The Great Gatsby

Hello everyone,

My today's blog is about well known novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. We also saw movie of this novel, name 'The Great Gatsby' This movie was not available in YouTube as free of cost so first we purchase it and then we saw and it's became important lesson for us. So in this blog we have to explain what we understood through movie, is it helpful to understand novel or not and what other things we find out in this movie this kind of study we have to do in this task which is assigned by professor Dilip Barad sir

1) Who is F.Scott Fitzgerald??

 F. Scott Fitzgerald full name Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was a 20th-century American short-story writer and novelist. Although he completed four novels and more than 150 short stories in his lifetime, he is perhaps best remembered for his third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925). The Great Gatsby is today widely considered “the great American novel.” He is famous for his depictions of the Jazz Age in the 1920 century. To know more about F.Scott Fitzgerald click here

2) Brief introduction of The Novel :-

The Novel's main idea is how American dream affect the people's life. We all have different ideas about the American Dream, or success in general. For many of us, we picture the white picket fence, two-and-a-half children, a smiling housewife, and a happy husband dressed in a suit and tie. For others, the American Dream means coming to America and having a rich, productive life. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, we follow Jay Gatsby as he pursues his version of the American Dream. His failure to attain happiness leads the reader to believe that the moral of the story is that the American Dream is ultimately unattainable. Besides that the novel also give message of racism and class conflict. How American dream convert into end of the life. Fitzgerald discussed all the things in this novel there is many characters so let me introduce the in brief :-

There are four main characters in the novel: Nick Carraway, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby. These four characters all know each other and are connected in ways we'll look at. They're also connected by a lie concerning the death of Myrtle Wilson, a woman with whom Tom is having an extra marital affair.

Brief introduction of Film :-

The Great Gatsby is a 2013 historical romantic drama film based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel of the same name. The film was co-written and directed by Baz Luhrmann and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, and Elizabeth Debicki.Jay-Z served as executive producer. Filming took place from September to December 2011 in Australia. The film follows the life and times of millionaire Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio) and his neighbor Nick Carraway (Maguire), who recounts his encounter with Gatsby at the height of the Roaring Twenties on Long Island.

1) How did the film capture the Jazz Age - the roaring Twenties of the America in 1920s?

A)What is Jazz ??

The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920s and 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles rapidly gained nationwide popularity in the United States. The Jazz Age's cultural repercussions were primarily felt in the United States, the birthplace of jazz.

The Jazz Age is often referred to in conjunction with the Roaring Twenties, and in the United States, it overlapped in significant cross-cultural ways with the Prohibition Era. The movement was largely affected by the introduction of radios nationwide. During this time, the Jazz Age was intertwined with the developing youth culture. The movement also helped start the beginning of the European Jazz movement.

More than any other author, F. Scott Fitzgerald can be said to have captured the rollicking, tumultuous decade known as the Roaring Twenties, from its wild parties, dancing and illegal drinking to its post-war prosperity and its new freedoms for women.

 In this novel Fitzgerald found the new lifestyle very exciting. Now he found himself in an era in which unrestrained materialism set the tone of society, particularly in the large cities of the East. However, Fitzgerald saw the moral emptiness and hypocrisy through the glamour of the Jazz Age. The Great Gatsby is an attempt of confrontation of his conflicting feelings about the Jazz Age.

In the Movie also Baz Luhrmann capture this age very well ,  audience easily get the idea about hypocrisy of the characters And we can also say that how character try to Ignore the chaos of their mind in the noise of Jazz music. Jay Gatsby throws a parties in which Jazz music became a helpful into the hiding the crime of him. So one can easily get idea that how American people live life in materialistic way. As we know that during the time when Fitzgerald wrote this poem Jazz music was new form of music and in this movie we can see the in movie Jazz appears as constant background music. As scholar David Savran wrote in 2006,  "Jazz was everything. A weltanschauung, a personal identity, a metaphysics, an epistemology, an ethics, an eros, a mode of sociality—an entire way of being.” 

In today's context we can say that in movie ' Gully Boy  In this Movie Zoya Akhtar  capture  Rap music very well. One can see that how Rap music  give Idea of poor people's lifestyle and new form of music

The main features of the American “Roaring 20s” such as materialistic attitude towards life, striving to attain high social status, prohibition as well as social phenomena “ flappers” and “ self made man “ in the context of the events and the characters of The Great Gatsby. Its assumption is to reflect the 1920s through the standpoints of its characters as well as economic and social background of the fiction. In order to analyse the concept of the American Dream in literature fiction many factors should be studied, especially those responsible for creating and reinforcing this phenomenon, as well as the ones that led toits failure. Both sets of the factors have been depicted in The Great Gatsby.

