The Great Gatsby: a Comparison Between the Movie and the Novel
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- Category: English: Novels
- Date Submitted: 06/05/2011 04:46 AM
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The Great Gatsby: A Comparison between the Movie and the Novel
The novel, The Great Gatsby, is an excellent book written by Scott Fitzgerald. It does an outstanding job at portraying the life during the Jazz Age, as well as exploring internal themes, such as love and trying to relive the past. Scott Fitzgerald lived during the Jazz Age and had a live similar life to that of characters in the novel. Therefore, he is able to give great insight and portray everything accurately. Then in 1974 a movie based on novel was created. It, however, fails to achieve and represent the themes presented by Fitzgerald correctly.
The movie does a good job at depicting life in the 1920’s, because of the outstanding actors and actresses. A problem occurs in the movie with the characters. In the novel it said that all the characters were around 30 years old, but in the movie some of the characters, especially Tom, are too old for the part they played. Furthermore, in the novel Tom was described as an especially muscular man, who uses his strength to physically dominate and control others. In the movie he is barely bigger than Nick, and he does not appear to use violence to dominate others very often.
In the movie Daisy loses so many of what seemed to be her key characteristics in the novel. In the novel, Daisy is nothing more than a simple airhead. She is stuck-up, incredibly selfish and extremely dumb. In the movie, on the other hand, she is a much more active character. She is able to think for herself and show true emotions. In the movie, she actually appears to love Gatsby. Whereas, in the novel she is only playing around, expecting to get everything she points at.
In the book, Myrtle was supposed to be ugly, overweight and dirty. In the movie, Myrtle is nicely dressed, skinny and quite attractive. By doing this the audience losing the opportunity to see that Tom is trying to get away from the life he has, by being interested in a woman who is the exact opposite of Daisy....
The novel, The Great Gatsby, is an excellent book written by Scott Fitzgerald. It does an outstanding job at portraying the life during the Jazz Age, as well as exploring internal themes, such as love and trying to relive the past. Scott Fitzgerald lived during the Jazz Age and had a live similar life to that of characters in the novel. Therefore, he is able to give great insight and portray everything accurately. Then in 1974 a movie based on novel was created. It, however, fails to achieve and represent the themes presented by Fitzgerald correctly.
The movie does a good job at depicting life in the 1920’s, because of the outstanding actors and actresses. A problem occurs in the movie with the characters. In the novel it said that all the characters were around 30 years old, but in the movie some of the characters, especially Tom, are too old for the part they played. Furthermore, in the novel Tom was described as an especially muscular man, who uses his strength to physically dominate and control others. In the movie he is barely bigger than Nick, and he does not appear to use violence to dominate others very often.
In the movie Daisy loses so many of what seemed to be her key characteristics in the novel. In the novel, Daisy is nothing more than a simple airhead. She is stuck-up, incredibly selfish and extremely dumb. In the movie, on the other hand, she is a much more active character. She is able to think for herself and show true emotions. In the movie, she actually appears to love Gatsby. Whereas, in the novel she is only playing around, expecting to get everything she points at.
In the book, Myrtle was supposed to be ugly, overweight and dirty. In the movie, Myrtle is nicely dressed, skinny and quite attractive. By doing this the audience losing the opportunity to see that Tom is trying to get away from the life he has, by being interested in a woman who is the exact opposite of Daisy....