Essay/Term paper: Movie: life, like the great gatsby

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Movie Reviews

Movie: Life, Like The Great Gatsby


Brian Olson
OLSON 1
Professor John Hughes
ENC 1102
December 3, 1996

Imagine that you live in the nineteen twenties, and that you are a very
wealthy man that lives by himself in a manchine, on a lake and who throws
parties every weekend. This is just the beginning of how to explain the way
Jay Gatsby lived his life. This novel, by F. Scott, Fitzgerald is one that is
very deep in thought. Fitzgerald releases little clues along the way of the
novel that will be crusual to understand the ending. For instance, he makes
the blue coupe a very important clue, as well as the Dr. T. J. Eckleburg eyes on
the billboard that Mr. Wilson (the gas station attendant ) refers to as the eyes
of god. There are also other little things that relate to the reason of
gatsby's death. The main character's of this novel each have their part to do
with the ending, Nick Caraway is probably the main character of this novel, as
he comes down from New Jersey to new York to visit his cousin Daisy, who is
married to Tom Buchannan. These are some of the incidents that are included in
the novel as you will read further I will relate some issues of the novel, as
well as other critics have included their views on The Great Gatsby.
F. Scott, Fitsgerald was an American short story writer and novelist
famous for his depictions of the Jazz Age(the 1920's), his most brilliant novel
work being The Great Gatsby(1925). He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on sept.
24, 1896 and died in Hollywood, California on December 21, 1940. His private
life, with his wife, Zelda, in both America and France, became almost as
celebrated as his novels. Fitsgerald was the only son of an aristocrat father,
who was the author of the star spangle banner. Fitzgerald spent most of time
with his wife, latter in their relationship they moved to france where he began
to write his most brilliant novel, The Great Gatsby. All of his divided nature
is in this novel, the native midwestener afir with the possibilities of every
Americans dream in it's hero, Jay Gatsby, and the compassionate princeton
gentlemen in it's narrator, Nick Carraway. The Great Gatsby is the most
profoundly American novel of it's time (Houghton).
Fitzgerald had an intensely romantic imagination, what he once called "a
heightened sensitivity to the promises of life," and he rushed into experience
determined to realize those promises. Latter on in Fitzgeralds life, he started
to drink very heavily and became very unhappy. In 1930 his wife had a mental
breakdown and in 1932 another, from which she never recovered. With it's
failure and his despair over Zelda, Fitzgerald was close to becoming an
incurable alcoholic. He surpassed becoming an alcoholic though, and moved out
west to become a Hollywood screenwriter were he met his new wife Sheilah Graham,
but he never forgot about Zelda and his daughter Scotti. (Johnson, 384).
The Great Gatsby is an excellent review on how fitzgerald preceived his
life to be, in the same sense that he also was very wealthy. Gatsby, in this
novel is the mistiries wealthy man that lives in the big house across the lake
from Tom and Daisy Buchanann. There would always be some type of party going on
at his house, but for some reason he never attended to them, he would always
watch from his window. Nick Caraway is Daisy's cousin who comes to visit, Nick
needs a place to stay, so he finds an ad for a guest cottage that Mr. Jay
Gatsby owns. After Nick has moved in Jay and Nick become pretty close friends.
Jordan has always wondered who The Great Gatsby was, so she uses Nick to find
out more about him. As the story goes on, there are some odd things that
Fitsgerald relates to the story as important things. These important things
make you really think about what it means to the story. The Automobile in The
Great Gatsby is a very big topic for the conclution of the story. What we have
in The Great Gatsby is a creative manipulation of the automobile as symbol and
image to accomplish a variety of ends (O'Meara, 74). O'Meara goes on to say
that when Fitzgerald accentuates mechanism and minimizes aesthetics, he
depersonalizes vehicles and underscores the behavior of their drivers. The
existing criticism on automobiles in The Great Gatsby usually centers on one or
the other of these two functions.(O'Meara, 75). The result of the car is that
it ends up killing Myrtle. Kenneth and Irving Saposnik discuss the automobile
imagery from a technological standpoint. Knodt asserts that all of the novel
symbol's of technology - automobiles, trains, and telephones are connected with
destruction and evil (Saposnik, 131). I believe in this theory, that vehicles
are a result evil in almost every movie. In this case the evil is the Blue
Coupe sedan that ends up killing Myrtle. The other thing that sticks out to me
is the billboard that has the two eyes on it with glasses. This board is
referred to Mr. Wilson as the eyes of god, he believes that they can see
