Theme is a debatable topic among stories, some will agree and most have their own take. Two great novels that debate themes constantly are The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald written about a young man who becomes super wealthy and Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn a story of a young women who does not fit into society. The novels The Great Gatsby and Scarlet Letter disagree on the theme that people look to self-improvement to help get what they want, evidenced by plot, tone, and, character. First, plot supports characters’ emotions that lead to self-improvements. In Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne’s husband was said to have taken a trip over to Britain and did not return for seven years. Hester is found to be a sinner after having an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale in the puritan society, as her punishment she is to be shamed in front of her town. “In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another” (Ch 6) This shows how she is looked at negatively for committing a sin. Hester then looks to self-improvement in order to hopefully be able to be with her true lover Arthur Dimmesdale. Similarly, in great Gatsby their view of self-improvement is to have money and lots of it. Tom cannon is a famous sport player and very rich. He then got married to a beautiful wife named Daisy Bucannon. He presumes that having his wealth will allow him to keep his wife. After having a discussion over a meal Tom says "She's not
Many similarities and differences can be found in The Great Gatsby: both the movie and the novel. One of the major differences between the two works is the initial meeting between Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway.
Today, it is more evident than ever that there are deep divisions within modern society along the lines of race, class and gender. These divides are highlighted by recent protests, riots and movements. These issues are relevant in modern society as well as in two famous stories. Both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men use character development to make commentary toward these points. Fitzgerald’s novel covers the tumultuous journey of Nick Carraway through the swanky social elite of the 1920’s. Steinbeck’s text covers the opposite end of the spectrum, detailing the experiences of George and Lennie, ranchers during the great depression. While also providing a riveting and captivating plot, these seemingly antithetical tales both develop their respective characters to be normal, everyday people who face difficult problems because of their class.
“What is better, the book or movie?” a commonly asked question by many individuals who are curious to know one’s opinion on a novel or film he/she is interested in. The book is usually always better than the movie because the book is more detailed, one gets to know the characters better, and it allows one to be more creative and have his/her own interpretation on what is occurring. In this case, The Great Gatsby is a remarkable 1925 novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which was made into various movie adaptions in 1926, 1949, 1974, 2000 and 2013. Each version takes place in drastically different periods, so each type has its own take on the film, also depending on the director’s vision. This goes to show that the cinema has been trying periodically to recreate F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic, but the attempts of the movies have mostly failed. In particular, the 1974 film decreases its effectiveness in representing the message that Fitzgerald was attempting to demonstrate in the book, which contributes to the book being significantly better than the film for various reasons.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald are two novels, which address similar themes with completely opposite resolves. The authors use their main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, Gatsby, and Daisy, in their respective works to present these themes. The action in both novels revolves around unfaithfulness, its effects on the characters, and the results of committing adultery, which prove to be antipode from one novel to the other. These antitheses can be found by a look at the different roles of adultery in the novels.
As a child, one may have been sure that their future consisted of becoming a superhero and battling evil monsters, but as time goes by, people grow, they mature, and became aware that superhuman abilities are beyond their capacity. What would have happened if everyone continued to believe in their wildest fantasies beyond childhood? The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck explores this idea in distinctive detail. Gatsby looks into a mysterious man’s life in the 1920s and the secrets behind the extravagant parties he threw for all but himself, and his longing for a true love that consumed his sensibility. Of Mice and Men revolves around two peculiar young men in Great Depression era who worked to earn
The success of Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is in part due to his successful characterization of the main characters through the comparison and contrast of Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson, Tom Buchanan and George B. Wilson, and Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby. The contrast is achieved through two principle means: contrasting opposite qualities held by the characters and contrasting one character's posititve or negative qualities to another's lack thereof. Conflict is generated when the characters sometimes stand as allegorical opposites. On the other hand, comparison of two characters is rather straightforward. This comparison and contrast is prevalent in Fitzgerald's
