Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, The Great Gatsby is a classic story about a man chasing the American Dream to recapture his love from the past. The Great Gatsby provides a view of life for the wealthy in the 1920’s. The main character, Jay Gatsby, is following his dream to reunite with the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. To win her back, he has created the image of a gentleman living the life of wealth and extravagance, although his false image has been built on illegal activities and lies. The pursuit of his dream leads to his tragic death at the end of the story. The narrator of the story, Nick Carraway, is the only character who can see Jay Gatsby for who he is, but he is powerless to expose his knowledge to anyone but the reader. The Great Gatsby has been effectively represented in several films. In the most recent film version, The Great Gatsby, directed by Baz Luhrmann in 2013, Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Daisy Buchanan are brought back to life in the 1920’s, but with a modern music soundtrack. In the 2011 film Midnight In Paris, directed by Woody Allen, modern characters reflect the themes and symbols of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in a variety of ways. Both films bring to
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The Great Gatsby himself, Jay, wants to reconnect with his love from the past, Daisy, even though she is married to Tom Buchanan. He fantasizes to Nick, “Can’t repeat the past? Why, of course you can!” (110). The movie Midnight in Paris also deals with a similar theme of wanting to relive the past. The main character in Midnight in Paris, Gil, fantasizes about living in Paris in the 1920’s, a time that existed before he was born. “And just what era would you have preferred to live in, Miniver Cheevy?” asks Paul, a know-it-all friend of Gil’s fiance, Inez. Similar to the poem Miniver Cheevy, Gil wishes he could have been born in an earlier time period, having stated, “I was born in the wrong
The Great Gatsby himself, Jay, wants to reconnect with his love from the past, Daisy, even though she is married to Tom Buchanan. He fantasizes to Nick, “Can’t repeat the past? Why, of course you can!” (110). The movie Midnight in Paris also deals with a similar theme of wanting to relive the past. The main character in Midnight in Paris, Gil, fantasizes about living in Paris in the 1920’s, a time that existed before he was born. “And just what era would you have preferred to live in, Miniver Cheevy?” asks Paul, a know-it-all friend of Gil’s fiance, Inez. Similar to the poem Miniver Cheevy, Gil wishes he could have been born in an earlier time period, having stated, “I was born in the wrong