everything and when the car ends up killing his wife Myrtle, he tells people
that god saw what happened. A footnote for the line in Andrew Turnnbull's
edition of The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald(1963)describes the dust jacket as
showing "two huge eyes, intended to be those of Daisy Fay, brooding over New
York City, and this had been Fitsgerald "s inspiration for the eyes of Dr. T. J.
Eckleburg"(Turnbull, 166).
The brief exegesis examines the imagery of cats and dogs in Scott
Fitzgerald's jazz age novel, The Great Gatsby. Toward the end of the novel,
Nick Caraway refers to the hot summer days on Long Island as "dog-days"(Kehul,
118). John Kehul goes on to mention that many of the characters in the novel
are portrayed in canine terms. They cynically, in the sense of the Greek root
kynikos, meaning "dog-like." Their "bites," particularly in relationship to the
main character, Gatsby, become worse then their "barks." In contrast to this
canine element, Gatsby has a "heightened sensitivity"(120). In The Great
Gatsby I did notice a lot of the characters mentioning dogs or phrasing one
another as "you old dog you,". Myrtle mentions to Tom (the man she is having an
affair with) that she would like a dog. I believe that Fitzgerald resembles
these dogs as a symbol of affection. Canine imagery first appears in chapter
one, when Nick casually tells the reader that he once owned a dog. He lists his
possessions: an old dodge, a finish woman who cooks and cleans for him, and his
dog. "I had a dog--at least I had him a few days until he ran away(124).
Almost forty years after the book was written, Ernest Hemmingway recalls
Fitzgerald giving him a copy of The Great Gatsby: It had a garish dust jacket
and I remember being embarrassed by the violence, bad taste and slippery look of
it. It looked like the book jacket for a book of bad science fiction. Scott
told me not to be put of by it, that it had to with a billboard along the
highway in Long Island that was important in the story. He said that he liked
the jacket, but now how didn't like it. I took it offto read the book (feast
176). According to Hemmingway, the cover of the book only "had to do with" the
billboard and had already fallen out of favor with the author(179). I believe
that the cover of The Great Gatsby is a unique one, in a way that people really
would believe things like that if they never had any type of religion
background or were just messed up in the head.
As I was explaining earlier in the paper about all the characters, I was
mentioning things about Nick Carraway. Nick Carraway is also the narrator of
the novel, he is probably they most sufficient character in the novel, meaning
that he is always relaying information to others rather than getting involved in
the mischief. What I mean is, that, the affairs between Tom and Myrtle, and
Daisy and Gatsby. Nick knows just about everything about everyone and he is the
newest person in town. I think that Fitzgerald put like this because, Nick had
no other meaning to the story if he didn't get involved with the secrets that
were going on. Near the end though, Nick is clueless as to what is going on
with Myrtle and Tom until the night of the accident when Myrtle runs out in
front of the speeding yellow cadilac. Myrtle had thought that Tom was driving
the car, and so she dashed in front of it because she wanted to leave with
Tom and get away from her husband that was not to rich or smart like Tom was.
In The Great Gatsby, the fact that the billboard is only mentioned once or twice
in the film, but it so crucial to how the result of the ending is. Fitzgerald
is trying to point out that this billboard is the point were everything takes
place, like, the eyes looking down on the two cars going to party and that they
are always looking at Mr. Wilson. When Mr. Wilson's wife (Myrtle) dies he is
shock and is looking for answers to what happened. As O'Meara points out
earlier, cars are a means of destruction and evil. In two cases this is true.
One, being that big yellow cadilac killed Myrtle and two, the fact Tom is using
his car as a medium of exchange for Mr. Wilson's wife and free gas. Mr. Wilson
does not relize the fact that his wife is cheating on him with Tom, the man he
wants the car from.
In all conclusion to The Great Gatsby, many little things in the novel
were substantial to how the ending was to be. Fitzgerald had really related the
billboard of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg that looked like owl eyes and referred to a
the eyes of god by Mr. Wilson when he talking to Tom. The other thing that sets
the tone of this novel is the car. this was the murder weapon that killed
Myrtle and was recognized by Mr. Wilson as the car that Jay Gatsby was driving
that night, which was result of the death of Mr. Jay Gatsby by no other than the
man that looked at the "owl eyes " all day outside his gas station. Well the
fact of living in the nineteen twenties and being a millionaire and throwing
parties every weekend doesn't sound that bad, I just wouldn't want to be The
Great Gatsby.