Great Gatsby: Book vs Film
Before the invention of television and film the art of story telling was restricted to theater and literature. Theater was and still is performed live by actors who tell some kind of story through their performance. But theater is still limited greatly in its ability to convey setting to the viewer. In order to fully grasp the power of any story one must believe, in a sense, that the events are happening before them. Literature is better able to accomplish this by utilizing the power of the human imagination. Even more than this literature has the ability to describe human emotion through the use of strong metaphors and colorful language. It is this technique of writing that remains unique to literature. Even film cannot approach the human emotion and heart that literature has given people over the ages. Yet film is not without advantages of its own. Film can have strong power behind it. A kind of power that a viewer is forced to see and feel. This power is delivered though a film's soundtrack, it's quick pace, and in recent years, the use of special effects. Good books are often made into films. Which is better? The answer to that question depends on the intentions of the author of the
The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was originally a book written in 1925. Several years later the book was translated into film. The book is written in first person narrative from the point of view of one of its main characters Nick Carraway. The choice of first person narrative by Fitzgerald causes the reader to be brought closer to the level of the characters in the book, rather than be at a distance as would be the case with a third person narrative. A story told in the first person most likely includes the personal feelings of whoever tells it. Nick Carraway begins the book with the line, "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since," (p 5). Immediately emotion has been handed to the reader through Carraway's words. This line implies that at the present time of story telling Carraway has grown in some way since the time he refers to as his "more vulnerable years." Film can do this as well, but only on a limited basis by using a voice over. No one wants to see a movie that has a continuous voice over but a first person narrative in a book is one large voice over and the narrator's feelings are continuously expressed to the reader. Perhaps the most important scene of the book is the one of Gatsby's death. Here the book and film differ greatly in their presentation of the events. The film actually shows the murder of Gatsby by Wilson taking place. The book presents the event as Carraway would have seen it. Since he did not witness the murder the reader does not either. By showing the murder the film is able to convey the emotions Mr. Wilson was feeling just before the murder. He was in a state of hysteria and rage. The film shows him hesitating to pull the trigger (an event not mentioned in the book) in order to convey the internal conflict that haunts Wilson. It may also be to create a moment of suspense for the audience as they hope that he does not carry out the act. The book does not offer much depth into Wilson's character at the time of the murder. When Carraway and some others find Gatsby's body the scene is almost tranquil in tone, "The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved [Gatsby's body] slowly, tracing, like the leg of a compass, a thin red circle in the water," (p 170). This is calm, as though to imply that Gatsby was so unique that even a brutal murder such as this could not disrupt his mysterious nature. The murder of Gatsby in the book is an event that acts as the conclusion to Fitzgerald's unique character. The film takes away from this feeling by turning it into a suspenseful moment. Fitzgerald did not intend The Great Gatsby to be an action book or a suspense thriller so the film's version of this event s
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Approximate Word count = 1861
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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