While it may not be based on a true story, The Great Gatsby is a charming book set in the roaring 20’s of American history. The 1920’s in America were a time of partying, social mobility, women’s independence, and so on. The Great Gatsby is a book that encapsulates many of the themes of the 1920’s.
The book have been adapted into at least two films. The more recent film, released in 2013, stars the well deserved Oscar winner, Leonardo DiCaprio. The earlier film was released in 1974 and is strikingly similar to the second film adaptation (minus all the high-tech cinematic features of the 21st century). So, here comes the question of how accurate is the story of The Great Gatsby to representing the 1920’s in America?
To explore this question, I want to take a look at the character of Jordan Baker. Jordan Baker is Daisy’s dearest friend and a professional golfer. She represents the common idea of a New York woman: the flapper girl.
In 1920 women in America secured the federal right to vote. This was a big deal for American women. The Women’s Suffrage Movement was pushed long and hard throughout the First World War. So instead of reacting in a sophisticated manner, women took their new found independence and used it in a way never anticipated by the women who fought for their equality.Women began to wear shorter dresses that revealed their lower legs (scandalous!) and cut their hair to short bobs instead of keeping their long adorned locks. These women were associated with the term, flapper girl.
- Jordan portrays the qualities of a flapper girl in that she wears short dresses,
- has short hair (in the 2013 film),
- and the adores large parties.
J. Gatsby also represents some characteristics of the 1920’s: the American dream as we know it today.Gatsby was a successful “businessman” of sorts (even if he may have done it in an illegal fashion, as the book/movies may suggest). New money refers to the common phenomenon of the 1920’s when it was easier for men to become rich quickly on Wall Street. Old money refers to those families that have been in high class standing and wealthy since the days of the American plantations. New money types became the modern concept of the American dream.
- He was born of a poor family and managed to become rich (a new money type).
- He built his business from the ground up, becoming a successful businessman with lots of new money.
This concept is actually shown with his direct interactions with both Daisy and Tom.
- Tom constantly looks down on Gatsby, convinced that his own wealth of family money makes him more sophisticated than Gatsby’s.
- Daisy’s past relationship with Gatsby is sabotaged by the fact that Gatsby has no family money, so believing that she could not wait for him to make something of himself after the war, she married into Tom’s family wealth. (a clip of the 1974 film displays this aspect of the societal constraints between the wealthy and the poor, here.)
I could literally go on all day about the book and the movies and how great the story line/writing is and how accurate the films are to the book, but I feel as though each one would need its own post (and you probably don’t want to hear me go on and on over the same topic). Therefore, I will end it here by saying, isn’t Leonardo DiCaprio a great freaking actor?
True or False History 
I will start by saying how much I love The Great Gatsby. I have read the book and seen both movies. The old movie is one of my favorites of all-time. I love the short analysis that you do here and I would not be opposed to reading more posts about your thoughts! I never looked at the old and new movies side by side to the book like you did here but it is very interesting. I don’t usually check to see if depictions of time periods are accurate. I plead guilty to dressing up like a “hippie” or “flapper girl” without actually understanding the time period or even checking to see if I accurately represent a figure of that time. (So I guess Pinterest is no longer a reliable source) But now, I feel like I will be more careful and actually take the time to understand the “why”. Reading your post really makes me want to read the book and watch both movies again! I would honestly really love to read more on this subject because it is such an awesome book.
LikeLike
I mostly wanted to see more of a comparison between the movie and the book, simply based on the title. It may come from a background of being an English student who’s studied the book three times, but I didnt feel like I pulled any new information from the article. Its all presented very well, however.
LikeLike
I am one the few people in the world who absolutely hates The Great Gatsby. I hate the book and both movies. I know. I’m the worst. I just couldn’t get into them, which may be because of my overall lack of interest in literary fiction. I read Gatsby in both high school and college and it was not enjoyable for me either time. Nick Caraway is such a wimp and Gatsby is so sleazy. And something that ticked me off in the new movie is that they replace jazz with rap to simulate what is what like for the people back then to enjoy their music. I just don’t get the choices of that movie and its earlier iteration with Redford is so funny for all the wrong reasons. But I am honestly glad you and Jenna enjoy it because we can’t all like the same things and most people disagree with me on this topic anyways, so I’m probably wrong. All that being said, I would enjoy a comparison between the book and the movies. I am interested by how directors try to interpret a book when they do an adaptation. Gatsby has two different adaptations of the original and all three works were made in different time periods. There’s a lot there that even I, not a fan, would still be interested in. I think there is also more you could look at with how historical time periods are portrayed in movies and TV.
LikeLike