The Roaring Twenties” brought. not only prosperity but also numerous fears. The boom of that era resulted in significant benefits for Americans as wages and living standards significantly improved for many people. According to Kennedy and Cohen. 'New technologies, new consumer products and new forms of leisure and entertainment made this period unique'. However, widespread fears appeared that America was losing its traditional ways.

2) How did the film help in understanding the character of the novel?

The film 'The great Gatsby' based on the novel 'The great Gatsby' by Fitzgerald which became helpful to understand a novel.  Movie is in flashback there was character of Nick who told the story of the most optimistic person he ever met , movie maintain mystery of the characters at the end of movie. 

 In movie We can understand the every character introduce in colour description Luhrmann uses four kinds of color schemes to achieve a dream-like and over-the-top movie. His use of color schemes creates a movie that comes alive through more than simply the places and people. The different color schemes tell a story of their own. The colors combined with special effects and music create a version of The Great Gatsby that stands out amongst other movies based on the same novel.

Tom Buchanan is one of the first characters we meet aside from the narrator Nick Carraway. We learn from Carraway that Tom takes the stereotype of a 1920s wealthy white male to a new extreme. Tom was a college hero , one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven…one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors anti-climax. From this description, you get the sense that Tom was a big man on campus and probably has a high degree of self-importance.

But as audience we feel sympathy for Gatsby for sometime but when we get idea about his richness and way of earning money we lose our sympathy for him. There was many others characters like Tom , Daisy , Myrtle , Wilson and Jordan. This all characters also important character who played very important role in the life of Nick and Jay Gatsby. The character of  Jay Gatsby who is self made millionaire, who hosts lavish parties that he never seems to attend and obsesses over the objects of his desire—especially his longtime love, Daisy. All of Gatsby's actions seem to be driven by that single-minded, even naive, love. He is the protagonist of the novel, as his actions drive the plot.

When Daisy's character introduce we feel that she is good - humble character but after the passing of the time we come to know that her mentality and vision towards life is based on richness and class. But she is Beautiful, frivolous, and rich, Daisy is a young socialite with no troubles to speak of at least, that's how it seems on the surface. She is self-absorbed, somewhat shallow, and a little vain, but she's also charming and high-spirited. She has an innate understanding of human behavior, and she comprehends the harsh truths of the world even as she hides from them. Her romantic choices seem to be the only choices she makes, but those choices represent her efforts to create the life she really wants.

Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is no exception. Some of the lines are altered and some of the characters are minimized. For example, Jordan Baker and Nick are a couple throughout the novel. When it comes to the movie, however, Jordan’s role has been minimized and it seems like the only real function of her character is to deliver the question about Nick inviting Daisy to tea, as well as being by Daisy’s side during the Plaza scene. Although the main focus of the novel is, just like in the movie, on the Gatsby and Daisy relationship we get some small glimpses

into Jordan and Nick’s relationship but the audience have to know about it from the

novel to notice it in the movie. Jordan reveals in the novel that she “hates careless people” and that is why she likes Nick, because he is not careless like

everyone else she has met. This helps the reader get to know a different side of Nick as well. The reader gets a glimpse into what kind of person Nick actually is, and in some ways his personality is seen in the things we get through visual effects throughout the movie such as facial expressions and body language.

All the characters have become more impersonal due to the fact that Luhrmann puts more effort into the visuals of the movie and that can be seen as a loss to the movie. Through that  we came to know that how velly of ashes and green light is important into the life of characters.

 

We saw movie through eyes of Nick, as he was narrator ,but  we know that movie or any literature should be Three dimensional perspective. He apparently tries to be as truthful as possible. He tells us right away that he has an uncanny ability to reserve judgment and get people to trust him, which encourages us to see him as a reliable narrator. At the same time, he also says “I am one of the few honest people I have ever known.” His very need to describe himself this way makes the reader question how much Nick can actually be trusted.

3) How did the film help in understanding the symbolic significance of 'The valley of ashes ? The eyes of Dr.T.J.Eckleberg'? And The green Light'?

The valley of Ashes :-

The valley of ashes is a symbolic place in the novel that first appears in chapter two. Nick goes there to search for his mistress. It is a place between East and West Egg created by dumping the industrial waste. It represents how morality and social code of conduct are dropped out of the industrial society. It also depicts the miserable situation of people like George Wilson who live among the ashes without ambition. This is a highly effective symbol that represents the divide between the poor and the rich class in the society of that time and even the present.

