Great Gatsby Vs Movie Essay, Research Paper
The film and the novel both entitled The Great Gatsby are two wonderful works
that contain various differences and similarities. The movie version shows the viewer
what is happening in the story without internal comments from the narrator and the viewer
can understand exactly what is happening without any intellectual thought involved. The
novel, however, challenges the reader to look deep inside the writing in order to grasp the
true effect of the novel and what kind of meaning is being portrayed. The novel also
challenges the reader?s creativity and imagination. It lets the reader explore the character?s
personalities in their own special way and the reader can relate these personalities to real
life. The novel also allows the reader more freedom that the movie, in the way that it lets
the reader shape their own opinions of the different characters. As a person watches the
movie version, all the characters are laid out for them and every detail of the character is
seen, yet in the novel the character is described fully and it is up to the reader?s
imagination to picture what the character looks like as well as the emotions conveyed by
this character in the novel. The novel version of The Great Gatsby is a definite piece of
art and clearly challenges the reader both intellectually and imaginatively to understand the
words that describe the character accurately. Therefore the novel The Great Gatsby by
F.Scott Fitzgerald is still the best representation of the Romantic Hero and his American
Dream despite the film version?s attepmt to ?usurp? it, for the author challenges the
reader?s imagination through his brilliant narrative technique, unforgettable
characterization, and use of symbolism, so that Gatsby?s experience becomes everyone?s.
The novel is told in the perspective of a single character, Nick Carraway. Nick is an
innocent and simplistic character and when the story is conveyed through this type of
character it usually is told truly, and without any outside influence from the other
characters in the plot. Nick?s telling of the story is taken from his first hand accounts on
how he sees the story unfold, straightforward and in the order that it occurs without
confusion. Nick is a very moralistic man and his morals, and also his values, are positively
genuine. His heart is filled with compassion, especially for Gatsby and the events that
surrounded Gatsby?s death as he was one of three people that were at this great man?s
funeral. This genuine, yet critical, character is seen through his narration because he tells
the story with his own comments of how he views, with the help of his morals and values,
the different characters. For example, when he describes Tom Buchanan?s speech about
his own family. ?Nowadays, people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions,
and next they?ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and
white.? Nick?s narrative reply to this comment simply shows how Nick?s thoughts can
become the readers after he simply describes this statement as. ?impassioned gibberish?,
The reader can be persuaded to view Nick sees them. However it can have a opposite
effect and the reader may see the characters differently as they look back at the reading,
and see Tom Buchanan as a man that has not been taught any better than to make simple
?indiscretions? and he simply loves his wife and wants life to get back to normal. Through
the narration, the reader can develop these different opinions of Tom, yet in the movie the
viewer simply sees what is happening and does not get the true emotions of what is
happening, and lack the insight put in by the narration in the novel. Also, the viewer of the
movie does not get the true history the film version as in the novel. In the novel the
mysterious, yet descriptive past is told by Gatsby to Nick and in the film version it is not
as descriptive and the viewers are certainly not imagining it for themselves as expressively
as they would if reading the novel. Nick is a very well written narrator and through his
innocence and values he proves to be also a very simplistic character an
choice for a narrator. The characters in both the film and the novel are very complex as
well as very well written/acted out. All the characters have very definite roles in the story
line and in turn have definite roles in the outcome of the story. The novel version is clearly
the more superior in the way that it describes and sets up the character and allows the
reader to see deep into what the character life and emotions really revolve around. This is
done by Fitzgerald magnificently through characterization. When reading the novel it is
discovered that the characters are not always what they seem to be. For example, Daisy is
seen as a superficial, shallow, and snobbish individual that is only concerned with
reputations and materialistic things in the world. It is slowly shown throughout the novel
that this is an incorrect interpretation of Daisy. This exterior of superiority is just a front
that has been put there because she has been hurt so many times by love that she needs a
superficial front so it can shield her from any other heartache. This is demonstrated in the
scene where she tells her cousin, Nick, that she wants her daughter to be a, ?beautiful little
fool?, . The reason for this declaration is because she wants her daughter, Pammy, to be a
fool so she cannot be hurt by love, as did her mother by Gatsby and Tom, both. When
watching the film version of this scene, the viewer does not get this effect because the
words in the novel look deep into each characters for any unknown emotions as well as
the history surrounding the character. This history also has effect on the characters
emotions in the present, as seen in Daisy as well as Jay Gatsby. Through this
characterization of each of the characters it is made intellectually and imaginatively more
beneficial to read and understand the novel than to simply watch the movie. Symbolism is
very effective in a novel. This is demonstrated in the novel The Great Gatsby very
efficiently. The novel is filled with symbolism. From what the characters wear, their
possessions, the places they live in and even the music that is playing and the mood they
represent, symbolism is very easily used. When reading the novel, the reader can take
these objects and look deep into them and find a completely story behind the symbol, for
example, Daisy?s clothing. The white color that Daisy wears almost always can represent
her innocence as a character as well as her purity. On the other hand, this can also
represent her blank and colorless soul which lacks substance. When watching the movie
the viewer may not grasp this concept of symbolism as easily, or as effusively as in the
novel because in the novel the description is thorough and the text is clear. Also, when
reading the novel it is easier to identify symbolism because the reading can be taken slower
and is appreciated more than in the movie where it is seen at the pace of the director, not
the viewer. Therefore, the novel is the superior piece of art, enabling the reader to
experience The Great Gatsby on more of an intellectual basis rather then simply a piece of
entertainment. As both the novel and the movie version of The Great Gatsby are
wonderful interpretations of a well written story line from the 1920?s, it can be clearly
seen that the novel is a much better representation of the Romantic Hero and his American
Dream. Through the amazing use of writing mechanisms such as narrative technique,
characterization, and symbolism, F. Scott Fitzgeral has simply made the best version of the
Great Gusty, and definitely stimulated the imaginative and intellectual parts of the readers
mind. Through the novel, the reader can get a better grasp of what really happened and
imagine it as if the reader was really there, participating with the narrator Nick Carraway,
and not simply watching the movie version on television, letting the film think for the
reader. For all these reasons, and many more, it is obvious that the novel version is the
more superior piece of art compared to the movie, stimulating imagination, creativity,
emotion and intellect throughout the reading and interpretation of the story?s events.