Everyone has a dream that they want to achieve. The goal in life is to find something valuable to achieve. Many people immigrated to America for a second chance in life. The American dream is a goal someone wants to achieve in America. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men are two books that are prime examples of the American dream. The Great Gatsby is a story about a guy named Nick from the Midwest moving to New York for a job in the stock market. He finds many friends along the way, including Gatsby. Nick lived next door to Gatsby’s mansion. Gatsby used this mansion to try to marry a girl he loved named Daisy. In the end, Gatsby did not get married to Daisy. Of Mice and Men takes place during the great depression, which makes it hard for people to get work and earn money. The story is about two men in California who have a dream of having their own ranch. George and Lennie get a job at a ranch where they buck barley. They made friends with an old man named Candy, who wanted to help them buy a ranch house. Lennie had a mental disorder, which makes it hard for him to understand. He accidentally killed a lady because of mental disorder. In the end, Lennie was shot by George and he was not able to live on his own ranch. These two books are similar because characters from both books want to achieve their American dream. Although they did have their American dream, it was difficult for them to achieve it. F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck
There are many similarities involving the main characters in the books The Great Gatsby and A Raisin in the Sun. For example, they are similar because their entire lives revolve around money. Also, they define their lives by determining what social class they live in. Another main likeness between the two is that they reside in large cities. Which leads to problems that people in rural communities wouldn’t have. On the other hand, they also have major differences. One is wealthy, the other lives in poverty. Jay Gatsby lives in a paradise-like community in New York, while Walter Younger and his family live in the slums of Chicago. Another difference between them is their race. Jay, being a white, is a well respected individual in his part
Set in the summer of the Roaring Twenties, The Great Gatsby follows the hedonistic and destructive lifestyles of the upper social classes of post-war America. This novel, written by F Scott Fitzgerald in the same time period, criticizes the shallowness of the actions of this outlandish generation and their eventual disillusionment with their society. American Beauty, the 1999 film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan ball, uses the setting of contemporary middle-class suburban America to examine the differences between the inner and outer realities of a “typical” American Beauty are obvious in connection between Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Mendes’ American Beauty are obvious in the themes, plots and the actions of the
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is a man who can be compared to Holden Caulfield from J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. Jay Gatsby and Holden Caulfield are both caught up in their unattainable dreams and first love and as a result struggle with an obsession of their past.
In both, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the main characters Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman manifest themselves in their illusions of success and popularity and are unable to face their bitter realities. Within both texts, this idea of false perceived success is portrayed. First, the character Gatsby creates an illusion of success by lying about his source of wealth. He does not want anyone to realize that he is not actually successful and has relied on illegal business in order to achieve the idea of wealth in the American Dream. This is evident when Tom Buchanan investigates Gatsby’s mysterious wealth and says:
The Great Gatsby is a novel which critically discusses the ideals of the American Dream and recapturing the past. In the film adaptation, producer Jack Clayton stays very closely to the plot and even quotes the novel verbatim but fails to capture the essence of the themes portrayed in the novel. The text did not translate well into film; some facts are distorted, the depiction of the characters are different, the general ambience of certain settings do not match, and the movie is weighted towards the beginning of the book, with half of the movie based closely on the first two chapters of the book.
Jay Gatsby and Hester Prynne both show superior moral decency in choosing to protect those they have affairs with even though it results in further shame and suffering for them. In both The Scarlet Letter and The Great Gatsby, the theme of adultery is used to examine the moral integrity of the characters. Both Hester
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men are set in two close time periods, but give a different feel to the setting in each book. In both books, women have a status lower than men. Daisy, Jordan, Myrtle and Curley’s wife are seen as inferior, most likely due to society’s view of women during the time periods. In The Great Gatsby and in Of Mice and Men, the American Dream is often put aside, seen through the actions of women characters.
Romance, love, and destiny. Connections are formed like bridges built of various things; love, trust, money, fate. Some bridges are stronger than others and some bridges connect people who perhaps shouldn’t be connected. The movie “The Great Gatsby” better expresses the romantic relationships and connections between characters. Between Tom and Daisy, whose relationship may have more to do with survival than love, with Myrtle and Tom, the bridge between them connecting two souls searching for something more in life. And then there are bridges like the one between Jordan and Nick, filled with lies and a bridge not often travelled, and if you’re lucky you come across a bridge like Gatsby and Daisy's, which is made of love but filled with obstacles. These bridges play a key part in the story and the movie most definitely does a better job at expressing these connections between characters.