The Eyes of T. J. Eckleberg :-

Another symbol we see in the novel is the eyes of T. J Eckleberg. Which seems something unique like advertisement who see everything as God see. These are faded bespectacled eyes printed on the billboard over the ‘valley of ashes’. The eyes represent the commercialism which is the backbone of the American dream. It is clear from the fact of how Gatsby earns a lot of wealth to get Daisy back in life. These eyes also represent the hollowness and solidity in Gatsby’s eyes, for despite having all the glitters in life, his eyes reflect emptiness. To George Wilson, for them they are the eyes of God that watch over every segment of the society. To Nick, they represent the waste of past which sticks around, though vanished.

The Green Light :-

First scene of movie is green light pop up into water. The green light pops up many times in the novel and represents Gatsby’s dream and hope. It also represents everything that haunts him and takes him to the past. It also signifies the green stuff (money), his memories with Daisy and the gap between his past and his present. He deliberately chooses the house in a direction from where he can have the enchanting sight of green light. He loves to stand at the dock to stare at that green light which represents his innermost desire to revive his past. He is hopeful that one day he will win the lost moments. The artificial green light also stands for his artificial and unrealistic aims in life.

Symbols in the novel play an important role in giving the reader an idea about the 1920s and make the reader understand how concrete things stand for abstract

ideas. 

4) How did the film capture the theme of racism and sexism ?

In this novel Fitzgerald capture many ideas of current issues and in film  Luhrmann also capture that all Idea very well.

Character of Tom show that how he was believer of racist. When Daisy, Ms. Baker, Tom and Nick are all at dinner when Tom starts to talk about these “scientific” books he has been reading about the white race. He goes on to say that the book say that Whites are a superior race and they are to control all the other races or they will rise to control.

The world, along with the humans in it are always evolving. Things are constantly changing in most aspects such as technology, laws and survival. It is quite hard to determine whether change has really occurred when it comes to matters of the heart; such as love, relationships, and sex. Today, Racism is still a major issue that occurs throughout the world. Even though it is not encouraged, and is looked down upon, many people continue to act racist and unfortunately put down one another.  Racism before the 21st century was more common and was usually between white people. It was truly believed that they were most dominant and had the ideology that their race was superior compared to colored races.

Sexism :

This concept of a man possessing a woman motivates the central conflict of the story. Both Gatsby and Tom Buchanan are motivated by possessing Daisy physically and psychologically. In the main confrontation between Tom Buchanan and Gatsby, Gatsby is determined to make Daisy say that she never loved Tom and her husband, who is widely known as having a mistress, expresses hypocritical indignation toward Daisy’s affair with Gatsby and argues that Gatsby is of insufficient “breeding” to be with her. Daisy is ultimately unable to chose, making her seem more like sexual cattle than a person with thoughts, feelings and goals in life. With this being the female lead in the story, it’s safe to say that The Great Gatsby‘s depiction of women leaves much to be desired.

In a scene where Nick Carraway has lunch with Gatsby in a speak-easy in the rear of a barbershop, we see black women in the near-nude dancing before a crowd and singing the chorus of Jazz song “Hundred Dollar Bill.” Black women in the film are viewed exclusively as sexual objects, and frequently the sexual objects of wealthy white men. Black men are either well-dressed members of a criminal underworld or servants to the wealthy white characters. There is only one black person who has a speaking role in the film, and his only contribution is to describe a car used in a hit-and-run.

Tom makes several racist and sexist remarks. It is easy to dislike his character. When Tom says, “Have you read ‘The Rise of the Colored Empires’ by this man Goddard?”...”The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff, it’s been proved.” “Its up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.” Although Tom is an easy character to hate, it is not apparent that he is the sole villain to the story. He is not necessarily what destroys Gatsby in the end. In the book, it is Tom’s goal to have Wilson lash out at Gatsby. He does not out right tell Wilson that Gatsby is to blame for Myrtle’s death. He instead just tells Wilson the car that kills his wife is yellow. In movies there always has to be a villain. The producers decided to make Tom the villain. Tom practically tells Wilson that Gatsby is to blame for the death of his wife, Myrtle. Although Tom is made out to be the villain, the producers decided to leave out Tom’s racist and sexist remarks. In the apartment party scene, they completely omit Tom’s abusive behavior of hitting Myrtle.

 

5)Watch the video on Nick Carraway and discussed him as narrator.

