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.