The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is a novel written by American author F。 Scott Fitzgerald who was considered as a spokesman of the Jazz Age also known as “Roaring Twenties”, a period between the end of the World WarⅠand the great depression。 The novel, setting in a fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island, displays the wanton and luxurious social living in the 1920s with the broken dreams and love disillusion of the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby as the clue。 Though sold poorly in its first year, today, The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary classic and has become one of the 20th century's best American novels。 来自优W尔Y论W文C网WWw.YoueRw.com 加QQ7520,18766

However, the novel catches not only the attentions of readers and scholars but some famous movie directors as well for its profound cultural connotation and the accurate characterization of the society in the age of 1920s。 The novel has been adapted for film for seven times。 In 1926, The Great Gatsby was rearranged the first time into a play and transferred into a silent movie by Herbert Brenon。 Since then the original novel has been adapted for many times with various forms so that the novel got more and more public attention。 Just in 2014, there was American drama film called Affluenza loosely based on The Great Gatsby hit the screen。 While among those film, it was the The Great Gatsby (2013) that had attracted mainstream appeal。 In 2013, The Great Gatsby hit the America’s screen again as a 3 D movie with the same name as the original novel。 Under the direction of Baz Luhrmann who once has got Golden Globe nominations for best director and with the super star Leonardo DiCaprio as the eponymous Jay Gatsby, and Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, and Elizabeth Debicki in supporting roles, the movie achieved a big success at the box office。 And with huge investment in money and modern extraordinary technology, the movie successfully draws a panoramic view of the profound and magnificent capitalist lifestyle and finally won the Best Production Design and the Best Costume Design in the 86th Academy Awards。 But for focusing on the romantic story between Gatsby and Daisy, and paying too much attention on the grand party and wakening the historical background, the movie provoked criticism from the readers of the great novel as well。论文网

1。2 A Review of Research at Home and Abroad about The Great Gatsby and the 2013 film adaption。

There are many studies of the original novel The Great Gatsby before。 But there are seldom studies on the 2013 movie version。 By contrast, the two pieces of work are comparable。 Firstly, they are different in theme。 Considered to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream。 As a spokesman of “the Lost Generation”, Fitzgerald displayed the disorientation after the war and the frustrations in the process of dream chasing between the lines。 The novel perfectly blending the failure in the pursuit of freedom and idealism and the disillusion of Gatsby’s dream, thus the tragic theme of disillusioned American dream was deepened。 However, “for attaching too much importance on the pursuit of formalism and commercial value, the “American Dream” in the movie was wakened”(Li, 2013:75)。 “The movie adaption paid much more attention to the tragic love story of the main character-Gatsby and Daisy in order to meet the requirements of Hollywood’s commercial piece and to cater to audiences”(Li, 2014:112)。 For being productions of different times with different aims, it is reasonable the focus of the two works being different。 文献综述

Besides, the novel applies a lot of symbols, which run through the whole novel and play an important role。 For instance, there are many color images in The Great Gatsby, including “green”, “white”, “red”, “yellow”, “blue” and “grey”。 “Green”, which closely associated with the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock symbolizes Gatsby’s deep love for Daisy and his American Dream。 The green light, which is always feeble and disappeared in the distance, indicates the disillusionment of his dream。 “White”, which is closely associated with Daisy, is not only pure but also hollow。 It symbolizes vacuity, superficiality, hollowness and ruthlessness。 “Red” is usually related to blood and is closely associated with Tom in the novel。 Thus it represents Tom’s character: selfish, arrogant, barbarous, fractious and cruel。 “Yellow” is the most common color appeared in the novel。 First, it symbolizes money, materialism and high social position, such as Doctor T。 J。 Eckleburg’s enormous yellow spectacles and Gatsby’s golden tie。 Second, it symbolizes luxury and greed when the author describes Daisy as a golden woman。 Third, it also represents destructive power and death, such as the yellow leaves and yellow car。 Blue symbolizes melancholy, loneliness, tranquility and fantasy, such as Doctor T。 J。 Eckleburg’s blue eyes, Gatsby’s blue gardens, blue leaves, blue lawn and blue livery。 “Grey” symbolizes decadence, bleakness, corruption, disillusionment and spiritual emptiness。 The Valley of Ashes explains this color best。 All these colors used in the novel play an important effect in shaping the characters, developing the plot, and deepening the theme of the novel。 It makes this novel more profound and significant。 How do these color images being adapted in the movie? It will be one of the key points of the study。