The novel is written from Nick Carraway’s point of view, and the movie keeps this narrative perspective, including its bias. However, Nick is not the main character of the novel, the center of the novel is Jay Gatsby, “a figure marked by failure and shadowed by death”. He is a young war veteran who returns to New York seeking an old love named Daisy Buchanan, as she “embodies the idea of perfection for Gatsby, an almost unapproachable ideal of social success and self-realization". Even though he is the narrator, Nick is “placed at the edge of the story” and on one occasion in the novel Nick thinks:

 “I was within and without” 

According to James E. Miller Jr, Nick is “reconstructing by some means whatever he himself has been unable to witness” telling the story as someone looking into someone else’s life. Nick becomes the one keeping everybody’s secrets and the one who is then able to retell them. He also mentions in the movie that,

 

“For the second time that summer I was guarding other people’s secrets”. 

Both in the novel and in the movie Nick is able to angle his descriptions of the characters as he sees fit, which we can see in that there is a clear difference between how he talks about other characters and how he talks about Jay Gatsby. The way Nick romanticizes and characterizes Gatsby makes the reader see Gatsby in a different light than the other characters of the story. At first glance, the reader gets a biased characterization of Gatsby because of the way Nick tells the story. Gatsby’s character is made up to be a guy longing for the love of his life, and who will do anything to get to her. However, the readers’ 

"Own beliefs and desires"

Everything that Nick talks about and describes seems very extraordinary and

very luxurious, which adds to the feeling of luxury in the novel. He tells the story with sensitivity and is able to engage the reader, and because of that he gains

sympathy from the reader by ”sharing with the reader his personal feelings: his desires, dislikes, fears, doubts and affection” . Nick himself is characterized as being sympathetic. Nick is “the moral center of the novel” which puts him in a vulnerable position. As the narrator of the novel and the movie Nick is able to portray the characters however it suits him best. As already stated, he portrays Gatsby in a different light than the way he portrays the characters that are from West Egg. To know more about Nickclick here

6)Watch the video on psychoanalytical study of Jay Gatsby and write about his character.

Jay Gatsby, his real name was James Gatz, grew up as a child of lower-class people, some "unsuccessful farmers". Nevertheless, he has ambition and does not want to stay poor. His key to that is his new imagined identity: "Jay Gatsby". The first time he uses this identity is when he meets Dan Cody, who will make Gatsby a rich man. At the time he joins the army he meets Daisy Fay and although he has no money and she belongs to the upper class, they fall in love. Their relationship lasts until Jay has to go to war. Daisy cannot wait for him and marries Tom Buchanan. Gatsby's love instead increases and when he comes back, he wants to win her back - with money. By that time, he has come to a great amount of money. There is only one problem, his money is not "clean". He gained it by becoming a criminal. Tom, who does not want Gatsby to steal his wife searches in his past and finds out everything.

Jay Gatsby is the protagonist of the novel but we can't say him as protagonist because he hasn't any quality of protagonist. Because he is a bootlegger.

Through all his life Gatsby was led by his ambition, love, passion, and dreams, which altogether one might call obsession. And at this obsession we will have a closer look now.

First, we want to find out where his obsession comes from. His obsession already begins to take shape in his earliest days in the form of his ambitions and dreams. He wants to have success in everything he does, but his parents are "shiftless and unsuccessful farm people” and so they do not fit into his dream-life and must be abandoned: “his imagination has never accepted them as his parents at all."

As a “romantic dreamer” who finally “manages to escape from his background”, he leaves his parents to start a new life of success. His “visions” or ambitions tell him already in this early stadium of life that he is not going anywhere with these losers, his only chance is to leave them behind, and he takes that chance. However, actually there is already a hint of Jay’s obsession before he leaves his parents.

Personality In Gatsby's case, his

unconscious mind towards something that he can never have, but wants so badly, he is driven by his desire for Daisy Buchanan on the id level. When Gatsby first met Daisy, he was instantly attracted to her, because not only was she beautiful but she was incredibly wealthy as well. He was still poor and he knew that she would never look at a man like him, let alone love him. So, in Gatsby's mind, his id told him to chase Daisy. He would do whatever it took to have Daisy in his arms, so he lied to her that he was also rich and from the same social strata.

But when Tom came to know about richness of Jay he broke all the mysteries of him and Daisy also came to know about Jay and denied to Jay. But Jay was truly fall in love with her because he didn't do accident though he accepted that and Wilson shoot him and at the end of his life noone is there for him , so we can say that how American dream of richness and materialistic life became worthless because Jay and Myrtle both has tragic end.

Thank you :)