Blog Topic #5: Personal Review

I found F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to be very interesting as superficially it seems to be just another cliché romance novel about two people’s suppressed feelings for one another; but, delving into the true meaning of the book, it truly elaborates on one man’s obsession to prove not only to the world that he can work his way up the social ladder to the upper-class and that he is worthy of its wealth but also to himself. The characters depicted in the novel are all of great fascination, for each one is nothing like the other with their own goals in mind, specific quirks, and past histories whether of happiness or despair. The most fascinating of all though is Jay Gatsby. His seemingly all-knowing demeanor brought attention to his character from the first introduction at his own party to the last moments of him casually lounging in the pool, and still after that he seemed to linger. Perhaps my favorite aspect of The Great Gatsby was the fact that it was told not through the character of the title name, but of an original Westerner trying to find something provocative in the East. It added an essential point of view to the story that could have been depicted no other way. Overall as a piece of literature, Fitzgerald did well at conquering the language and manipulating it to tell his story.

Blog Topic #4: Text Connections

In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby’s life story before coming to New York is a story of going from rags to riches. Jay Gatsby, originally named James Gatz, was the son of unsuccessful farm people but swore to be rich one day for he believed that with enough determination and willpower anybody could achieve greatness. Keeping this goal in mind at all times Gatsby ultimately achieved it. Similar to this hackneyed story are those of Horatio Alger’s, a novelist in the late nineteenth century. He wrote such novels as Ragged Dick; Tom, the Bootblack; Sink or Swim; and Jed, the Poorhouse Boy all of which focused on lower-class persons moving to the city and earning their wealth by work, perseverance, and luck. This text-to-text connection of the “self made” man was a common practice of this era for it was the time of rising corporations and everybody wanted a part of it.

Blog Topic #3: Syntax

·         “It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning—

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (180).

            The example of syntax present is especially effective at portraying Gatsby’s overall demise; Fitzgerald’s use of an ellipsis and dashes and his varied sentence structure aid in this portrayal. These last few sentences of the novel discuss the theme of the perpetual cycle of man pursuing wealth and riches but failing, and the trying again but to only once more fail, forever working against the tides of society. By Fitzgerald employing these syntactical devices, his is able to emphasize the physical turmoil inside man as the sentence is repeatedly interrupted reflecting the interruptions in man’s life. The rhetorical fragment concluding the novel elicits an effect of continuous work “against the current.”

Blog Topic #2: Diction

In his recounting of the events following Gatsby’s death, the author conveys, through Nick, a repulsive tone towards the situation through his use of diction. Immediately following Gatsby’s murder, his mansion is stuffed with reporters, photographers, detectives and policemen. Nick views the reporters as “grotesque, circumstantial, eager, and untrue” people merely wanting to be the first to publish the story of his murder (163). The specific word choice employed by Fitzgerald reinforces the underlying agitated tone in that these words are commonly used to describe those who are utterly disliked in society. He later on describes that a group of people were “clustered open-mouthed about the pool,” the crime scene (163). His use of the phrase “open-mouthed” portrays his contempt, for it illustrates the group of people as unintelligent persons unable to control their body and hide their amazement of the scene before them. Again he criticizes the reporters by labeling them a “nightmare” (163). By using the comparison of the tangible persons to the abstract idea, Fitzgerald’s repulsive tone is supported once again as a nightmare is abhorred and unwanted by everyone. Fitzgerald’s use of such specific diction allows himself to effectively reveal the novel’s underlying tones of the situations at hand.

Blog Topic #1: Rhetorical Strategies

·         Simile: “Then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk” (14).

·         Imagery: “The lamp-light, bright on his boots and dull on the autumn-leaf yellow of her hair, glinted along the paper as she turned a page with a flutter of slender muscles in her arms” (17).

·         Parallelism: “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life” (35).

·         Repetition: “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 that impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey” (48).

·         Anecdote: The retelling of Jordan Baker’s first time meeting Jay Gatsby and Daisy Fay’s relations with him (74).

·         Oxymoron: “Her throat, full of aching, grieving beauty, told only of her unexpected joy” (89).

Throughout the novel Fitzgerald utilizes many rhetorical strategies in order to convey his specific style, although imagery is most commonly used.  When retelling the event of Nick’s first attendance of one of Jay Gatsby’s parties, Fitzgerald utilizes imagery to illustrate the qualities of the party: the guests “dressed up in white flannels,” the orchestra “playing yellow cocktail music,” and “floating rounds of cocktails” (40-41). He illustrates this in order to express his flowery style. Overall, the rhetorical strategies aid in the reinforcement of his ornate style that so intelligently reflects the upper-class’s frivolous perception of life. Fitzgerald chooses to write like this for it is effective in painting the lives of the upper-class which the novel mainly centers around.