Differences And Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And The 1920's

The Great Gatsby is a novel which critically discusses the ideals of the American Dream and recapturing the past. In the film adaptation, producer Jack Clayton stays very closely to the plot and even quotes the novel verbatim but fails to capture the essence of the themes portrayed in the novel. The text did not translate well into film; some facts are distorted, the depiction of the characters are different, the general ambience of certain settings do not match, and the movie is weighted towards the beginning of the book, with half of the movie based closely on the first two chapters of the book.

An abrupt death of Myrtle caused by the traumatizing car accident, and the sudden crash of the Wall Street are both endings of glorious and magnificent times. Is this a simply coincidence? Or is it Fitzgerald’s intention to link The Great Gatsby with the time period? The devastating incident of the car crash was the ending of The Great Gatsby and the crash of Wall Street brought the shimmering and wondrous Roaring Twenties to the end. There are strong connections between the novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ and the Roaring Twenties. America in the 1920s experienced various sudden and extreme changes in people’s lives in both economic and culture wise. The end of WWI introduced America to the urban society, causing a boost in economy, resulting affluence

There are many differences to be discovered between Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, written in 1925, and the movie directed by Baz Luhrmann in 2013. Clearly, as time drastically changed between the two, it is easy to assume that some aspects of the story have as well. Scott Fitzgerald and Baz Luhrmann both captured the essence of the world in the 1920’s in different ways. These differences can be seen throughout the characters and themes of the story.

The green light at the end of daisy's dock is the symbol of gatsby's hopes and dreams. It represents everything that haunts and beckons Gatsby: the physical and emotional distance between him and Daisy, the gap between the past and the present, the promises of the future, and the powerful lure of that other green stuff he craves money. The light is something that is a key part of gatsby's character, even the very first time the books protagonist nick sees gatsby he is down at his dock staring at the light. “He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.” and even nick comes to realize this lights significance , “ And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes —a fresh, green breast of the new world.... And as I sat there, brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out Daisy's light at the end of his dock. He had come such a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it. But what he did not know was that it was already behind him, somewhere in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on

The Great Gatsby: The green light can be seen as representing Gatsby’s hopes and dreams, most importantly Daisy, which emphasizes the ideas of the American Dream. He reaches toward it as a guiding light to his hopes and dreams.

The color green is used by the author to represent that the reaching of something unattainable can lead to failure. Throughout the novel, Gatsby struggles to reach his American dream. In the past, Gatsby strongly feels as though Daisy doesn't want to be with him because he wasn't rich, so Gatsby began to seek wealth. The green light first appear at the end of the first

The green light is the most significant use of symbolism in The Great Gatsby. The green light represents various aspects of life which include: Hope, unattainable dreams, freedom and the American Dream. In chapter one Nick states “Involuntarily I glanced seaward — and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock" (Fitzgerald 152). The explanation of this quote is Nick seeing Gatsby reaching his arms out towards the green light at the end of the deck which represents that Gatsby is trying to grasp and gets a hold of his hopes and dreams, which is Daisy, but at that moment Gatsby is unsuccessful in doing so. The green light’s meaning is also that a person cannot live their lives in the past, but instead should look ahead towards the future. In chapter 9 Nick also states "I thought of Gatsby‘s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy‘s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could barely fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night" (Fitzgerald 149). For Gatsby, the green light represents his American dream and Daisy. He wanted to continue his life with Daisy by his side, but sadly his dreams were short-lived.

The first time we see the green light is at the end of the first chapter. On page 25-26 Nick Carraway glances toward Gatsby and notes this; “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.” Nick doesn't see much, but he sees that Gatsby is reaching out to the mysterious light, and that it seems to be something that Gatsby truly desires, however not only the light but Gatsby himself are shrouded in an elusive cloud. Due to this sense of wonder Nick doesn't really even care for the light, and is much more interested in the menacing figure of Gatsby. Perhaps this represents that we all desire something, and to others our desires may seem “minute and far away,” however no matter what we look for, and no matter how close we come, nobody will ever understand our longings.

