Roadshow Pictures A&E.
• Perdikaki, K. (2018). Film adaptation as the interface between creative translation and cultural transformation: The case of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby.  JoSTrans: The Journal of Specialized Translation , (29).
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Rediscovered: the long-lost script that helped The Great Gatsby become a classic

F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel was a flop until a 1926 staging became a Broadway smash

It is the quintessential novel of the hedonistic jazz age, a roaring 20s story about the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. The Great Gatsby became an enduring classic , inspiring films and musicals, but received such mixed reviews in 1925 that its disappointed author, F Scott Fitzgerald, was all the more excited when it inspired a Broadway adaptation.

The 1926 dramatisation by Owen Davis, a Pulitzer prizewinner, opened to rave reviews and became a hit that contributed to the novel’s success, bringing Fitzgerald substantial royalties and fame.

But the original script had long since been lost. Now a copy has been rediscovered and will be published for the first time by Cambridge University Press – and it reveals that Davis took many liberties with Fitzgerald’s storyline.

Nick Carraway is no longer the narrator, new characters are invented, and Jay Gatsby’s past, which is revealed gradually throughout the novel, is presented all at once near the start. “Davis made some interesting changes,” said Anne Margaret Daniel, co-editor of the new publication. “He introduces some of the gangster characters who are in Gatsby’s underworld. He makes it very clear that Gatsby is in the business of organised crime, which is an apt reading of the book and, of course, it makes it more dramatic on stage.

“It’s a fascinating version of Gatsby. It absolutely captures the Jazz Age heat.”

The script had lain unnoticed for almost 100 years in a US archive. Daniel began searching for it after finding a fragment among Fitzgerald’s papers at Princeton University, along with unpublished production photographs. She eventually unearthed the complete script at Colorado State University, among papers from a study of Davis’s work that was never completed.

The script, which belonged to an actor in the Broadway staging, will be published for the first time on 25 April in the forthcoming book The Great Gatsby – The 1926 Broadway Script , edited by Daniel and James L W West III.

“It’s significant because this is the first time that The Great Gatsby was put on the Broadway stage, and thousands of people encountered the story for the first time,” said West.

“I would like to see it restaged – though The Great Gatsby is right now in the works as a Broadway musical and there’s also been an opera, a ballet and three movies at least.”

He added that, while Fitzgerald had been “protective” of the novel, he was excited by the staging, having seen an early draft and telling his agent in 1926 that it “put in my pocket seventeen or eighteen thousand without a stroke of work on my part”.

Fitzgerald had kept extensive material relating to Gatsby, and his archive at Princeton includes reviews of the novel and the Broadway production, sent to him by Max Perkins, his great editor at Scribner, and his agent, Harold Ober, as the writer was in Europe at the time.

Daniel said: “In his correspondence with Perkins, you can see that he was thrilled that it was being done. He was disappointed with the critical reception to Gatsby . He knew how good it was, but it got some stinky reviews. Some reviewers complained about the morality.”

In their introduction, she and West write that, if Fitzgerald had been allowed to attend rehearsals, “he would undoubtedly have been a pain in the neck”.

“In fact, anyone who reads the script today will probably react as Fitzgerald would have. The Great Gatsby has become a secular scripture, a verbal icon,” she said. “Many of us have read … the novel so often that we have it almost by heart. We should remember that, in 1926, The Great Gatsby was not yet a classic.”

• F Scott Fitzgerald
• The Observer
• The Great Gatsby

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Great Gatsby: Book Vs Movie

The Great Gatsby, an American classic and one of Fitzgerald’s most outstanding works, tells a tangled story of love, lies, liquor and wealth in the 1920s. The narrator, Nick Carraway, moves from the west to Long Island, New York; West Egg to be more specific. There he meets the eccentric and exceedingly wealthy Jay Gatsby and becomes immersed in his struggles to rekindle his love with Daisy Buchanan, a married woman and Nick’s cousin. Since the book was published in 1925, numerous filmmakers have tried their hand at bringing Fitzgerald’s novel to the screen, generally without much success in accurately portraying the essence of the book. The 1974 film however, directed by Jack Clayton and starring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow and Sam Waterston, has come the closest to capturing what Fitzgerald put forth in his novel. Although it is quite accurate in content, verbiage, and mood; there are a number of differences that change the feeling of the story. Watching the film and reading the novel are two different experiences when you look closely. Bringing the novel to the screen with success and accuracy means staying true to parts of the story and changing others, the inclusion of the books verbiage, including all significant characters such as Dan Cody, keeping scenes true to the novel and tweaking scenes in order to capture moods portrayed in the novel.

