Similarities Between The Movie And The Great Gatsby

This essay aims to compare the effectiveness of the intercultural links between The Great Gatsby movie with The Great Gatsby collection launched by Brooks Brothers in 2013 in London. The Great Gatsby is a classic novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which portrays the American culture in the 1920s. Within the novel, the characters belong to distinct social classes, the wealthy, contrasting new money and old money, living in the East and the West Eggs, in the outside New York city. Brooks Brothers is an American menswear brand, founded in 1818 in New York, selling expensive, high quality clothing and apparel to wealthy customers. A few days before the release of The Great Gatsby movie, in April 2013, Brooks Brothers launched a limited-edition

Without culture, human beings cannot survive” (Aldridge, 1997). According to Aldridge (2002), humans are capable of surviving because of their ability to communicate through speech. Essentially, this is what differentiates humans from other species. “Human language (spoken and written) is the symbolic glue for human culture” (Aldridge, 1997). This may explain how the classic novel, The Great Gatsby published in 1925, served as an inspiration for a movie which launched almost 90 years later and became an international award winner. Moreover, inspired by the movie, Brooks Brothers created their Great Gatsby collection. In this example, the US culture from the late 20s has survived almost one century and has influenced the audience from other cultures. This seems to confirm the belief that, through globalization, America has managed to impose its values and culture on others. In this context, the concept of the “American dream”, representing equal opportunities and the possibility for all to attain wealth, economic freedom and success, together with other important values of American society such as patriotism and equality, are aspirational and attractive to other cultures globally, including the British (Aldridge,