First I want to talk about Gatsby, in the book the green light symbolizes Daisy, which we find out in the fifth chapter when Nick and Daisy are at Gatsby’s house after he has showed them all of his shirts. This is important because for Gatsby, Daisy is a physical embodiment of a time when he was happier, and he wants to go back to that time therefore he has to attain Daisy. The reason the green light represented Daisy was because it was the closest Gatsby could get to her from the other side of the bay it was something he could look at every night and reminisce on what he wants to make his future.

The Great Gatsby film compared to the novel is very fast and busy. It zips through all the details that Fitzgerald puts into the novel at such depth. Luhrmann skips through all of the important stuff and instead focus on the parties and the material goods that the characters possess and not so much there relationships with one another. In the book Fitzgerald describes things very well, but in the movie they only brush the surface of what Fitzgerald was trying the say. The parties are also very loud and they don’t seem to belong in the 1920’s.

“What is better, the book or movie?” a commonly asked question by many individuals who are curious to know one’s opinion on a novel or film he/she is interested in. The book is usually always better than the movie because the book is more detailed, one gets to know the characters better, and it allows one to be more creative and have his/her own interpretation on what is occurring. In this case, The Great Gatsby is a remarkable 1925 novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which was made into various movie adaptions in 1926, 1949, 1974, 2000 and 2013. Each version takes place in drastically different periods, so each type has its own take on the film, also depending on the director’s vision. This goes to show that the cinema has been trying periodically to recreate F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic, but the attempts of the movies have mostly failed. In particular, the 1974 film decreases its effectiveness in representing the message that Fitzgerald was attempting to demonstrate in the book, which contributes to the book being significantly better than the film for various reasons.

The green color of the light represents wealth and the start of a new life. Connecting his love for Daisy with the American dream and a better future, he believes Daisy is a beckon that is going to pull him out of darkness into a perfect life. In the beginning of the story, this can be seen when the narrator recounts that “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light,” (Fitzgerald, 26). This brings forth the idea that the light or goal is minute and unattainable. Although Gatsby never approaches the light, he continues to reach for it which represents Gatsby’s unattainable dream. As background information is revealed, it becomes evident that Gatsby’s desire for Daisy is one of status. His past reveals that Daisy was desired by many men and to attain her would make one most worthy. “It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy – it increased her value in his eyes” (Fitzgerald,149). This increased value further exploits the classism of this time period through Gatsby, who takes the green light as a signal to keep going. The only judgement of character was one’s social class. However, he does not just desire Daisy but the previous month he had spent with her. This demonstrates Gatsby’s

The first time that the light is seen in the book is when Nick sees Gatsby for the first time. The green light also is society’s desire and the seeming impossibility of achieving the American Dream. The light represents the distance between Gatsby and Daisy, the gap between the past and the present and the desire for money. On page 21, Nick is describing when he saw Gatsby for the first time standing there, he said “And distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way, that might have been the end of a

The color green represents wealth, which was a reoccurring obsession with Gatsby. The body of water between them both represents the rift between Gatsby and Daisy’s different lives and backgrounds. Additionally, this is the first instance when Gatsby is reaching out to his hopes and dreams. Gatsby’s dream involves wealth and future marriage with Daisy. It is duly noted that at the end of the first chapter, Nick saw Gatsby and, “could have sworn he was trembling…Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light”(Gatsby 20-21). This personal action represents the longing for economic and material success, almost becoming and obsession. However the readers are able to understand that individuals constantly believe that there is always something better in the world. This green light is also symbolic as nicks observation at the end of the novel “tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther”(Gatsby 171), showing that this dream is all encompassing. Gatsby looking across the water to see the green light has drove himself to high status and astonishing success. The green light not only represents wealth but also the model of the American

Many similarities and differences can be found in The Great Gatsby: both the movie and the novel. One of the major differences between the two works is the initial meeting between Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway.