Great Gatsby Film Versions

There are three different filmed versions of the novel. They are all made by Paramount. These were made in 1926, 1949, and 1974, and then in 2000. The rights to the novel were purchased in 1971 by Robert Evans so that his wife would be able to play to role as Daisy.

After being released, the film received average to slightly negative reviews. The film was praised for its interpretation and staying true to the novel, but was criticized for lacking any true emotion or feelings towards the Jazz Age. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby_%281974_film%29)

In 1926, The Great Gatsby was a silent film adaptation of the novel. Many people used this film as an example of a 'lost film'. The film had a running time of 80 minutes, or 7,296 feet, and was designed as lightweight, popular entertainment, playing up the party scenes at Gatsby's mansion and emphasizing their scandalous elements. No copies of the film are known to survive. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby_%281926_film%29)


The film that was made in 2000, was just a film adaption of the novel. It was the fourth time that The Great Gatsby was made into a movie or a program. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby_%282000_film%29)

-It's Gatsby Baby

Old $$ vs. New $$

The old rich were conservative people who were used to the wealth and success. Most of them stayed in the west, as not to run into the "new rich" in the east. The bigger cities were in the east, so this is why they were labeled such.

After World War I, women became liberated because of their role in the work force when the men left for war. Once the men came back, women were definitely more outspoken and styles began to change (skirts got shorter)--flapper style, as did their hairstyles. Long gone were the long locks of feminine hairstyles. Many women went with a shorter look.

So all of these changes were going on in the big cities. Those who stayed in the west stayed conservative, while the Roaring 20s continued on recklessly in the east (big cities). The new rich became so materialistic with their new found wealth that they spent without thinking and cared for themselves only. They were not afraid to do something at the expense of another person. This is what separated the old money from the new money. The new money became embarrassing to the old money, which is why they tended to stay where they were and not move to the larger cities. (http://www.enotes.com/great-gatsby/q-and-a/look-for-general-information-new-rich-old-rich-65327)

---

F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his novel The Great Gatsby as a way to compare old and new money and to illustrate the lack of morals in those with old money. The main character, Jay Gatsby, representing Fitzgerald's personification of new money, makes his living selling alcohol illegally. He earns his money quickly and is now showing it off with fabulous parties in his oversized mansion in West Egg. Another character, Tom Buchanan, representsold money being the "scion of those ruthless generations who raised up the great American fortunes." (http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2004/5/15/141559/670)

The symbolism of old vs new money represents how we live today. There are some people who are fortunate enough to be born into money and never have to work for it. Money is no use to them once they have all they can possibly want. The new money is to the people who have worked for their wealth and struggled and have earned their coming into fortune. These people may have been less "stuck up" because of their common appreciation of their experience of past difficult times. This shows to not take things for granted.

In general, it seems as though people who came from new money are just simply new to having such a large amount of money. Old money, is for people who have been raised in money.

-It's Gatsby Baby.

The Roaring 20's

The 1920s was a decade of exciting social changes and profound cultural conflicts. For many Americans, the growth of cities, the rise of a consumer culture, and the so-called "revolution in morals and manners" represented a liberation from the restrictions of the country's Victorian past. But for others, the United States seemed to be changing in undesirable ways. The result was a thinly veiled "cultural civil war," in which a pluralistic society classed bitterly over such issues as foreign immigration, evolution, the Ku Klux Klan, and race. (http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/1920s/index.cfm)

People danced until they dropped, and one fell to the floor, dead! Of course, it wasn't Dance Planet. The radio became popular, and people tuned in everyday. The T.V. was not invented yet, so the radio was the next best thing. When they listened, people liked to listen to jazz, especially the king of jazz, Louis Armstrong. But never fear, people weren't couch potatoes, sitting next to the radio. Movies were also a big hit. This decade marked the start of the sound movies. So much happened in the 1920's, this is only a fraction of it all. Since the 1920s was a time of celebration, there were many fads. People loved to dance, especially the Charleston, Fox-trot, and the shimmy. Dance marathons were something everyone went to every weekend. The longest dance record ever recorded was a record of 3 weeks of dancing. Another fad of the 1920's was the radio. People "tuned" in every day to listen to music, as jazz, sports and live events. A favorite for listening to jazz was "the king of jazz", Louie Armstrong. The latest fashion fad was the flapper, a fad for women. The movie was also the latest thing. The start of 3-D movies was in the 1920's. The average American had a lot to look forward to, in the 1920's, that’s for sure!

