Hello, I am Himanshi Parmar, student of MK Bhavnagar University. This blog i have written in a response of Thinking Activity, Which is a Part of my academic Work. Which we get after each unit. In this blog, i am going to discuss some important questions related this movie. Here is the video of trailer of movie.
About the movie :-
The great Gatsby is a great English Hollywood movie. The film is a historical romantic drama film.which is based on the novel The Great Gatsby by F.Scott. Fitzgerald.written in 1925. The film shooting take place in Australia in September and concluded in December 2011 with a grand budget of $105 million. The film was directed by Baz Luhrmann. Star cast of the film are,
1) Leonardo DiCaprio as a James Gatsby,
2) Tobey Maguire as a Nick Carraway,
3) Carey Mulligan as a Daisy Buchanan,
4) Joel Edgerton as a Tom Buchanan,
5) Isla Fisher as a Myrtle Wilson,
6) Jason as a George Wilson,
7) Elizabeth Debicki as a Jordan Baker.
8) Amitabh Bachchan as a Meyer Wolfsheim.
9) Jack Thompson as a Dr. Walter Prekins
10) Adelaide Clemens as a Catherine
Director : Baz Luhrmann
[1] How did the film capture the Jazz age, The roaring twenties of the America in 1920s?
Film The great Gatsby talk about many problems of American society, Like The American dream, society and class, love and marriage, dissatisfaction, Money and materialism etc. Also the film talk about the Jazz age, and how it is problematic in that time. According to Oxford Dictionary,
Jazz age means, the 1920s in the US characterized as a period of carefree hedonism, wealth, freedom, and youthful exuberance, reflected in the novels of writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The Jazz age started after world war one and ended in a time of great depression, in 1929. However, the music and the culture we still found in American life. Movie makers captured this culture very well. Jay Gatsby's weekend parties are reflection of this Jazz culture. If we see, we find loud music, coloured fountains, wild crowd this all are the symbols of Jazz culture.
Not only in Jay Gatsby's party but also in apartment party of Tom Buchanan, with Myrtle Wilson, is also reflecting Jazz culture. There also we find loud music, dramatic people, Frowny clothing etc.here is the video of party at Gatsby's house. Which reflect the Shadow of Jazz Age. Along with it, there is one another video in which Baz Luhrmann, the director of the film, discussion about Jazz culture and age.
[2] How did the film help in understanding the characters of the novel?
It is very difficult to understand characters from novel, without any basic idea. But when we see the film, the film gave that basic idea to understand the characters more clearly. It is very difficult to analyze characters, without reading entire novel. Similarly the film is limited within two or three hours, and that's why for film makers, it is not possible to portrayal of each character as it is in novel. Also it will might make movie boring. So they made some changes in characters. But still film help in understanding the characters of the novel.
After watching the film, we get idea of plot of story, nature and behavior of characters, their speaking - walking style and clothing, which is difficult to understand by riding novel. Because English culture is totally different than our culture, and it is very hard to understand something beyond our experience without seeing it. But movie is better to understand that. Also with the end of movie, we get idea about the end of characters too. For example in beginning,we see that Jay Gatsby was very descent man, living wealthy life, giving parties, loving Daisy Buchanan, but unfortunate man. We feel pity for him. But with passing time, we also get idea that he is not a pure man, he is a smuggler or gambler kind of person and at the end of the film when he died, we feel catharsis but also we feel that he deserve this end only. So this how film help into the understanding the characters. Similarly, the film gave idea of Flippers by the character of Daisy, which is may be hard to understand by reading only.
[3] How did the film help in understanding the symbolic significance of "The Valley of Ashes", " The eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleberg", and the "Green Light"?
We find some symbols in movie. Like the symbol of Valley of Ashes, Green light, eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleberg, painting in the room of Gatsyby(Bull and Bear), East and west, mention of Gatsby, and manymore. Which all are symbolising something about characters, situation, future, conditions, society, or sometimes the end also. Here is the importance of three major symbol, Valley of Ashes, Green light, eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleberg.
1) Valley of Ashes :-
Valley of Ashes symbolising the dark side of shining New York. Or we can say America. Valley of Ashes placed between East Egg and west Egg. Which both are rich areas.
All the waste and dirt of that rich areas are depsides in Valley of Ashes. We can say that, Valley of ashes is satirizing wealthy society and people of upper class who themselves living Meritmongering life, eating healthy food, breathing pure air, and keep their place clean. But behind their pleasure, healthy - happy life, there is a Valley of ahes in which people are suffering by poverty, breathing smoke more than air, living within the dirt and Sludge. here in movie, George Wilson is symbolising people who are suffering like this. Along with this Valley of Ashes is also symbolizing dark side of Industrialism. How industrialism help Economics of country and on other side how it ruined the environment and people's health as well. Here is the video of valley of ashes.
