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.