Diction

When describing Daisy, Fitzgerald tends to use very flowery and flamboyant diction. He uses words such as “gay “ and “radiant” when describing objects and items that are associated with Daisy making it clear to the reader that Daisy is also a very bright and sensational person (Fitzgerald 148).  His choice in diction makes it apparent that Daisy’s ardent spirit travels through everything that surrounds her, depicting her as almost a god-like figure. Not only does this diction illustrate Daisy’s personality, but it also shows Fitzgerald’s admiring tone towards her character.  By using words like “fresh” and “scarcely withered” it shows how highly Daisy is thought of especially by Gatsby (148-149). Using positively connotative words to describe what Gatsby sees when looking at Daisy, it once again conveys this earnest tone. 

Personal Review

After reading through Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, I had mixed emotions on how I felt about the book. I thought the story line was decent with some interesting twists toward the end, however, I didn’t find Fitzgerald’s style of writing to be very effective. I tended to lose interest throughout the book due to the lack of suspense and felt that his style was very dull. After a couple of chapters in, it began to seem very repetitive and tedious.  On the contrary, I did enjoy the characters within the story and thought that is was interesting being able to discover each of their individual personalities and secrets throughout the plot. Each of the characters personalities would seem to change within an instant based on the situation or the people they were interacting with. I found it quite fascinating learning about Gatsby and Daisy’s past and seeing how it all connected at the end. I also felt that Fitzgerald was successful with relating to the reader by basing his plot on real-life situations and emotions most human beings experience in there life: love, loneliness, happiness, life. Overall, I would not say that book would be one of the best novels I have ever read, but I felt that it was decent book with both positive and negative qualities. 

Text Connections

I felt a personal connection to the emotions and denial that Nick was experiencing over the death of his good and beloved friend Gatsby. Nick and Gatsby grew a very close relationship over the course of the story, and his death came to much of a shock to Nick. I can relate to Nick’s emotions and his feeling of not wanting to believe the truth of his good friends death. When grieving over the death of someone who is very close to you, it is difficult to accept the facts, and in order to avoid the pain one feels that they must avoid anything that may remind them of their lost loved one. Nick claims that he can “vividly still hear the music and the laughter, faint and incessant [noises] from [Gatsby’s] garden” and felt as if Gatsby presence was still very much alive (179). This statement reminded me of the book The Death and Life of Charlie Saint Cloud by Ben Sherwood, which tells the story of a boy and his little brother who dies in a horrific car crash. While trying to overcome his grief, he starts to believe that he can still see and interact with his little brother even though he is clearly dead, just as Nick claims to be able to see Gatsby’s huge parties going on even though he knows that Gatsby is long gone.

 

Syntax

“They had forgotten me, but Daisy glanced up and held out her hand; Gatsby didn’t know me now at all. I looked once more at them and they looked back at me, remotely, possessed by intense life. Then I went out of the room and down the marble steps in to the rain, leaving them there together” (Fitzgerald 96).

This syntax in the following passage stands for the purpose of expressing the amount of passion and love between Gatsby and Daisy. Fitzgerald writes of multiple actions being done by each of the characters within this paragraph, yet all of them lead back to the focus being on the two “lovers”. With the influx of commas between each sentence, it creates a dramatic effect, building up the intensity of the situation.

“He smiled understandingly- much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced- or seemed to face –the whole external world for and instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor” (48).

The syntax within this passage reveals the authors tone towards Gatsby when he is first introduced. The interrupted order throughout this paragraph shows how flustered and humbled Nick was to meeting Gatsby. He is looked upon as such a high and mighty man, and seeing how nervous he makes others just by talking to them makes him seem even more powerful and highly looked upon revealing the authors awestruck tone. 

Rhetorical Strategies

Simile: “For a moment a phrase tried to take shape in my mouth and my lips parted like a dumb man’s” (Fitzgerald 111).

Allusion: “He must have looked up at the unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about…like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees” (161).

Imagery: “His eyes leaked continuously with excitement, and when I took the bag and umbrella from his hands he began to pull so incessantly at his sparse gray beard that I had difficulty in getting off his coat. He was on the point of collapse, so I took him into the music room and made him sit down while I sent for something to ea. But he wouldn’t eat, and the glass of milk spilled from his trembling hand” (167).

Apostrophe: “But as they drew back the sheet and looked at Gatsby with unmoved eyes, his protest continued in my brain: “Look here, old sport, you’ve got to get somebody for me. You’ve got to try hard. I can’t go through this alone” (165).

Fitzgerald integrates multiple rhetorical devices throughout his novel such as the simile above describing Nick’s reaction to seeing Gatsby and Daisy reuniting. He compares his lips to that of “a dumb man’s” (111), and by doing so it allows for the reader to understand the amount of emotion and intensity occurring between Gatsby and Daisy based on Nicks reaction. Fitzgerald continues to use these similes to depict the characters inner most thoughts and emotions, allowing for the reader to connect and get a deeper understanding of each character. He also incorporates multiple allusions throughout the novel such as the one listed in the second bullet point alluding to the “heavens”. Fitzgerald uses these analogies as a way of connecting with the reader and to give them a more insightful understanding of the ideas he is trying to convey.  Next, Fitzgerald uses vast amounts of vivid and scintillating imagery in order to illustrate the bigger concepts of the story. His selection to detail is significant in that it gets the reader to feel as if they were there experiencing it themselves. Finally, after the death of Gatsby, an apostrophe is used creating a sympathetic tone towards Gatsby. By provoking this sympathy, it allows for a more in-depth analysis of the situation and keeps the attention of the reader.