Differences Between The Great Gatsby And Baz Luhrmann

Money cannot buy love or happiness. This is the central theme that runs throughout The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and its 2013 film counterpart, directed by Baz Luhrmann. All of Fitzgerald’s characters are represented in Luhrmann’s film, each with their own struggles and triumphs based on their choices. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, is portrayed both similarly and differently in the movie than in the novel. From the imagination of the director, viewers are able to see Nick Carraway as they have read him, as well as in a way they have never seen him before. A crucial change between the novel, The Great Gatsby, and its 2013 film version, is the difference in their beginnings. In the book, we are first introduced to the narrator, Nick Carraway, who is moving to the state of New York, where he only knows his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom Buchanan. Nick comes to New York, not too wealthy, and has heard a few mysterious things about his neighbor, Jay Gatsby (Fitzgerald). This …show more content…
He is considered a bystander and goes along with the crowd. Nick stays quiet as Daisy tells him about the birth of Pammy and how Tom was not present. He does not speak up and inform Daisy Buchanan that her husband is cheating on her with Myrtle Wilson. Nick is also an onlooker at Jay Gatsby’s parties, observing the crowd and scene around him. He does not engage in the dancing and music that all the other guests revel in. Another prime example of Nick’s passivity is his compliance to hold in the secret that Daisy was the one driving the car that killed Myrtle Wilson, not Gatsby. This leads George Wilson into thinking Gatsby killed his wife, as told to him by Tom, and eventually the death of both Jay Gatsby and George. This trait of Nick’s is not always favorable, but a big part of who he is in both The Great Gatsby novel and