Adapting the American Dream: Novel, Film, and the Transformation of The Great Gatsby

From Literary Irony to Cinematic Spectacle — An In-Depth Novel–Film Comparison

This blog is written as part of a Thinking Activity assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad Sir, following classroom discussion and screening of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby (2013).

Introduction: Adaptation as Transformation, Not Translation

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) is a modernist novel defined by irony, restraint, moral ambiguity, and social critique. It exposes the corruption underlying the American Dream through subtle narration, symbolic economy, and ethical distance. Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby (2013), by contrast, is a postmodern cinematic adaptation that embraces spectacle, emotional excess, and sensory immersion.

This blog argues that the differences between the novel and the film are not accidental distortions, but deliberate adaptive strategies shaped by:

• the demands of the cinematic medium,

• contemporary audience expectations,

• and Luhrmann’s “Red Curtain” aesthetic.

Using theories of adaptation by Linda Hutcheon, Alain Badiou, and Perdikaki, this analysis demonstrates how the film transforms a literary social satire into a cinematic tragic romance, thereby altering characterization, narrative authority, symbolism, and ideological emphasis.

Gatsby's Dreams, Desires and Downfall

1. Narrative Voice: Moral Reflection vs. Psychological Framing

Novel: Nick as Ethical Observer

In the novel, Nick Carraway functions as a stable moral lens. His narration is retrospective, reflective, and controlled. Though he claims to reserve judgment, his irony consistently critiques:

• the emptiness of wealth,

• the moral carelessness of the elite,

• and Gatsby’s self-delusion.

Nick’s authority derives from emotional distance, not emotional damage.

Film: Nick as Traumatized Patient

Luhrmann reframes Nick as a patient in a sanitarium, diagnosed with “morbid alcoholism,” writing Gatsby’s story as therapy.

Difference and Impact

• Novel: Memory as ethical contemplation

• Film: Memory as psychological cure

This pathologization weakens Nick’s moral authority. His judgments appear emotionally driven rather than intellectually reasoned, transforming social critique into personal trauma. What was once cultural diagnosis becomes individual suffering.

2. Language and Meaning: Suggestion vs. Literalization

Novel: Symbolic Economy

Fitzgerald’s prose operates through compression and suggestion. Symbols such as:

• the Green Light,

• the Valley of Ashes,

• Dr. T. J. Eckleburg

gain meaning through repetition, ambiguity, and silence.

Film: Visual Quotation

Luhrmann frequently superimposes Fitzgerald’s words onto the screen, presenting text as image.

Difference and Impact

• Novel: Meaning emerges interpretively

• Film: Meaning is visually declared

This “noble literalism” transforms metaphor into ornament. Instead of translating literary meaning into cinematic language, the film quotes the novel, creating aesthetic reverence but limiting interpretive depth.

3. Jay Gatsby: Moral Failure vs. Romantic Victim

Novel: The Corrupted Dreamer

Gatsby is gradually revealed as:

• a criminal,

• a social climber,

• and a man who confuses material success with emotional fulfillment.

His tragedy lies not only in society’s rejection but in his own refusal to accept reality.

Film: The Romantic Martyr

The film delays or softens Gatsby’s criminal associations and frames him primarily as:

• emotionally sincere,

• socially excluded,

• and tragically misunderstood.

Difference and Impact

• Novel: Gatsby embodies the failure of the American Dream

• Film: Gatsby becomes a victim of class cruelty

The spectacle—lighting, music, camera movement—romanticizes Gatsby, muting Fitzgerald’s critique of self-made illusion and moral compromise.

4. Daisy Buchanan: Moral Responsibility vs. Emotional Passivity

Novel: Carelessness and Complicity

Daisy is charming but profoundly irresponsible. Her famous line—“I hope she’ll be a fool”—reveals her moral emptiness. Her motherhood anchors her choices in self-preservation, not love.

Film: Emotional Conflict without Agency

The film removes or minimizes Daisy’s maternal role and portrays her as emotionally torn.

Difference and Impact

• Novel: Daisy chooses comfort over love

• Film: Daisy is trapped between men

This adaptation choice protects Gatsby’s romantic status by stripping Daisy of accountability, reinforcing a gendered imbalance absent in Fitzgerald’s moral framework.

5. Adaptation Theory: Fidelity to Text vs. Fidelity to Affect

Hutcheon: “Repetition Without Replication”

Luhrmann’s film is faithful not to structure or tone, but to emotional impact.

Soundtrack as Intersemiotic Translation

Hip-hop replaces jazz to replicate cultural rupture, aligning with Alain Badiou’s concept of the “truth event.”

Difference and Impact

• Novel: Historical specificity of Jazz Age

• Film: Emotional equivalence across time

This choice enhances immediacy but risks collapsing historical critique into contemporary spectacle capitalism.

6. Visual Style: Irony vs. Excess

Novel: Critique through Restraint

Wealth is exposed through understatement and irony.

Film: Critique through Overload

Luhrmann uses:

• rapid editing,

• vortex camera movements,

• 3D immersion.

Difference and Impact

• Novel: Reader maintains critical distance

• Film: Viewer is seduced by excess

The spectacle often reproduces the pleasure of consumerism, blurring the line between critique and celebration.

7. The Ending: Social Exposure vs. Emotional Elegy

Novel: Total Social Abandonment

Henry Gatz’s presence and the empty funeral expose the brutal truth:

Society consumes dreamers and discards them.

Film: Emotional Closure

The father is omitted. The ending centers on Nick’s loyalty.

Difference and Impact

• Novel: Class hypocrisy laid bare

• Film: Friendship mourned

The American Dream shifts from systemic critique to personal tragedy.

8. The American Dream: Hollow Illusion vs. Beautiful Tragedy

Symbol	Novel	Film
Green Light	False promise	Endless longing
Valley of Ashes	Moral rot	Structural inequality
Dream	Corrupt illusion	Tragic pursuit

Post-2008 anxieties reshape the dream into something unreachable but still desirable, softening Fitzgerald’s condemnation.

Conclusion

The central difference between Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Luhrmann’s adaptation lies in ideological orientation. The novel exposes illusion through irony and ethical judgment, while the film transforms critique into emotion and spectacle. In translating literary modernism into cinematic postmodernism, the film prioritizes affect over analysis, romance over satire, and aesthetic immersion over moral distance.

Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby does not dismantle the American Dream—it mourns it, beautifies it, and, ultimately, allows audiences to fall in love with the very illusion Fitzgerald sought to expose.

 

References

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. Scribner, 2004.

The Great Gatsby. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, performances by Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, and Tobey Maguire, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2013.