Recently, all of the CCHS 11th grade English classes are reading The Great Gatsby. Within the past month, English classes including: English 3, English 3 Honors, and AP Lang are either reading the book currently or completed it recently.
The Great Gatsby is a book set in the 1920’s and it follows millionaire Jay Gatsby and his desperate pursuit to achieve the girl of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan. It teaches many deep and thought provoking themes including wealth, love, and the idealistic American Dream.
So far, there have been four major film adaptations since the original publication of this book; the 1926,1949, 1974, and 2013 versions. All of these versions vividly portray both the glamor and tragedy that the people living in the 1920’s felt.
Many of the CCHS English classes that have completed the book also get the honor to watch the modern movie adaptation of the book, the 2013 version. These classes are watching this version because of its use of modern actors, advanced AI, and extravagant sets without overpowering the central theme of the movie.
This version of the show did extremely well as it made over 350M worldwide, and 50 million just in its opening weekend.
Personally, I really enjoyed the movie. I found that my English teacher’s decision to watch it along with our reading helped my understanding of the big concepts throughout the novel, including: the American Dream, Green Light, and Tragedy of Romance.
Keylie Espinosa, A CCHS junior shares a similar opinion to mine as she explains, “I absolutely loved watching the Great Gatsby movie. It really took my imagination of the book and brought it to life.” Like Espinosa , 9/10 other juniors agreed with the statement that “They would watch the movie again/or view it outside of school purposes.”
When speaking to other CCHS Juniors, an anonymous student exclaimed, “I watched both the 1974 and 2013 versions of the movie and I found that the more modern adaptation of the movie explained each character so well, also, the settings of the scenes brought my imagination to life, especially Gatsby’s large mansion!”
I share a similar experience with this opinion as I believe that the famous cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio, really brought the character descriptions from the book to life.
I enjoyed the 2013 version of this movie so much that I made my CCHS freshman sister Georgia Brennan watch it as well. For context, Georgia never read the book, nevertheless, she expressed similar reviews saying “It was a really cool movie. I loved the music in it.”
In fact, almost all of the CCHS Juniors that watched the movie found that the music really enhanced the message. The 2013 adaptation was filled with “up-to-date” songs such as “Young and Beautiful” and “Back to Black.”
Ultimately, the 2013 remake of the American classic novel, The Great Gatsby is a cinematic masterpiece as it deepens the viewer’s understanding of the central concepts in the novel. If you have ever read The Great Gatsby, I would definitely recommend waiting for the modern adaptation of the book along with it.
