Great Gatsby: Movie Vs Book

The Great Gatsby

I: All throughout grade school and even high school, my teachers, parents, and even friends told me not to take the easy way out when it comes to books. Always read the book before the movie. I usually took the easy way out, watched the movie, and then skim the book. After doing this project I see what everyone was talking about. The book is much better than the movie, it gives you more of a sense of what is going on, a greater sense of when the story takes place, and it gives the characters more definition.

II: The book and movie give very specific details to show where and when the story took place. The book and movie takes us back to the 1920's after the civil war. There were two odd formations of land off the coast of New York, East egg and West egg, West egg being the less fashionable, Nick lived there. "It was a matter of chance that I would have rented a house in the strangest communities in North America. It was on that slender riotous island which extends itself due east of New York- and where they are, among other natural curiosities, two unusual formations of land." (Fitzgerald, 4)

The parties at Gatsby's mansion were lush and lavish, most of the guests hadn't been invited, rather they knew someone, who knew someone, who knew Gatsby. The men would wear their best suits, and the women would wear their nicest dresses, and their hair in French bobs.

In my opinion the book had many advantages over the movie, the book could describe to us how the character was actually feeling, or what they were thinking. The author could also get his feelings toward the characters, and the setting, by simply writing it and telling you how it was supposed to be. Although this was an advantage, it could also be a disadvantage, Fitzgerald could only use dialogue, no visuals in the book. In the movie, I felt as though I had to keep guessing, as to what the character was thinking or feeling. Although the movie gave a more visual depiction of the characters and their actions, it was not as in depth as the book was.

III: Most of the characters in the movie were somewhat different, with subtle little differences, but some were completely the opposite of what the book portrayed them as. There were also big differences in how they acted. For instance, in the book Daisy was said to be just a love struck young girl, attracted to her cousin Nick. In the movie, Daisy was always kissing Nick and asking if he felt the same way for her as she did him. This was one of those subtle little differences.

One difference in the movie that just stuck in my mind and made me read through the book to make sure I wasn't going insane, was the fact that in the book Myrtle Wilson was described as "she was in her middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously, as some women canÐ'... Her face contained no facet of gleam or beauty"(Fitzgerald, 25). The movie contradicts this, Myrtle is very well dressed, made up, and very attractive. The problem with this is, Fitzgerald used irony in the book to describe the attraction, Tom was in love with a woman that was fat and ugly, opposed to Daisy, being thin and attractive.

The book and movie was written in the first person point of view, Nick being the narrator. In the book Nick explained how he felt, but could not adequately tell what had happened if he had not been at the scene. For instance, Nick could only tell what he had heard of Gatsby's murder, he didn't know the emotions that were felt by Mr. Wilson as portrayed in the movie. In the movie we were actually there in a sense while Gatsby was shot by Mr. Wilson, we saw him hesitate while pulling the trigger. Another example of this is the green light Gatsby had an obsession with, in the book, it told us that it reminded him of Daisy, and while he was staring at it all he was doing was fantasizing of Daisy. In the movie we had to guess, it wasn't as forthright as the book was.

The book and the movie had the same antagonist, Jay Gatsby. In both the book and the movie, we are told and shown that Gatsby just has his parties to impress Daisy, and in a sense to win her over. The reality of this is that Daisy lives a very comfortable life with no worries or complaints about it, and she would never leave Tom, who fulfills her every desire for a man like Gatsby. Also, both the book and movie were centered around Gatsby, readers of the book, and audiences of the movie are drawn toward his sense of mystery, how no one really knows what he does, or what he had done to get all of his money and popularity. He is a person people want to be, people want to know, people want to talk about. He is, in a sense a celebrity, by today's standards.

In the book and the movie, the protagonist is Nick Carraway, he is the person with the good intentions, but he ends up leaving and going back to his hometown to marry a girl that has been waiting for him.

Jay Gatsby is, by far, the most complex character in both the book and the movie. He is a very mysterious person, he doesn't tell anyone anything about his past. The book shows this in more depth than the movie does, it captures his sense of mystery, and it is almost pouring out of every page. He is also a prime example of how money can't buy happiness, he had a very large mansion, he threw lavish parties,