The Great Gatsby Comparison Essay

Jay Gatsby, a captivating character both on paper and on the screen, but are they so mesmerizing for the same reason? Both critics and readers agree that the 2013 adaptation of the Great Gatsby does injustice to the book and its key points and themes. The Great Gatsby film director Baz Luhrmann did a poor job emphasising social class when recreating the American classic novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. One of the first main differences someone might find is that Gatsby’s parties look like a party from today not from 100 years ago. In the novel Fitzgerald focuses on the people at the party, and how so many people are showing up at a time, most not even being invited. While this part is also true in the movie, that is pretty much the only similarity alongside all of the booze. In the novel, Fitzgerald describes people sitting by the pool enjoying their drinks while listening to an orchestra, so one might think that Gatsby wants to keep his parties somewhat sophisticated to keep a good reputation (40). On the other hand, the movie took an opposite approach with a DJ playing modern hip hop music while drunk people fall right into the pool, which can give someone the impression that

In both the novel and the film Owl Eyes is introduced in Gatsby’s library, in the novel he can’t stop talking about how astonished he is that Gatsby’s books are real, but also not read like everyone else in East Egg, proving he is not too far behind on the social ladder(45-46). Sadly in the movie the only thing he has to say is what everyone else has been saying, no one knows the truth about Gatsby. The point of the library is supposed to show how Gatsby knows the tricks up the East Eggers sleeves, and he has some tricks up his sleeve as well, but the East Eggers still don’t respect him and see him as less then them. These examples again shows how the theme of social class isn’t even apparent in the