The main similarity between the book and the movie was the accuracy of lines. While watching the film, you can recognize many similar lines that are taken directly from the book. For example, the climax within the story is when Tom realizes that Daisy is in love with Gatsby. This distinct realization is marked by Daisy saying to Gatsby “You always look so cool” (p. 125). The same scene ensues in the movie, and Daisy says the same line “You always look so cool.” In the movie it is more clear that this is the moment Tom realizes Daisy is in love with Gatsby whereas in the book it is less apparent. Near the end of the story, Nick says to Gatsby “They’re a rotten crowd, you’re worth the whole bunch put together.” (p. 162) This line is the same, word for word in the movie as well. In the movie it is less apparent that Nick still disapproves of Gatsby, in the book Nick goes on to state his true feelings for Gatsby despite the compliment he has just given. Even though some of the emotions portrayed in the book are not captured in the film, the consistent use of lines directly from the book help to capture the story with more accuracy.

However similar the movie was to the book there were some significant differences both good and bad. Dan Cody’s character was completely omitted from the film, and although I don’t know why, I believe that piece of information was a significant factor in fully understanding who Gatsby was and how he came to be the man he is within the story. Dan Cody is a self made millionaire who has a significant relationship with Gatsby, his role in Gatsby’s life holds importance. He is like a father figure, teaching him crucial skills so that one day he could become successful as well; which he did. Another difference was that of Nick’s reunion with Tom, his old college friend, and Daisy his cousin. In the book Nick drives from his home in West Egg to East Egg where Tom and Daisy live, there he meets Tom at the front door. “And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over….” (p. 10-11). In the film the opening scene is Nick in a small boat making his way across the bay between West and East Egg against soft cotton candy skies with music playing in the background. Once at the dock, he meets Tom who comes riding over on his horse dressed in Polo attire. Although this does not dramatically change the viewer’s perception of the story, it is still a significant change. Another change from the novel comes at a very crucial point in the story; the reunion between Gatsby and Daisy. In the book it is raining when they meet in the living room of Nick’s humble home; “The rain cooled about half past three to a damp mist through which occasional thin drops swam like dew” (p. 89). In the film, although it is not completely contrasting weather to the book, it is not raining. Some of the differences between the novel and the film were significant, such as the omission of Dan Cody’s character, and some are less so, such as the change in the opening scene. However change is not always bad, and there are quite valid reasons as to why a director may change certain aspects so as to better fit them to the screen.

Disparities between a novel and a film can change an audience’s perception of characters, themes and the plot in general, however it is also important to change some things within a story to make it more suitable to the audience watching the film. Film creators must rely heavily on visual representation while writers must rely on correct and skilfull use of verbiage. For example the scene in which Nick goes to Tom and Daisy’s house is rather boring in the book; Nick simply drives there. In the movie, the scene was that of Nick boating over as cotton candy skies reflected off the water. This visual representation created an aesthetically pleasing scene that was fluid and transitional in such a way that is needed in the beginning of a film. In the movie, to have Tom come riding up to the shore on his horse was an effective way to communicate character traits within Tom. The book could describe it, but the movie needed to show it. The omission of Dan Cody, although I don’t necessarily agree with it, is understandable. By leaving out Cody’s character, the filmmakers created and maintained an air of mystery around how Gatsby actually acquired his wealth. Furthermore, because Cody’s character was not crucial to the love story between Gatsby and Daisy, it was acceptable to leave him out because that’s what the audience cares about. The change in weather during Gatsby and Daisy’s meeting was completely acceptable. In the book, Fitzgerald used the description of weather to help accentuate the feelings of sadness, nervousness and loss between Gatsby and Daisy. Films in general have the capacity to depict emotion visually and don’t need extra descriptions and factors. The rain isn’t needed because you can see exactly how Gatsby is feeling through Robert Redford’s acting.

