Blog Topic #5: Personal Review

            Fitzgerald outdid himself in his American classic, The Great Gatsby, a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading. The plot was free-flowing and liberating, without much order, but containing a lot of excitement. Such excitement is seen in the extravagant parties, the ferocious passions for love, and the disastrous drive-by killing. These plot elements bring out the hype held in the ‘20’s, maybe a little too much hype with all the adultery and love scenes. The relationships add a twist to the plot, a twist that evokes pity for the victim, but a reward for the lovers. It’s fascinating to discover who ends up with whom, and who they came from. Some cry, some die, some fly away with someone else’s spouse! The reader cannot predict what’ll happen, but that adds to the thrill of finding out.  What caught my eye though was Fitzgerald’s descriptive writing, how clearly and beautifully he conjured up the landscape of the East and West Eggs. From the green lawns freshly cut, to the beaches sitting by the glistening ocean, Fitzgerald paints a colorful image unlike any other author. Even the description of Mr. Jay Gatsby’s property is astounding and elaborate, from the “Marie Antionette music-rooms,” to the “bedrooms swathed in rose and lavender silk.” The plot could consist of a circus show full of dancing elephants, the fantastic description used by Fitzgerald would still attract my attention and fill me with interest. His colorful, lively plot only enhances the brilliance of his imaginative settings. For this reason, I recommend this novel to any avid reader. It’s a short book, but swelling with outstanding exposition that only Fitzgerald can magnify.

Blog Topic #4: Text Connections

            While indulging in Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, a connection to another text became more and more evident. This connection was to J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, a story focused on the life of a teenager, Holden Caulfield. This boy continues to stalk around New York trying to find pleasure in prostitutes, clubs, drinking, and smoking. It’s a novel primarily of a dude with nothing to do, with nothing to live for, finding brief enjoyment in adulterous activities, and living his life as a free-going boy. This is relatable to the characters in The Great Gatsby. They luxuriate themselves in parties, drinking, and running off with others’ spouses. Such adulterous activity reveals the freedom the characters possess. A very miniscule amount of the novel explains occupations or activities of prosper; a majority revels in the pleasures of the 1920’s. Of course, The Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby differ in some aspects, one displays the life as a dark, ominous hindrance using crude language and shadowy imagery, and the other compliments the joys of life and the beauty of nature. The overall spirit of liberty is found in both novels, characters carrying out what they want, when they want, with whomever they want without conceiving possible consequences of their actions. Among other texts and real life scenarios, The Catcher in the Rye carried the same free-spirited atmosphere portrayed in The Great Gatsby.

Blog Topic #3: Syntax

·         “Is everything alright?... What grass?... Oh, the grass in the yard… Have you got anything in the shape of – of tea?” “Will they do?” “Of course, of course! They’re fine!... Nobody’s coming to tea. It’s too late!” (Fitzgerald 84-85)

This passage is found prior to Gatsby’s first meeting with Daisy in over five years. The syntax here implores over-mounting anxiety and nervousness as Gatsby counts down to Daisy’s arrival. The tension Gatsby feels over a simple question as ,”Does the grass look fine?” startles his state of mind. Even a simple confirmation, “Will they [the tea] do?” (84) is replied with a frantic “Of course, of course!” (84) conveying Gatsby’s ever-growing nerves. It leads straight into the quiet, awkward conversation between Gatsby and Daisy, where his posture and movement reflect the same fear.

·         “Oh you want too much!” she cried to Gatsby. “I love you now—isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.” She began to sob helplessly. “I did love [Tom] once—but I loved you too.” (132)

After an intense brawl of statements between Gatsby and Tom, Daisy here reveals a secret Tom never dreamt of hearing: his own wife loves another more than himself. Daisy’s words were said with irreversible meaning, as quick, as choppy, as frantic as the conversation as a whole. The purpose of this writing style is not only to convey the angered subject being discussed, but to foreshadow the tension that looms between Gatsby and Tom through the remainder of the novel. This tension only mounts when Gatsby kills Tom’s lady-friend, Myrtle…

·         “Oh, my Ga-od! Oh, my Ga-od! Oh, my Ga-od! Oh, my Ga-od!” (139)

Myrtle, wife of Mr. Wilson the car shop owner, was just tragically killed by Mr. Gatsby’s car. This specific passage was spoken by Mr. Wilson himself, astonished and flabbergasted with confusion. His repetitive, brief shouts of panic convey the most extreme sorrow mixed with shock. Obviously, having just lost a spouse would be tantalizing, and no doubt his anger would mount toward Mr. Gatsby, suspected of ramming his wife with the car. The passage then foreshadows the death of Gatsby, a cold-blooded murder, and the suicide of Mr. Wilson, the result of pure insanity. 

Blog Topic #2: Diction

            Fitzgerald’s premiere strength of writing The Great Gatsby is by his use of language, or his diction. His vocabulary succeeds that of the most acknowledged authors, and for good reason; his elaborate diction paints beautiful scenery and settings, while simultaneously conjuring up the most solemn and dreary settings. For example, Fitzgerald illustrates Nick’s first party at Gatsby’s house by means of his amazing diction. The garden swells with “colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s enormous garden.” (40) “Girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (39) associated with the behavior being at “an amusement park.” (41) “Laughter is easier minute by minute… [tipping] out at a cheerful word.” (40) This is only a glimpse of Fitzgerald’s potential, only one of his brilliant narrations. This one in particular conveys a tone of light-heartedness, of free-flowing spirits, similar to the overall theme of the book. Fitzgerald sees life as a sort of party one could imagine, where anyone can arrive and hook up with anybody they desire. This theme is clearly evident when the latter plot of the book is unveiled.

            Fitzgerald is completely capable of bringing a liberating, exciting tone to his novel through his diction, but he is certainly able to deliver a solemn, darkening one as well. Halfway between New York and the West Egg lies the “valley of the ashes” where “ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills,” where the “ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke,” and where men move “dimly… already crumbling through the powdery air.” (23) Fitzgerald here expresses a serious, almost saddening tone, as if industry has taken away the beauty of nature. Ashes now fill the air, smoke clouds the once-beheld views of beauty, and man is now suffering through his own work. Fitzgerald effectively uses diction to move his audience, either in a positive or negative way.

Blog Topic #1: Rhetorical Strategies

·         Allusion: “…as we wandered through Marie Antoinette music-rooms.” (91) / “[the books] stood on my shelf in red and gold like money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew.” (4)

·         Metaphor: “The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain.” (85)

·         Repetition: “Oh, my Ga-od! Oh, my Ga-od! Oh, my Ga-od! Oh, my Ga-od!” (139)

·         Alliteration: “Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York—every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves.” (39)

·         Juxtaposition: “…[Gatsby] was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands… There I was lying half asleep in the cold lower level of the Pennsylvania Station, staring at the morning Tribute, and waiting for the four o’clock train.”

In The Great Gatsby, Mr. Fitzgerald employs the use of rhetorical devices to create a unique writing style. Although his primary means of style is found in his elaborate diction, his rhetoric further enhances the effective diction with which he writes. While painting the colorful imagery of high-standard living, Fitzgerald refers to allusion, reflecting back on the most exquisite, tasteful, and wealthy figures of the past. He reflects on the shining figures to prove his professionalism, to show his knowledge of history and his ability to sound fancy in his own time.