Gatsby Blog: Personal Review

My personal review of The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald comes out to be about 50%  like, and 50 % dislike. From an analytical stand point; I enjoyed this book due to its higher level of complexity in writing style. The way Fitzgerald strings along phrases into the most complex order and then wants the reader to unravel them into their multiple meanings is interesting. He pulls in outside information in order to draw connections that most would not see. For me, I enjoy deeply dissecting the writing and discovering meaning that are not apparent on a surface level reading. In that regard, Fitzgerald satisfies my reading wishes, but reading this book for mere entertainment purposes would not be high on my list of to-dos. While drama, relationships, money, and power can be fascinating topics to capture an audience, I do not enjoy the pathetic actions of many of the characters in this book. I see Daisy as some one that is unable to fight for her true love, Gatsby is unable to realize that Daisy is not worth it, Tom a man that thinks he is above remaining faithful to his wife, and Nick is the lonely bystander that takes it all in. By studying this book at a deeper level I can see some of what Fitzgerald tries to accomplish with his purpose of explaining the “American Dream”, but that barely increases my liking of this book.

Gatsby Blog: Text Connections

In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author stresses the pinnacle and the nadir of the “American Dream.” While the 1920’s are best known as the “Roaring Twenties” they achieve this name by the social interactions, revival of economic activity, and the sense of victory that are result from the ending of the Great War. The high points of the “American Dream” include the complete transformation from poverty to wealth due to industriousness and intuition. Accompanying this new lifestyle are social expectations that most self-made-men do not fully understand. They are not prepared to associate themselves with socialites that have merely inherited their wealth and fame. While the majority of the population did not reach that high of a station, those that did found it unfulfilling and disappointing. Fitzgerald wished to express that the “American Dream” in moderation was successful for most, but those that reached for the stars and caught them often came plummeted back down to earth.

            Jay Gatsby is a primary example of the common man reaching beyond their limits and struggling to maintain who they are. He was a North Dakota boy that shed his true self to assume the persona of someone he was not. A veteran of the war himself, he rose above the ranks of poverty driven by the need to prove to himself and his love, Daisy, that he was worthwhile. But in his quest for acknowledgment, he lost what had initial attracted Daisy to him, his freedom of character that preceded the war and change in social status and wealth.  F. Scott Fitzgerald conjured up the story of The Great Gatsby as a way of reminding people of their main values and the necessity of not getting lost in the excessive ideals of the “American Dream.”  

Gastby Blog: Syntax

·         “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).

Fitzgerald uses this complex sentence to show his own personal writing style of favoring long prose that is capable of pulling in outside information and drawing intricate connections. His writing achieves a higher status due to the complexity of sentence structure that is present throughout the book and the affect of detailing in such a manner enhances his characters and in this case, Mr. Gatsby’s personality is heavily detailed to transform him into a more credible, established character

·         “And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy” (49).

Jordan is speaking to Nick in this exchange and by using telegraphic sentences to describe Mr. Gatsby’s parties; Fitzgerald displays a tone of dependence and the need to be surrounded by large amounts of people. As this was custom in the 1920’s, lavish parties were in the norm with limited lasting interactions among the guests. Jordan is unusual in her perception of the parties as “intimate” and Fitzgerald highlights upon this by using terse sentence structure to emphasize the reality that even when surrounded by many, one is often alone.

·         “’What are you doing?’ I inquired” (142).

After the fiasco at the Plaza Hotel, everyone drives back to Daisy and Tom’s house. One of the cars—the one with Daisy and Mr. Gatsby—hits and kills Myrtle, Tom’s lover. Once reaching the house, Nick asks Mr. Gatsby this question. Fitzgerald uses this terse, interrogative sentence to address Mr. Gatsby. By using a simple sentence, the author is able to extract a great meaning from it. The first: what is Gatsby currently doing, and the second being what is Gatsby going to do about the whole situation that he has gotten into. The short wording draws closer attention and makes the reader think about the possible outcome from here.

Gatsby Blog: Diction

Fitzgerald uses varying diction to parallel the thoughts and feelings of Nick Carraway towards Daisy, his cousin whom he views with a loving, aspirated attitude, and Mr. Gatsby, his neighbor who he greatly admires. Upon being reunited with Daisy after several years, Nick first sees her lying on a couch with a friend during one summer afternoon “where their dresses were rippling and fluttering” (8). The way the dresses “[rippled] and [fluttered]” integrates the appearance of Daisy’s carefree life of wealth into Nick’s impression of her.  Daisy laughed in “an absurd, charming way” that enticed Nick into further entering the living room of her house. Fitzgerald’s word choice mirrors Nick’s inner comparison of Daisy’s lifestyle with his own rigorous regime. He notices that her features were all “bright” and there was an “excitement” about her due to the love she conveys towards him. The use of light, gay diction to describe Daisy reflects her personality in a slightly frivolous manner. In striking contrast, Nick exalts Mr. Gatsby by using eloquent wording to describe his rather mysterious neighbor. After witnessing the elaborate parties happening weekly throughout the summer, Nick is invited to attend through a little note written “in a majestic hand” and claiming it would be Mr. Gatsby’s “honor” for him to attend (41).  Following the formation of an interesting relationship, Nick listens attentively to Jay Gatsby’s “elegant sentences” (64) and is curious about his “oxford education” (65). F. Scott Fitzgerald stresses the sense of enthrallment Nick has for Mr. Gatsby through the use of powerful diction which mirrors the effect Gatsby’s life has on those around him. Ranging from loving, and almost brotherly affection, to the absorption of a young boy looking upon their hero—Nick Carraway’s inner thoughts and emotions are portrayed through Fitzgerald’s adoring wording of Nick’s relationship with Daisy and the high level diction used to illustrate the friendship between Gatsby and Nick.

Gatsby Blog: Rhetorical Strategies

Great Gatsby: Rhetorical Strategies

·         Hyperbole: “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).

·         Simile/alliteration/imagery: “This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (23).

·         Personification: “It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey” (48)

In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald employs a variety of rhetorical strategies in his intricate writing style to allow him to draw in outside information and make fantastic connections. While describing Mr. Gatsby, “If personality…miles away” (2) — Fitzgerald -- through the words of his narrator Nick Carraway, uses a hyperbole to exaggerate certain characteristics of Mr. Gastby. By enhancing his personality with long prose, Carraway is able to draw a smilingly random comparison between Gatsby and a seismograph, but one that is none the less effective in describing him. As Fitzgerald pours out another complex sentence riddled with alliteration, imagery, and a simile, “This is a valley of ashes--….powdery air” (23), a connection is drawn between an image formed of the desolation of some of the society in the 1920’s and the desolation of the upcoming situation Carraway has unknowingly gotten himself into. Further enhancing his complicated writing style, Fitzgerald uses personification to transform an ordinary sentence into one that goes into the deeper meaning of a smile, “It understood…you hoped to convey” (48) and acts as an outlet for expressing more of Gatsby’s personality. Fitzgerald’s writing style of complex sentences with many connections is developed through the use of rhetorical strategies.