· “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.
Your syntax blog was really well written- I really liked that the quotes were separated from the analysis, it made it easy to go back and see the exact quote you were talking about. I completely agreed with your interpretation of the quotes and that you made commentaries and then explained them, instead of saying blandly that something "adds emphasis" you would explain why. Syntax is always really difficult for me to write about put you did it perfectly!
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