When catering to an audience viewing a film, the director must rely on visual representation. If the visuals aren’t prime, the audience won’t appreciate it as much. This is especially true for modern day viewers. The way readers receive a novel is through literary styles, vocabulary, sentence structure and adjective use. Choice of words and descriptions matter so much more in books than in movies. The movie in general is quite accurate to the book in terms of content, verbiage and mood although there are number of differences; Dan Cody, the opening scene and Gatsby and Daisy’s reunion. When watching a movie after having read the book, recognizing similar scenes and lines from the book makes you feel as if you are truly watching the book and not a different adaptation of the story. Accuracy of plot, content and mood are crucial in successfully bringing a piece of literature to the screen; for the most part I believe Jack Clayton did well. When you’re trying to accurately depict a novel on screen, it’s important to keep the basics and capture the essence of what the author of the book was originally trying to portray. Keeping important scenes that work as major turning points in the original novel are important to include in film adaptations. Although Fitzgerald most likely would not appreciate most of the changes, this 1974 adaptation is the best there is and most likely the best there ever will be.

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The Great Gatsby : Movie vs. Book Essay Example

• Pages: 3 (759 words)
• Published: December 1, 2017
• Type: Essay

Essay for The Great Gatsby The plot and the setting of book and movie are very similar.

There was a lot of thins borrowed from the book, but there was a lot changed as well. The movie followed the plot of book very closely and portrayed the setting of the book very well. A lot of the dialogue was borrowed and spoken directly as it was in the book. The movie did an excellent job portraying the 1920’s and the parties that happened at Gatsby’s house.

“There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like months among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (39).The scenes of the parties at Gatsby’s house portrayed people dancing, music and drinking. It was a very a

ccurate picture of that people would imagine party scenes to be in the book. The party scene of where Nick met Gatsby for the first time was drastically different in the movie than it was in the book.

In the book, Nick and Gatsby were talking about the war and Nick did not know that he was talking to Gatsby. “This is an unusual party for me. I haven’t even seen the host. ..

For a moment he looked at me as if he failed to understand. ‘I’m Gatsby’, he said suddenly” (47-48).In the movie, Gatsby summoned Nick up to his study and they had a very awkward conversation. The movie changed the time that had passed between Daisy’s and Gatsby’s meeting.

Only five years had passed in the book and the movie states that eight years had passed

after the last time that Gatsby saw Daisy. It seems strange that producers would change it from five to eight because the longer time just makes Gatsby look crazier than he already is. The eight year difference also changed the age of the characters, making them older than they are in the book.The character of Daisy in the movie came off differently than she did in the book. Mia Farrow, who played Daisy, did not have the right demeanor to play Daisy and her portrayal of Daisy was not up to the description of Daisy in the book.

Her acting altered the way that Daisy would be perceived by the audience. Farrow’s voice was high and squeaky and that took away from the character that Daisy was. “It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again” (9). Daisy also appeared to have a crush on Nick.In the movie, Daisy acted overly affectionate towards Nick.

The book never gave the impression that Daisy had a crush on Nick. In the movie, Daisy’s daughter, Pammy, did not get a lot of emphasis but the scene where Gatsby actually saw Daisy’s daughter went very well. Robert Redford played the part very well and his reactions were well acted. The rumors that were always circulating about Gatsby were not as prominent in the movie as they were in the book.

There were always new rumors circulating, but the movie only mentioned a couple rumors about Gatsby’s past.There were a few characters that were missing from the movie. Owl Eyes, who

provided comic relief was not in the movie and there was no party car accident scene in the movie, either. The movie tells nothing about Gatsby’s past because all mention was left out. There was no mention of Dan Cody, who gave Gatsby his start, in the movie. There is never any mention of Gatsby’s real name being James Gatz.

The only mention of Gatz is at the end of the movie when Mr. Gatz corrects Nick after he called him Mr. Gatsby. The scene in the book where Daisy hits Myrtle with the car was completely left out of the movie.

They skipped to the scene after where Nick, Tom and Jordan saw the gathering of cars and people after Myrtle was hit. Even though the movie followed the book very closely, at times there are direct quotations from the book, there are major differences between the two. The movie leaves out important information like Gatsby’s past, changes the time frame, the age of the characters and leaves out significant scenes and characters, like Owl Eyes and the Myrtle’s death scene. Bibliography Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby.

New York: Scribner, 2004. 180.

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Cosmic Forecast: Blurry With a Chance of Orbital Chaos

Astronomers have gotten better at tracking the motions of stars just beyond the solar system. But that’s made it harder to predict Earth’s future and reconstruct its past.

By Dennis Overbye

Regardless of what stock market analysts, political pollsters and astrologers might say, we can’t predict the future. In fact, we can’t even predict the past.

