The Great Gatsby: Book VS Movie

Let me start by saying that I love The Great Gatsby because it taught me to be careful when I'm reading a book, to always question the motives of the characters and the function of symbols so as not to get ahead and assume that I know how the characters feel or think when in fact I misinterpret things and I don't pay close attention to the text. It goes without saying that my view and thoughts when I finished reading the book for the first time changed radically after the literary analysis that we did in my american modern prose course at university.

I'm not here today to discuss the meaning behind this masterpiece of a short story that F. Scott Fitzegerald wrote in 1925 but its differences with the titular movie that came out in 2013 and it is directed by Baz Luhrmann. Before going on with their main differences, let me just say that I am obsessed with the movie. What I loved the most is the colours and the visual effects used. Everything is so bright and saturated that despite their magnificance they seem fake. This is extremely important because both the movie and the book aim to show that even though the characters have all the luxuries they ever wished for, at the end of the day all that don't matter because they are unhappy and full of unfulfilled and suppressed dreams and desires.

Okay, let's move to the comparison of the two. You are going to read the major differences between the book and the movie, like events that are either altered or omitted in any of the two but are important for the story. Of course minor differences, like dialogue lines, are not taken into account. So, let's see if the movie is faithful to the book.

For easier way of skimming the whole post, everything written in green will refer to what happends in the book while yellow is for the movie.

1. Nick's mental state

The movie starts with Nick being at a sanitarium and he's narrating his whole story with Gatsby to a doctor and then he is writing about it. 

In the book, he just narrates this life-changing experience. 

2. Seeing Gatsby for the first time

In the movie, the first time that Nick lays his eyes on Gatsby is when he notices his neighbor -who is Gatsby but he doesn't know him yet- peeping outside through the curtain of his house while Nick is sitting at his porch. 

On the contrary, in the book, a stranger stops him and asks him the directions to West Egg Village. That short conversation between them is important because Nick felt like "a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler" (Fitzgerald 4) since not only is he the one that will lead Gatsby to Daisy but also he is metaphorically forced to change his previous lifestyle and way of thinking in order to survive and keep living in the modern world that the rest of the characters introduce him to.

3. Tom's introduction 

Tom is more playful and frivolous in the movie as he jokes with Nick by calling him Shakespeare, throwing him a baseball and hugging him a lot. 

In the book, descriptions like "he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner" (Fitzgerald 6), "a body capable of enormous leverage - a cruel body" (Fitzgerald 7) and "[h]is speaking voice, a gruff husky terror, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed" (Fitzgerald 7) portray him as a more serious and strict man than the movie does at the beginning. However, both movie and book show his arrogance perfectly.

4. Tom and Myrtle's party

At the end of chapter 2, we see Nick and Mr McKee leaving the apartment together. Then, thanks to the ellipses used, it is unclear what they do next; either Nick sleeps with Mr McKee or he simply was so drunk that he blacks out and he can't remember why he is in McKee's bedroom and why McKee is naked.

In the movie, there is no such confusion because Nick is transported from Myrtle's apartment in New York straight to his house in West Egg.

 5. Before the official meeting with Gatsby

In the movie, Nick feels and sees Gatsby watching -or spying on- him from his house. In the book, no such thing is mentioned. 

Also, Nick says that he was the only one to ever be invited to Gatsby's parties while all the others just show up there. Fitzgerald lessens Nick's uniqueness by writing that he "was one of the few guests who had actually been invited " (27).

6. Nick's dancing?!

In the book, we never witness Nick dancing when he attends Gatsby's party for the first -or any other- time. And to be honest, he probably does dance in the narrative as well but he chooses not to mention it in order not to challenge the respectable image that he has created for himself. So, I like it that we see him enjoying himself, getting loose and dancing in the movie.

7. The drunken old man in the library 

Not only does he look less drunk in comparison to the book but also he is given some extra lines. He explicitly questions Gatsby's past and his whole existence. Through these questions he makes the viewers wonder the reason behind these extravagant parties and Gatsby's life in general, while the readers have the time to look for the same meaning through his implicit and drunken words. 

8. Gatsby's introduction 

In the movie, Gatsby takes the tray with the drinks from the waiter in purpose, he offers one to Nick and he starts a conversation with him. 

In the book, Gatsby sits at the same table with Nick and Jordan and he asks Nick the same question about the war as he did in the movie. Honestly, I prefer the book's version of officially introducing Gatsby to Nick -and the audience- because Gatsby has suffered so much in order to rise socially that he wouldn't risk to be thought as a simple waiter.

9. Nick and Jordan go out

The meeting between Jordan and Nick during which he is informed about Gatsby's request of inviting Daisy to his (Nick's) house ends with Nick kissing Jordan. 

In the movie, no such move is made or even hinted as they keep each other at a distance in the taxi and each seems absorbed in their own thoughts while looking at opposite sides.

10. Tom at Gatsby's party 

The first time that Tom attends one of Gatsby's parties is with Daisy. 

