My Review

“The Great Gatsby” was a good read, however I was not fully interested in the plot from beginning to end. F. Scott Fitzgerald has written a novel. That’s it. However disappointing the story was in whetting my reading appetite, it still contained an amazing source of diction, syntax, and rhetorical strategies. Looking back at the novel, I find that I may have been put off by the setting of the story, and the mysterious ways of each of the characters. The text didn’t connect to me at all. In my opinion it is hard for me to find any relation with young aristocrats and war veterans chasing money and throwing massive bootlegging parties. This definitely hindered my ability to love this novel. However, I may be bashing F. Scott Fitzgerald’s supposed “Greatest Hit” before really thinking about its purpose. I feel that I have found a great deal of messages from the text. The author did a splendid job at portraying the “American Way”, and the corruption that can occur, as well as many other themes such as “Love” and “Obsession”. I really enjoyed reading a new perspective on these common themes. And although I did not completely enjoy reading about the “Jazz Scene” and the 1920’s, at least it was refreshing. Looking back at my review, I may have been a little hard on this novel, but truthfully, I took pleasure in the read and value what I have learned from “The Great Gatsby”.

Text Connections

            I can make a text connection that falls under both the categories of text-to-text and text-to-world.  Although it is not directly addressed in the novel, we can make the assumption that Jay Gatsby had connections with Wolfshiem and the corrupt ways that they went about earning money at the time period. In the United States History book that I am reading in AP US History, we have been exploring the corrupt era of the 1900’s. I have made the connection that Gatsby and Wolfshiem’s crimes follow a corrupt version of the American dream. The two pursue wealth and greatness, but they do this by selling illegal alcohol and presumably perform many other illegal tasks. This is very similar to the period that I am learning about (and also around the same time frame), as there were many people and corporations that greedily came into large sums of money by performing illegal activities and remaining virtually un-checked by their government. Both Gatsby’s plot and the history of men, such as Boss Tweed, hold a striking significance in their connections.

Syntax

- “From West Egg came the Poles and the Mulreadys and Cecil Roebuck and Cecil Schoen and Gulick the State senator and Newton Orchid, who controlled Films Par Excellence, and Eckhaust and Clyde Cohen and Don S. Schwartze (the son) and Arthur McCarty, all connected with the movies in one way or another. And the Catlips and the Bembergs and G. Earl Muldoon, the brother to that Muldoon who afterward strangled his wife. Da Fontano the promoter came there, and Ed Legros and James B. (“Rot-Gut”) Ferret and the De Jongs and Ernest Lilly…” (62).

            This passage is used to describe the many guests of luxury that attend Gatsby’s numerous parties. The passage is much longer, and has a similar structure throughout. The purpose of this type of syntax is to create a sense of a never-ending list of attendees. By choosing to make run-on sentences, Fitzgerald makes Gatsby’s list of friends attending his parties seem tremendous. Another important form of syntax used in the passage is the use of parenthesis to describe certain aspects of the characters (such as nicknames and affiliations). This is an important form of syntax because it explains why Gatsby invited certain guests and what permits them to belong to the upper class.

-  “Standing behind him, Michaelis saw with a shock that she was looking at the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night.  'God see's everything' repeated Wilson. “That’s an advertisement,” Michaelis assured him. Something made him turn away from the window and look back into the room. But Wilson stood there a long time, his face closed to the window pane, nodding into the twilight” (160).

           

This passage contains a great deal of symbolism and syntax. By formulating how the conversation between Michaelis and Wilson is written, Fitzgerald can easily create a sullen tone, sprinkled with the symbolism of god’s eyes watching over the situation. Therefore, not only does the syntax have the effect of darkening the situation, it also brings the idea of God and Religion into the text.

Diction

Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald uses diction to develop certain types of tone. These tones vary from being ominous, to confusing, and at some parts of the story, even dreadful. The use of such words as “desolate”, “sinister”, and “deathless” aided the tone in his portrayal of certain parts of the story. These words create tone for the reader to pick up on. An excellent example of diction used in the novel starts off the scene of Chapter 2. Nick depicts that “a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight" (23). In this example, Fitzgerald utilizes diction in his Imagery. This once again helps the reader understand what is meant to be felt throughout the story.

            Using diction, Fitzgerald is able to create a dreary tone out of many of the scenes that could other-wise be completely ordinary. For example, Nick starts describing a scene where he goes to have lunch with Gatsby. However, he starts the paragraph off abruptly, with “Roaring noon,” then describes that Nick is “Blinking away the brightness of the street outside,” and that he “picked [Gatsby] out obscurely in the afternoon, talking to another man” (69). Although the scene may not be very dreary, Fitzgerald crafts his diction with words like “obscure”, and uses mysterious phrases. This adds to the tone that he wants his audience to pick up in the story. The whole development of the story, from the settings to the characters, is formed by the diction that Fitzgerald has chosen to use.

Rhetorical Strategies

-Litotes: "...not a little sinister..." (5).

-Foreshadowing- “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one’, he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (1).

-Asyndeton: "I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler" (4).

-Metaphor: “What foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams…” (2).

-Simile: “Jay Gatsby had broken up like glass…”(148).

-Simile: "Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes" (86).

-Oxymoron: "...began to eat with ferocious delicacy" (71).

-Symbolism: “Gastby believed in the green light…” (180)

-Symbolism: “But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg” (23).

-Oxymoron: “...began to eat with ferocious delicacy" (71).

-Imagery: "Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight" (23).

-Onomatopoeia: "...I heard the familiar 'jug-jug-spat!' of a motorcycle..." (68).

            In “The Great Gatsby”, F. Scott Fitzgerald makes use of a number of rhetorical strategies. These devices help him get ideas across to the reader, as well as aid him, when adding tone or mood to his work. Imagery, Symbolism, Metaphors, and Similes are commonly used throughout his Novel. These, as well as many other rhetorical devices, help strengthen the text and creates a certain threatening, intriguing, and thrilling styles that entices the reader. For example, Fitzgerald uses Nick to depict Gatsby at a pinnacle part of the novel, describing "Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes" (86). Using such a simile adds to the gloominess of the situation. By describing Gatsby as pale as a dead corpse, Fitzgerald can develop a sullen tone for the reader. Another example of this style of writing is apparent in Chapter 4. Fitzgerald uses Onomatopoeia to describe “…the familiar 'jug-jug-spat!' of a motorcycle..." (68). This Rhetorical strategy helps create a sense of what is happening in the scene. Readers of The Great Gatsby can easily pick up on Fitzgerald’s style, and it proves to be very effective.