So much for the work of Pierre-Simon Laplace, the French mathematician, philosopher and king of determinism. In 1814, Laplace declared that if it were possible to know the velocity and position of every particle in the universe at one particular moment — and all the forces that were acting on them — “for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain, and the future, just like the past, would be the present to it.”

Laplace’s dream remains unfulfilled because we can’t measure things with infinite precision, and so tiny errors propagate and accumulate over time, leading to ever more uncertainty. As a result, in the 1980s astronomers including Jaques Laskar of the Paris Observatory concluded that computer simulations of the motions of the planets could not be trusted when applied more than 100 million years into the past or future. By way of comparison, the universe is 14 billion years old and the solar system is about five billion years old.

“You can’t cast an accurate horoscope for a dinosaur,” Scott Tremaine, an orbital dynamics expert at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., commented recently in an email.

The ancient astrological chart has now become even blurrier. A new set of computer simulations, which take into account the effects of stars moving past our solar system, has effectively reduced the ability of scientists to look back or ahead by another 10 million years. Previous simulations had considered the solar system as an isolated system, a clockwork cosmos in which the main perturbations to planetary orbits were internal, resulting from asteroids.

“The stars do matter,” said Nathan Kaib, a senior scientist with the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz. He and Sean Raymond of the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux in France published their results in Astrophysical Journal Letters in late February.

The researchers discovered that a sunlike star named HD 7977, which currently lurks 247 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia, could have passed close enough to the sun about 2.8 million years ago to rattle the largest planets in their orbits.

That added uncertainty makes it even harder for astronomers to forecast more than 50 million years into the past, to correlate temperature anomalies in the geological record with possible changes in the Earth’s orbit. That knowledge would be useful as we try to understand climatic changes underway today. About 56 million years ago, Dr. Kaib said, the Earth evidently went through the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, a period lasting more than 100,000 years during which average global temperatures increased as much as 8 degrees Celsius.

Was this warm spell triggered by some change in Earth’s orbit around the sun? We may never know.

“So I’m no expert, but I think that’s the warmest period in, like, the last 100 million years,” Dr. Kaib said. “And it’s almost certainly not caused by the Earth’s orbit itself. But we do know that long-term climate fluctuations are tied to Earth’s orbital fluctuations. And so if you want to figure out climate anomalies, it helps to be confident in what Earth’s orbit is doing.”

Dr. Tremaine noted, “The simulations are carefully done, and I believe the conclusion is correct.” He added, “This is a relatively minor change in our understanding of the history of the Earth’s orbit, but it is a conceptually important one.”

The really interesting story, he said, is how chaos in Earth’s orbit could have left a mark in the paleoclimate record.

The ability to track the movements of stars just beyond the solar system has been dramatically improved by the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft, which has been mapping the locations, motions and other properties of two billion stars since its launch in 2013.

“For the first time we can actually see individual stars,” Dr. Kaib said, “project them back in time or forward, and figure out which stars are close to the sun and which ones haven’t come close, which is really cool.”

According to his calculations, about 20 stars come within one parsec (about 3.26 light-years) of the sun every million years. HD 7977 could have come as close as 400 billion miles from the sun — about the distance to the Oort cloud, a vast reservoir of frozen comets on the edge of the solar system — or remained a thousand times as distant. Gravitational effects from the closer encounter could have rattled the orbits of the outer giant planets, which in turn could have rattled the inner planets like Earth.

“That is potentially powerful enough to alter simulations’ predictions of what Earth’s orbit was like beyond approximately 50 million years ago,” Dr. Kaib said.

As a result, he said, almost anything is statistically possible if you look ahead far enough. “So you find that, for instance, if you go forward billions of years, not all the planets are necessarily stable. There’s actually about a 1 percent chance that Mercury will either hit the sun or Venus over the course of the next five billion years.”

Whatever happens, chances are we won’t be around to see it. Stranded in the present, we don’t know for certain where we came from or where we are going; the future and the past recede into myth and hope. Yet we press forward trying to peer past our horizons in time and space. As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in “The Great Gatsby”: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

An earlier version of this article misstated the possible distance between HD 7977 and the sun. It was 400 billion miles, not 4 billion. It also misstated Sean Raymond’s affiliation. He is at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux in France, not the University of Oklahoma.

How we handle corrections

Dennis Overbye is the cosmic affairs correspondent for The Times, covering physics and astronomy. More about Dennis Overbye

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