In the book, he has already been there once more with a friend of his, Mr Sloane and a woman -her name isn't mentioned. This scene is important for two reasons; Firstly, this time Gatsby is eager to talk with Tom and learn about him as many things as possible without feeling worried or anxious because he is sure that Daisy is willing to continue their relationship where they left it off five years ago. Secondly, although the woman invites Gatsby to a party at her house and he accepts her invitation, she, Tom and Mr. Sloane leave without taking Gatsby with them. They do such a rude thing because Tom and his friend don't consider Gatsby their equal. In other words, this scene proves that Gatsby will never be accepted in the higher levels of the social hierarchy due to his poor origin no matter how much money he makes or how much he looks like an aristocrat.

11. Limited VS Omniscient point of view

The book is narrated by Nick whose limited perspective allows the reader only to imagine Gatsby and Daisy's conversations or Gatsby doing business while Nick is not around to listen to what they talk about. 

We don't have such limitations in the movie and this way things become much clearer. For example, we hear Gatsby and Daisy's conversation in Nick's garden while Nick and Tom are still in Gatsby's house for the party. The same applies to the consummation of their adulterous relationship; in the movie we see Gatsby and Daisy having sex, in the book we can guess that they do by Gatsby's comment that "Daisy comes over quite often -in the afternoons" (Fitzgerald 72). 

Also, during the party we see the introduction of a character that does not exist in the book, a Mr Slagle, just in order to show the gangster side of Gatsby which he hides so well.

12. Pammy 

We briefly meet Daisy and Tom's daugther when Gatsby goes to Daisy's house for the first time. 

In the movie, we don't see her at all. 

13. Tom realises that Daisy and Gatsby are a couple 

It is just a look that makes Tom see the erotic chemistry between them. 

It is the way that Gatsby lights Daisy's cigarette that startles Tom in the movie. This is a great way to show the fire or the passion that Gatsby has brought to Daisy's life and soul. 

14. The confrontation at the Plaza Hotel 

In the movie, Tom clearly states the inferiority that Gatsby feels due to his poor background and the fact that no matter how much money he has he will never be considered an equal to him and to the rest of the people in the room. The validity of his claims is assured through Gatsby's sad realisation of that fact and his violent outburst against Tom. 

15. Who is the owner of the yellow car?

As we learn at the end of the book, George Wilson went to Tom's house the morning after his wife's death to ask him who the owner of the yellow car that killd Myrtle is. The fact that Tom gave Gatsby's name then -after he had the time to calm down from all the grave events of the previous night- indicates the revengeful and hateful feelings he bears towards Gatsby for attempting to challenge his power, his masculinity and his social status. He chose to put Gatsby in danger by giving his name to the deranged and dangerous at that moment Wilson despite the fact that he knew that Gatsby had no chance of regaining Daisy's affection. 

In the movie, the same action can be justified due to the tension that Tom feels at the moment he gives Gatsby's name to Wilson as just a few minutes ago Gatsby was threatening him that his wife would leave him for his sake and he just saw his mistress's lifeless body which was Gatsby's fault as far as he knew. 

16. The car and the talk 

Gatsby returns home after his eventful day with the Buchanans and he gets straight in his home since he has already hidden his car inside his garage probably before taking Daisy at her home. Nick hears the taxi and then goes to pay him a visit. It is inside Gatsby's house where they discuss about what happended that evening and Gatsby tells Nick about his life. On the contrary, in the movie they start their conversation in the garage while Gatsby is washing the car. 

17. Nick's reluctance to leave Gatsby

It is important to note that Nick doesn't want to leave Gatsby alone waiting for a phone call by Daisy which he believes that it will never come, especially after having heard of his whole lifestory the night before. This is why he misses several trains before finally going to his work. 

18. Gatsby's death 

In the movie, Gatsby asks for the telephone to be brought at the pool and when it rings he moves towards it with the certainty that it is Daisy calling but at that moment George Wilson shoots and kills him. 

In the book, however, Gatsby "left word with the butler that if anyone phoned word was to be brought to him at the pool" (Fitzgerald 102). But no one calls. We assume that Nick calls him after his murder as after having called several times "finally an exasperated central told [him] the wire was being kept open for long distance Detroit" (Fitzgerald 99) which is probably that all the other gangsters were trying to get in touch and find a way not to let Gatsby's death influence their business. 

19. Gatsby's funeral 

In the movie, Nick says that from all the people who enjoyed Gatsby's hospitality no one went to his funeral. 

We experience with Nick his efforts to inform and invite people to the funeral and his dismay from their excuses for not coming. In the end, besides Nick, Gatsby's father, the old man in Gatsby's library and some servants are the only people who attend his funeral. 

And that are all the major differences between the book and the movie of The Great Gatsby. It is clear that the movie stays faithful to the book and tries to convey perfectly the atmosphere of the roaring twenties and the tragedy behind the american dream. 

Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. Ware: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1993. Print

If you are curious and you want to read about the role of Nick Carraway as a unreliable narrator and how this unreliability influences the way we interpret not only Gatsby's but also Nick's lifestory as well, I recommend reading "A Fragment of Lost Words": Narrative Ellipses in The Great Gatsby by Matthew J. Bolton