The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
' "Gatsby? What Gatsby?" asks Daisy Buchanan when she hears mention of the millionaire living across the bay in an architectural pile even more imposing than her own. Baz Luhrmann lifts this line straight from F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel for his film of The Great Gatsby. Every movie version of Gatsby uses it, in fact, but every Daisy already knows the answer to her own question, because Gatsby is not a real name. A poor farm boy called James Gatz made Gatsby up in a moment when he wanted to make himself sound like a rich, distinguished WASP. There is only one Gatsby.'
