Personal Review

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, was an entertaining and interesting book to read. At first I disliked it because when I started to read the first couple of chapters I did not feel positive towards the book until it began getting into the plot and the first couple of characters eventually appeared. That is when I developed the desire to want to keep on reading and figuring out what happens next as the mysteries between them start developing. I felt it was unique the different ways that Fitzgerald would illustrate each character and scene of the novel so thoroughly that they seemed alive and not just some mere characters or places in a story. The different themes of the book that were presented throughout the story were also meaningful and easy to connect to the world now like how wealth is not everything and only love can make a person truly happy. As a result, it was a great experience to read and interpret this novel and to write a blog on it.  

Text Connection

Throughout the novel, it is seen through Nick how Gatsby goes from being poor and helpless, wanting to be with the wealthy, to having a lavish lifestyle. Although he obtains this wealth illegally, he still alludes to the idea of the “self-made” man. Through Frederick Douglass’s novel, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a text-to-text connection can be made to The Great Gatsby because just like Gatsby, Douglass too began as being impoverished and working in different places such as farms. He had to go through the hardships that slavery had put on him but never gave hope of one day being free. He soon learned how to read and eventually escaped the horrors of slavery, writing his own book and becoming one of the most famous African Americans to tell of his hardships. As a result, he too portrays the idea of being a “self-made” man that is put forth throughout The Great Gatsby.     

  

Syntax

Throughout The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses different forms of syntax in his writing to bring out a certain tone, purpose, or style.

            As Nick is describing the different aspects of Gatsby and his mansion he goes on explaining that “my own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month” (5). Due to the use of the dashed line, Fitzgerald is allowed to add additional information to the sentence that precedes it. When he utilizes these dashes it permits him to get his purpose of the sentence across which is that he barely got anything for a particular amount of money. It also alludes to his somewhat negative tone through his way of illustrating his meager lifestyle.

            While introducing the character Dan Cody for the first time Nick states that “he was employed in a vague personal capacity—while he remained with Cody he was in turn steward, mate, skipper, secretary, and even jailor, for Dan Cody sober knew what lavish doings Dan Cody drunk might soon be about, and he provided for such contingencies by reposing more and more in Gatsby” (100). In this example of syntax, the dash line once again helps with bringing out the purpose and style in which Fitzgerald wants the reader to see which is the two sides of Dan Cody, the sober and drunk. Without employing the dashed line it would be hard and seem awkward to understand when he would be contrasting the diverse aspects of Dan. 

Diction

To get a particular tone across in a situation, Fitzgerald utilizes diction in his writing to make this possible in The Great Gatsby.
When Nick is talking about his great uncle he explains “I never saw this great-uncle, but I’m supposed to look like him—with special reference to the rather hard-boiled painting that hangs in father’s office” (3). Fitzgerald use of the word “hard-boiled” gives off a negative connotation towards the painting of his great-uncle. It also contributes to a distant and unenthusiastic tone towards his great-uncle that he is supposed to resemble to so much due to him not knowing him a great deal.
As Nick is looking out the window at the outside scenery he states that “the late afternoon sky bloomed in the window for a moment like the blue honey of the Mediterranean—then the shrill voice of Mrs. McKee called me back into the room” (34). Through the words “bloomed” and “blue honey”, which have positive connotations, a calm and content tone is put forth from Fitzgerald of what he is seeing through the window. Then through the word “shrill”, which has a negative connotation, an annoyed and disliked tone is shown towards Mrs. McKee’s voice causing a shift in the tone of the author to occur.

Rhetorical Strategies

• Personification: “The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens—finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its sun” (6).
• Simile: “A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea” (8).
• Repetition: “This is the valley of the ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into the 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).
• Metaphor: “The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain” (85).

In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses various rhetorical strategies to go above and beyond to portray his unique style of writing. He also uses these strategies to help him make the reader see certain things in a new light and picture certain situations the way he wants them to see it. As seen in this vivid simile above, Fitzgerald compares the curtains to pale flags, which aids him to put forth that they are plain and also goes on comparing the ceiling to a frosted wedding cake, giving the image of a jagged and uneven ceiling. Through the repetition of ashes, when describing the road that is halfway between West Egg and New York, it permits for an emphasis on the fact that it is a dark and polluted place and causes for a more lucid illustration of this sinister place for the reader to be able to imagine. He also uses strategies like personification and metaphor to put a more atypical way of describing or articulate something like in the examples above.