While reading The Great Gatsby, I found the text to be rather boring and dull due to the fact that I couldn't get fully engaged, but when the movie began, the characters came to life with the help of the colors and music. In class, we would take the text to an entire different level and discuss what little details could somehow make up something totally different; yet, were somehow very rational depictions. During this time, it was hard for me to understand how we were coming to this conclusions, so being able to see the characters come to life with the use different color schemes was rather helpful.
Not only was I able to relate how the colors represented something deeper- something we had discussed in class- but I was able to see first hand how characters were depicted from the actual text. For example, Daisy had blond hair, was rather small, and wore outfits that weren't over the top, but gave us insight about who she was and where she came from. In other words, she was rather innocent looking, which I wouldn't have necessarily thought of from the book due to her indiscretions, but really, from the film, I could see that she wanted to please everyone, which was near impossible. The difficulty of that task was eventually what broke her in the end and I was able to visually see this when it was acted out in front of me.
The music also added an entire different level to my opinion on the book. Not only did I recognize the music because it was so up to date, it was transformed in such a way that made what was being acted out all the more exciting. It changed the way I had pictured scenes from the book in my head, which made me appreciate the actual text a little bit more. An example of this was the shirt scene with Gatsby and Daisy. During an activity, one question was why do you think that Daisy cried during that scene and could it represent something deeper? The music during this scene made me realize that Daisy was in fact happy for most of the time, and then when the music came to an end, I could see that her emotions were changing, which visually helped me.
