American Memory the Great Gatsby Compare and Contrast of the Film and Book

American Memory:

“The Great Gatsby “

Compare and Contrast of the film and book

As a top selling mind wrenching, interesting book the film industry decided to make a film. Discussed is a compare and contrast of the book, “The Great Gatsby” written by F Scott Fitzgerald and the 1974 movie directed by Jack Clayton. There are few differences in the book and the movie. The biggest contrast between the movie and the book would be the stark contrast in the portrayals of Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby’s relationship. In the book Daisy seems much more caring and loving and not so much of a snob. Another difference in the movie is that of the narration of, “the film was quite different from that of the movie, making the storyline change”.(Cunningham) The difference in dress between Nick Carroway in the movie compared to the way Daisy dressed is a stark difference and should be similar in dress as far as the time era is concerned. The largest part is that in movies one cannot portray everything in the book but the movie stuck to the exact same story line and was very weak in the character department because of the fact the characters in the book were not very well represented.

An interesting difference between the movie and the book was that of the relationship between Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. In both the book and the film Nick is the one that was the middle man in coordinating their small get-togethers. They both attended a tea party at Nick's house and the passion for one another became apparent during the tea time. Gatsby asked Jordan Baker to suggest to Nick the tea party. "'He wants to know-' continued Jordan '-if you'll invite Daisy to your house some afternoon and then let him come over'" (83). "She's not to know about it. Gatsby doesn't want her to know. You're just supposed to invite her to tea" (85). After Nick invites Daisy, the small differences come. In the movie, “Jay Gatsby is already waiting nervously

and fidgety in Nick's house when Daisy arrives”(Clayton). In the book Gatsby comes later. "An hour later the front door opened nervously and Gatsby in a white flannel suit, silver shirt and gold colored tie hurried in" (89). From this point Daisy and Gatsby began to see each other. In the book, all of the visits were not described, but it was definitely implied. "Tom was evidently perturbed at Daisy's running around alone, for on the following Saturday night he came with her to Gatsby's party" (Fitzgerald110). There were many scenes in the movie of Nick and Daisy having tea together, and going to town together. The relationship was described in both the novel and the movie, but it was elaborated more in the movie version. The elaboration gave the movie more of a twist of a much messed up situation of an affair. This was just a small part of the relationship of Gatsby and Daisy that was contrasting in the film with comparison to the book.

Another item up for discussion is that of the narrator. This subject that is depicted through the lines of the character like the above topic but is realized as the story is coming from other characters. The narrator played by Nick was complete from start to finish in the book. In the movie there are conflicts in the narrative voice. “In the first half of the movie Nick was the narrator and then as the movie progressed, the camera slowly became the narrator.”(Scheuer) During Gatsby’s and Daisy’s affair, the camera was the one who narrated all of that, whereas in the novel Nick had to rely on Jordan or even Gatsby himself to find out about the events that went on when he wasn’t around, and these accounts were sometimes biased. The accounts made the storyline interesting to see what exactly was going to happen next. Deception and the ability of people to manipulate