The 1920's was, for 8 years and 3/4 of 1929, a very happy decade. The last 1/4 was the Stock Market Crash that could have started the Great Depression that lasted straight through the 1930' s, not ending until mid-1940. A war started before 1920, and a war broke out in 1929. Although it was called the Great Depression, people killed others, killed themselves, became homeless, and became penniless. Actually, the eight years of happiness might have felt like a small vacation to a person who lived during the time. (http://www.kidsnewsroom.org/elmer/infoCentral/frameset/decade/1920.htm)

The Great Gatsby takes place during the 20's. This is shown by bootleggers, extravagant parties, flappers, and all the glamor that people had from their wealth.


-It's Gatsby Baby.

Dan Cody

Gatsby was born James Gatz, little did he know that 'Jay Gatz' would soon enter a world of wealth and wonder. He attended college at St. Olaf’s in Minnesota, he dropped out after two weeks, humiliated at the janitorial work he did to pay his tuition. He worked on Lake Superior the next summer fishing for salmon and digging for clams. One day, he saw a yacht owned by Dan Cody. Dan Cody was an enormously wealthy old man, a millionaire many times over, who had earned his fortune mining silver. Gatsby rowed out to warn him about an impending storm. The grateful Cody took young Gatz, who gave his name as Jay Gatsby, on board his yacht as his personal assistant. Traveling with Cody to the Barbary Coast and the West Indies, Gatsby fell in love with wealth and luxury. Cody was a heavy drinker, and one of Gatsby’s jobs was to look after him during his drunken nights. This gave Gatsby a healthy respect for the dangers of alcohol and convinced him not to become a drinker himself. When Cody died, he left Gatsby $25,000, but Cody’s mistress prevented him from claiming his inheritance. Gatsby then dedicated himself to becoming a wealthy and successful man. (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/section6.rhtml & Me)

'It was James Gatz who had been loafing along the beach that afternoon in a torn green jersey and a pair of canvas pants, but it was already Jay Gatsby who borrowed a row-boat, pulled out to the Tuolomee and informed Cody that a wind might catch him and break him up in half an hour.'

Cody found Gatsby to be smart and ambitious and hired him. Cody fitted him out with a nautical wardrobe, and the Tuolomee set sail for the West Indies and the Barbary Coast with Gatsby aboard. For five years, Gatsby worked as Cody's personal assistant, of sorts, as a "steward, mate, skipper, secretary and even jailer. (Gatsby "jailed" Cody when he was drunk and needed to be restrained.) Together they sailed around the continent three times.

During the time he traveled with Cody, Gatsby experienced a glamorous life far removed from his North Dakota upbringing. He attended parties with the wealthy where women were known to "rub champagne into his hair." He acquired a certain amount of polish and sophistication. (http://www.enotes.com/great-gatsby/q-and-a/chapter-6-great-gatsby-87159)

-It's Gatsby Baby

Mafia/Gangsters

Gangsters are the modern-day urban Robin Hoods, the poor street urchin done good. The American dream of big dreams, individuality, and hard work can make something out of anyone. For many the fascination with gangsters really took off with the passage of prohibition and the increasing media's attention on those men who decided it was more profitable to buck the system and get rich through their own means, than live by silly socially imposed rules. In the public eye, the gangster represents urban life: the streetwise, self-made man. In the 20's, New York and Chicago were the major capitalist urban hubs of American society and organized crime. Both were cities of stark contrasts between extreme wealth and abject poverty. For many in the early 1920's business was booming, and Al Capone and other famous gangsters and bootleggers ran their respective cities like puppet masters.(http://www.1920s-fashion-and-music.com/famous-gangsters.html)

