Journal #21 - Some Like It Hot and The Great Gatsby Comparison/Contrast

Some Like It Hot may be a comedy and The Great Gatsby may be a tragedy, but they have a lot more in common than most people would think. Both take place in the 1920’s and have a strong emphasis on money, love, and death. Throughout both, money is a large issue. In Gatsby, Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship ended because he was not rich, Nick felt like a complete outcast while living on the West Egg because his house was considerably smaller than everyone else’s, and Myrtle and Tom’s relationship is based mostly upon his buying her gifts. In Some Like It Hot, Sugar is constantly talking about how she wants to meet a rich man and when she gets the chance to go out on a yacht, which she thinks is Joe’s, she jumps for it. There are also many love triangles in both. Daisy, who is married to Tom, is in love with Gatsby. Tom is having an affair with Myrtle, who is married to Mr. Wilson. The love triangle leads to the death of not only one, but two people. In Some Like It Hot, Sugar likes Joe, who is disguised as Josephine. Jerry also likes Sugar, but he is also disguised as a girl, so he catches the eye of a very rich man with a yacht. Both Some Like It Hot and Gatsby also have a lot of death involved in the storyline. Joe and Jerry witness a massacre, which is what forces them to go into hiding in the first place. Myrtle and Gatsby are both killed because of confusion within the love triangle. Myrtle runs in front of Gatsby’s car because she thinks it is Tom, which causes her death and Mr. Wilson thinks Gatsby was the man his wife was having an affair with, so he decided to take matters into his own hands and kills him. The characters are also similar; Wolfshiem and Spatz are very alike, they are both involved in the mob and have no problem ruining other peoples’ lives. The settings are both in rich communities; the East and West Eggs and the ritzy hotel. The characters, settings, and themes are all very much alike. Though one is a tragedy and the other is a comedy, Some Like It Hot and The Great Gatsby are quite similar.