The Great Gatsby Comparative Essay

The Intangible Past

Put simply, it is hard to recreate the past. The past doesn’t exist and will never exist in the present, making it nearly impossible to replicate or tamper with later. The book, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, & the film, directed by Baz Luhrman, work together to explore this in both similar and contrasting ways. The film adaptation of The Great Gatsby does a more detailed job of portraying the book’s theme of how trying to recreate the past can lead to an uncertain future, by showing the changing portrayal of Gatsby, the odd and eerie mood surrounding the Green Light, and a seemingly tangible symbol of the past, that is Daisy.

The first way the film adaptation does a more detailed job of portraying how trying

This describes how the events from the day before have troubled Gatsby and made him hate Tom even more. It shows how trying to change the past is causing a change in himself because he starts becoming more anxious, knowing that he didn’t accomplish what he wanted the day before, and in fact, he felt things had gotten worse, which is important to realize because it is demonstrating a step in his fall. Next, while looking at the film’s portrayal, at one of Gatsby’s dazzling parties, Gatsby, with a gentle and calm voice, talks to Tom as he thoughtfully greets him and Daisy to his home and begins showing them around with a slight smile on his face. Luhrmann 1:11:10 – 11:11:30. However, towards the climax of the film, he is in a hot room in New York with them, and he suddenly turns around, and with violent intent lashes out at Tom yelling “Shut up!”, turning red, and nearly punching him, angry at him for blocking his path to Daisy (Luhrmann 1:42:17 - 1:42:35). Gatsby turns from being a charming man in the beginning to a lover in disarray sometime later. It shows the film is more detailed in showing the theme than the book, as it describes how through trying to change his past with

At the very end of the book, Nick reflects on Gatsby and how “[He] believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us” (Fitzgerald 180). This illustrates the hope Gatsby had for life with Daisy, but he could never attain it, feeling like he was always there but still so far away. This is important because it not only shows how the green light was a symbol of the past but also the desperate mood it brings to the story, helping to understand Gatsby’s intentions and convey how it is impossible for him to recreate his past with Daisy because it is not tangible, it is just a dream. Demonstrating this more, we see at the end of the film, Nick reflects on Gatsby too, but with his narration as he walks on to his dock in dark and rainy weather, seeing the faint glimmer of the green light and the silhouette of Gatsby standing there. He points out how his dream was to reach Daisy, who is what the light means to him, but he failed to grasp it (Luhrman 2:07:41 – 2:08:10). This illustrates how Gatsby always felt so close to attaining his dream, but it was never something he could hold on to. The darkness and rain surrounding this scene help make the film more detailed because it helps to represent the darkness behind the green light, and how only misery will happen