As street gangs, influenced by mobsters such as Capone, flourished during the 1920's and 30's gangs became a symbol of lower income neighborhoods and ethnic ghettos. America's new immigrant communities and ghetto neighborhoods saw their youth forming gangs. African Americans, Asians and Hispanics made up the majority of street gangs that sociologists would research but the majority of all communities were experiencing street gangs in some degree. During the early 1940's, Mexican gangs formed along the west coast of the United States. Mobsters earned their money by providing illegal goods and services. They were most famous for bootlegging, but also managed gambling, prostitution, and abortion. While outlaws operated independently of mobsters, they did rely on organized gangs for the tools of the trade -- firearms, bulletproof vests, and armored cars. They could use the organized rings to pay for hide-outs and police protection. They could also arrange for legal assistance or medical care. Whether outlaws were wounded in a gunfight or simply became ill, they risked capture by going to an ordinary doctor. For an exorbitant fee, an underworld doctor would treat them and not notify the authorities. The outlaws sometimes took on special jobs for the criminal rings, like murdering an enemy, that a particular organization wanted done but didn't want to take the blame for. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dillinger/peopleevents/p_gangsters.html)

Meyer Wolfsheim works with Gatsby in the business of bootlegging. Jay Gatsby spent a number of years trying to establish himself so that Daisy would approve of him. Little did he know that no matter how much money he made, she would never love him. He wasn't rich. Gatsby became a part of one of the largest money making endeavors of the 1920s. He became a bootlegger. The 18th Amendment was passed in the summer of 1919. As a result, sale and distribution of alcohol became illegal. The social climate of the era did not respond to this regulation. Many people became involved in an underground movement to sell and distribute alcoholic beverages. Through these illegal operations, Jay Gatsby was able to obtain enough money to purchase a home just across the bay from Daisy. His mysterious connections with Meyer Wolfshiem leave the reader with questions of the extent of Gatsby's involvement with the attempts to smuggle and consume alcohol in the 1920s.

-It's Gatsby Baby

The Green Light

The Green Light;

The green light is a symbol for hope and promise - a hope that the "ash heap" of the present will change to that of a great future, where dreams come true and the American Dream is realized. (https://www.msu.edu/~millettf/gatsby.html) The person that this green light is affecting is Gatsby, the hope that is instilled in him is for Daisy. His hope lies in the fact that he hopes that him and Daisy can reunite in love, not just friendship. Nick remembers the night he saw Gatsby stretching his arms out to the water and realizes that the green light he saw was the light at the end of Daisy’s dock. Thus proving that this hope is for Daisy.

"If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay... You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock." The green light on Daisy’s house that Gatsby gazes wistfully at from his own house across the water represents the "unattainable dream." But the green light also represents the hazy future, the future that is forever elusive, as Nick claims in the last page of the novel, "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – to-morrow we will run farther, stretch out our arms farther…." The interesting question is, if the green light is the future, how is it so tied up with Daisy and the dreams of the past?(http://www.shmoop.com/great-gatsby/symbolism-imagery.html)


The green light is probably one of the most important symbols in The Great Gatsby. Green is the color of hope and it first appears when Gatsby stares across the bay towards a green light at the end of a dock (21,8ff.). Later the reader finds out that this light stands on Daisy Buchanan’s dock. In the context of the novel this green light represents Gatsby’s hope to meet Daisy again and a chance to win her back. “Gatsby believed in the green light”(128, 26). (http://www.ovtg.de/3_arbeit/englisch/gatsby/Symbols.html)

East Egg vs. West Egg

In The Great Gatsby there are two cities separated by The Valley of Ashes, East Egg & West Egg. The author, Fitzgerald, uses these two cities to represent two classes of wealth (old wealth and new wealth). You can tell what kind of people live in what city. The people in East Egg, such as the Buchanans, have come from families who have always had money; they have been well educated at Ivy League colleges such as Yale. Those in West Egg, on the other hand, like Gatsby, are new to great wealth. They don't come from wealthy backgrounds; rather, they have made their own fortunes. Gatsby has had family that was wealthy, but all of his family passed so that is where his money comes from. Instead of Ivy League college degrees, people in West Egg are more likely to have work experience gained while they made their money, like Nick Carraway.