2) Green light :-
Movie, The great Gatsby start with green light stated across the lack. And we find that gastby trying to touch that by his hand. Also we find many other important scenes in which the Green light was mentioned just like talk between Jay Gatsby and Tom at Tom's house. And talk between Jay and Nick at last part of the movie. Significantly The green light is very important. Green light symbolize hope of gatsby for a mission of marriage with Daisy.and his hope for future. In general also green colour always taken as a positivity and as a symbol that something good will happen if there is green shed around. It's a sign of positivity.
In novel, we see green light and ocean, which also giving idea of America which rising near ocean. Just like most of the megacities are.
) The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg :-
The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleberg is a Fading painting of eyes painted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of ashes. According to George Wilson, The eyes are the eyes of god, who are judging American society and people and starring the Tyranny of wealthy people towards poor and black people. Here we also find theme of racism. The eyes of T. J. Eckleberg is a eyes of god and justifying each character.
Movie, The great Gatsby captured the theme of racism and sexism very intelligently. In movie we find Tom Buchana, as a rasist person. He was strongly believe that black people are inferior than white Americans. And it is very important to supress them as soon as possible. While in a talk with Nick, We come to know about his thoughts. Also by his treatment to his black servant. Tom says to nick that, “Have you read ‘The Rise of the Colored Empires’ by this man Goddard?”, Then added, ”The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.” “Its up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.” Tom pointing out him and tont his entire community. Also in Valley of ashes, most of the workers are black people, they are living poor, painful life. Which again contrast with wealthy white people like Tom, Jay, Nick etc.
Theme of sexism is also taken well. This we come to know by the dialogues of Daisy, as she talking with nick about her daughter, "I hope she'll be a fool - that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." By this we get idea of inferiority of women even in American society. Also Women shown as object. For example in movie, Daisy is a object for whom Jay and Tom both are fighting. Along with this, multiple affairs of male characters are also falls under the theme of sexism. As it is shown that women is portrayed as a thing of pleasure.
5) Watch the video on Nick Carraway and discuss him as a narrator.
Nick is decent man. Who has a high morals. That we see by the scene when he was invited for Gatsby's party and he try to make people believe that he is invited, also he is the one who wants to make reunion of Jay and Daisy. And happy for their love. At the end also we found that, after the death of Gatsby only Nick is the one who were there standing for him, and waiting for his funeral. No one eles were there. Nick is in love with Jordan, but in movie it was not higlited. Because the main story is of Jay - Daisy's love story.
In the beginning, Nick is in sanatorium, for his addiction of alcohol, insomniac, pits of anger, anxiety and digressions. So as a audience, we feel sympathy for him from beginning. And he is suffering by this all because of his past trauma so doctor told him to write about his past experience and the story begins. So when we analyze him as a narrator, it is doubtable that what he wrote in anxiety, digression, is trust worthy or not. And if it is, than how much. Also one another point is, he write about his own experience with each character, and his own perspective about the characters. Might it is possible that someone eles point of view is quite different than this. But he is in the film honest man, who is capable to see the incident with various perspective, and also he is not judging any one. So it seems more faithful narration.
6) Watch the video on psychoanalytical study of Jay Gatsby and write about his character.
Gatsby has a grand vision since he was a child. But he was poor and belonged from down class family. And for a person who came from down class it is vert difficult to make money with honesty. So in movie Gatsby also turned poor to rich. Throughing parties, living in a huge mention, living luxurious life. But from where he get such money will remain question untill the end. But at the end we came to know that he is working as bootlegger. So his money is not a pure money. And somewhere he is guilty for this. We find two major emotions in him is 1) guilt, for doing this kind of business and 2) shame for belonging lower class family.
We see, that he is constantly talking about his greatness and his achievements with everyone including Nick. According to psychology, people praise themselves when he wants to hide something, here in a reference of Gatsby, might he is ashamed of his family past, that he is from lower class and so to hide that, he is praising himself. Here, one Instagram post of RJ. Goswami, posted on 13 March 2022, sunday, is relatable with this point.
Also Gatsby describe himself as a self made man. He change his name, hide his identity, cut off all the relations with his family,which consider as a reation against his shame. It is very necessary to understand difference between shame and guilt. Guilt is a feeling people feel when they done something wrong, broken some kind of morals, rules. But shame is different, shame is something about self, that something wrong with self. In case of Gatsby, he is shows his lavish life, his wealth, try to impress people and through grand parties which directly tell that he wants to make people believe that he is rich. According to psychology, when you are in under shame than you care so much that what people are going to see, how they react and what they feel for you.
The another major emotion we found in Gatsby is self Grief. Grief of loose of Daisy. When he goes into a war and after the war when he came back he found Daisy married with Tom in his absence. He feel grief that time goes out and he pinning for that time back. He constantly thinking about the time. Here time become center. And gatsby trying to reclaim that era. So in psychology, sometimes people get stuck at some point and they don't able to move ahead, not able to forget the past.and the become obsessed with living in imagination of past. In movie we see that, Green light become a symbol of lost time, which Gatsby trying to grab back. But more he tried to look back in time, more his present become messy. So his condition is like, he is not able to going back in time and he is not able to move forward, but he is stuck at point.and that's why the great tragedy happened with his life.
I hope my blog will be helpful to you. Happy learning!
Reference:-
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