#5: Personal Review

The Great Gatsby is told through narration by Nick Carraway, a man who lives in the shaddow of a towering mansion. Its sole inhabitant is Jay Gatsby, who has long since learned the painful story of yearning for love and the havoc that wealth and status can reap. Considered F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest work, the novel captures the values of the roaring 1920's: parties power, money, and excess. Its characters and their sories form a time capsule unearthed after 80 years.
The major themes in the novel, like greed, betrayal, and the incapturable the American dream are relatable, and the plotline is compelling. Its both candid and and classic, and I thouroughly enjoyed it.

#4 Text Connection

While reading, I drew a strong connection between the novel and the historical, romantic film The Titanic. Much akin to young Jack Dawson, Gatsby’s life journey led him from poverty to wealth. Also, they both fell from loneliness into the arms of their seemingly unattainable beloved. Gatsby’s love Daisy and Dawson’s heroine Rose both belong to disapproving affluent families, and both stories end tragically in an eventual, earth shattering, undeserved death. Both men are doomed by the same force as well: to sacrifice themselves in order to save their leading ladies. Gatsby takes the blame for Daisy’s hit and run, and Jack insists (multiple times) on giving up his chance at safety to insure Rose’s survival. Both the novel and the film share the powerful motif of triumph versus tragedy.

#3 Syntax

1. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning—
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

To contrast the significance of the past and the dreams of the future, Fitzgerald ends his novel with panicky, dual ended syntax. It’s split straight down its middle: The metaphoric current draws them back as they row toward the green light, representing Gatsby’s unattainable hopes and dreams for the future. In the novel he consistently reached blindly towards it, and Nick had earlier stretched the comparison to imagine how America, rising out of the ocean, must have looked to wide-eyed immigrants and early settlers of the brand new nation. As the author continues, the voyagers never lose their optimism. Such is mirrored in Fitzgerald’s parallel themes and omnipresent motif of the American Dream.

2. “If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away (2).”

Commas and semicolons are nearly omnipresent in The Great Gatsby. They allow for juicy, action-packed sentences that are simultaneously beautiful and ornate. His control over language gives him the freedom to include hilarious metaphor and extremely detailed recollection, jaw dropping realizations, and witty irony, all in a single sentence.  

#2 Diction

Primarily, Fitzgerald uses diction to differentiate between social class the level of personal wealth as mirrored to its owner’s morality. His most apparent example is through the contrasting level of formality in dialogue between Jay Gatsby and Meyer Wolfshem.

Fitzgerald also reveals a major theme of The Great Gatsby, that the high society is entirely unaffected by plights of the common man because of their affluence, through his diction. He enforces superiority and creates an elitist and condescending tone. He writes of Daisy’s dim-witted husband, “There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic” (131). Fitzgerald implies that Tom was incapable of feeling more than panicky and confused. Fitzgerald later writes, “Instinct made him step on the accelerator with the double purpose of overtaking Daisy and leaving Wilson behind” (131).  As he decides symbolically to leave Myrtle Wilson behind, Tom is going back to Daisy. This is significant because a return to Daisy is a return to the safety of wealth, and it is essentially like he is leaving Myrtle to die. Neither Tom nor Daisy repent for their actions; instead, the poor are left to deal with their consequences. In these ways, Fitzgerald’s diction represented the decline of the American dream, and reflected that the affluent people in society shoved all their consequences to the poor that make up the rest of society.

#1 Rhetorical Strategies

Personification:

1. “If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away” (2).
2. “…but it was a warm season, and I had just left a country of wide lawns and friendly trees, so when a young man suggested…” (3)
3. “the sun threw my shadow” (56)

Allusion:

1. (4) midas and morgan and macenas

Metaphor/Simile

1. “…most domesticated body of water in the Western Hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound.” (5)
2. “swam like dew” (85)
3. Daisy’s voice (86)

Imagery:

1. “…with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden” (5)

Fitzgerald’s use of rhetorical strategies brings his novel to life. Each chapter is rich with character, and the vivid imagery allows the reader to feel and relate. Fitzgerald is also consistent in utilizing rhetorical strategies for characterization. He introduces Tom Buchanan in writing, “now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively foreword” (7). The effect of personifying Tom’s powerful features gives new meaning to his physical appearance.