Nick Carraway, a native of the Midwest, lives in West Egg, but instead of buying an extravagant house like Gatsby, he get a small cottage. Nick is more like those in East Egg because of his background, but he chooses to live in West Egg because he's trying to make it in the bond business and doesn't have much money of his own. The East Egg citizens are portrayed as corrupt and mean while those in West Egg are seen are less sophisticated, and more innocent. Sadly, the residents of East Egg are consumed with material things because money has run their lives since birth. Thankfully, for those residents in West Egg, have more morals and are less absorbed in their wealth. Fitzgerald mentioned in the text that West Egg was 'less fashionable', I don't see this to be a bad thing. Like previously stated they are not wrapped up in their money, and only focusing on material things such as clothes.

Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. Alas, this again results in the cash hounds that inhabit East Egg. East is more about that social standards and values, and West is more about morals. (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/section3.rhtml) The West is described as the country of “wide lawns and friendly trees” (p.7,5 ), “prairies” and “lost Swede towns” (p.125,19). East Egg represents the old aristocracy, West Egg the newly rich, the valley of ashes the moral and social decay of America, and New York City the uninhibited, amoral quest for money and pleasure. (http://www.chacha.com/question/what-are-the-major-differences-between-east-egg-and-west-egg-in-the-book-the-great-gatsby)


-It's Gatsby Baby

Selfish

1 : concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself : seeking or concentrating on one's own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others
2 : arising from concern with one's own welfare or advantage in disregard of others
3 : being an actively replicating repetitive sequence of nucleic acid that serves no known function ; also : being genetic material solely concerned with its own replication

Selfishness is in The Great Gatsby, and it provides the reasoning for the title. Nick Carraway, the narrator, awards the title "great" to Gatsby not because Gatsby is a good or honest person ( because in reality he is not) or because his romantic quest to win Daisy Buchanan away from her husband is realistic or commendable ( this isn't true either). Gatsby deserves to be called "great" because of all the major characters protrayed by the narrator, he alone manages to break free from an exclusive obsession with himself and his own needs. He pursues Daisy as an ideal beyond himself, the "green light" at the end of the dock that Nick sees him yearning for the first time he encounters Gatsby. He is not selfish and cynically accepting of his selfishness, in the way that Jordan Baker and Daisy Buchanan are, nor is he lost in the almost childlike self-absorption and self-pity that characterizes Tom Buchanan. He will even go so far as to pretend that it was he and not Daisy who was at the wheel of the car that killed Myrtle Wilson (chapter 7). In a society of self-centered people, Gatsby alone preserves the "capacity for wonder" that in the narrator's view has been lost from modern American society.
(http://www.enotes.com/great-gatsby/q-and-a/what-theme-selfishness-great-gatsby-how-similar-22863)

-It's Gatsby Baby.

Prohibition in the 1920's

During Prohibition, the manufacture, transportation, import, export, and sale of alcoholic beverages were restricted or illegal. Prohibition was supposed to lower crime and corruption, reduce social problems, lower taxes needed to support prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. Instead, Alcohol became more dangerous to consume; organized crime blossomed; courts and prisons systems became overloaded; and endemic corruption of police and public officials occurred. Prohibition began on January 16, 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect. Even though the sale of alcohol was illegal, alcoholic drinks were still widely available at "speakeasies" (an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages. ) and other underground drinking establishments. Because Prohibition banned only the manufacturing, sale, and transport - but not possession or consuming of alcohol, some people and institutions who had bought or made liquor prior to the passage of the 18th Amendment were able to continue to serve it throughout the prohibition period legally.

The story is set in the early 1920s, just after World War I, during Prohibition, a time period that outlawed the manufacture, sale, or consumption of alcoholic beverages. This is significant not only because Gatsby’s ill-gotten wealth is apparently due to bootlegging, but also because alcohol is conspicuously available, despite being illegal, throughout the book. Indeed, the characters are seen drinking expensive champagne – suggesting that the wealthy are not at all affected by these laws.

In 1933, the legislatures of the states ratified the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed Amendment XVIII and prohibited only the violations of laws that individual states had in regard to "intoxicating liquors". Federal Prohibitionary laws were then repealed. Some States, however, continued Prohibition within their own jurisdictions. Almost two-thirds of the states adopted some form of local option which enabled residents to vote for or against local Prohibition; therefore, for a time, 38% of Americans still lived in areas with Prohibition. By 1966, however, all states had fully repealed their state-level Prohibition laws.

Just comes to show that America will find a way around just about any law. That is if it makes life any more fun, or makes you the life of the party.
-It's Gatsby Baby
(http://www.1920-30.com/prohibition/)

Flappers: The Younger Generation

In the 1920s, a new kind of woman was born. She smoked, drank, danced, and voted. She cut her hair, wore make-up, and went to parties. She was giddy and took risks. She was a flapper. Historians of the 1920s have described the “new woman” who emerged in the decade, politically active, working for wages, and more frank about their sexuality.

The term "flapper" first appeared in Great Britain after World War I. There was a short fad among young women to wear rubber galoshes (an overshoe worn in the rain or snow) left open to flap when they walked. It was also used to describe young girls, still somewhat awkward in movement who had not yet entered womanhood. Fitzgerald described the ideal flapper as "lovely, expensive, and about nineteen." So ideally, the flapper was a young, hot, but not to trashy woman. (When broken down, it doesn't seem so glamorous.)

The 'Flapper Image' consisted of very drastic changes, including short hair as well as clothes Nearly every article of clothing was trimmed down and lightened in order to make movement easier. The flapper dress was boxy and hung straight from shoulder to knee, with no waistline, allowing much more freedom of movement. While it did not show breasts or hips, it did show a lot of leg. Flappers also started wearing make-up, something that had previously been only worn by loose women. Rouge, powder, eyeliner, and lipstick became extremely popular.

Not only were they different in appearance, but they had an attitude to match. Stark truthfulness, fast living, and sexual behavior. Flappers seemed to cling to youth as if they were going to die at any moment. They took risks, they wanted to be different and to announce their departure from the good girl image, they smoked. But that isn't all they did, they also drank alcohol illegally during the time of Prohibition. Way to live fast and die young, eh? Nonetheless, Flappers had fun doing all that wild and crazy stuff. It taught us modern day girls how to be bad;D -It's Gatsby Baby

The Big Green Monster

JEALOUSY!

1. Jealous resentment against a rival, a person enjoying success or advantage, etc., or against another's success or advantage itself.
2. Mental uneasiness from suspicion or fear of rivalry, unfaithfulness, etc.

3. Vigilance in maintaining or guarding something.

4. A jealous feeling, disposition, state, or mood.

There are many times when jealousy gets tied into The Great Gatsby, mainly because of the young, beautiful mistress, Daisy. Gatsby is jealous of Tom because he is married to the one that he loves and he also has the privilege to have her children. Nick is also a victim of jealousy when it comes to Daisy, for the same reason and he is also jealous of Gatsby and the wealth that he has. People begin to become oblivious of the outside world and think of themselves as a higher being, in this case, doing whatever they can to try and outshine the other to win the heart and love of Daisy. I also believe that the author was trying to show that sometimes one can hold on to a dream for so long, and try so hard to achieve it that it can leave you in misery instead of happiness. Ultimately leaving you with less than what you had originally.

-It's Gatsby Baby

Unrequited Love

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.