Text-World Connection

            The world revolves around money. The lives of many people revolve around money. Some inherit millions, some become successful with a huge pay check, some are desperately trying to pay the rent of their house. No matter what situation one is in, money is important…and it can change one’s life. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald conveys those who are born rich through the arrogant Tom Buchanan, those who become rich through time and hard work (and cheating) manifest in the character of Jay Gatsby, and those who fall prey to the power and corruption of money in the character of Daisy Buchanan. People like Tom have never known anything other than being surrounded by wealth and privilege, whereas people like Gatsby are “self-made men”. President Andrew Jackson liked to think of himself as thus; he came from poor beginnings, became an American hero in the border wars against the Indians, and eventually landed himself in public office…without any political experience. Similarly, Gatsby became rich over a period of time. Tom could easily be successful if he had been born into the “Southern Aristocracy” of the Old South in America because of incidentally being a racist and never being a victim of poverty.  Daisy, on the other hand, demonstrates the struggles of being a woman during the 1920’s. Women still did not have many rights, and to many, the only way to positively secure their future and the lives of their future children was through maintaining the wealth they were born into by marrying someone else who was rich (in this instance, that would be Tom Buchanan). In many ways, she is probably very similar to the character of Rose in the movie Titanic, who is constantly pressured by her mother to marry into a wealthy family to secure their wealth and position, just as Daisy is most likely pressured to remain affluent. Also like Rose, Daisy falls in love with someone of lesser means (Daisy falls in love with Gatsby; Rose falls in love with Jack). Both Gatsby and Jack tragically die. Yet, unlike Rose, the possibility of losing all that wealth is too terrifying and unpredictable, whereas Rose decides to leave everything she has behind to be with Jack. Displayed through the characters of Tom, Gatsby, and Rose, Fitzgerald highlights the unfortunate dependence of money in the lives of many people during the Roaring 20’s, and how disastrously important it will always be for most.    

My Personal Review of The Great Gatsby

Honestly, this book was very challenging for me. What was occurring was not hard to figure out and finding rhetorical strategies was easy enough, yet it was hard for me to find allusions and symbols. This was a strange occurrence because I love to dissect the author’s words and discover what lies behind them; yet analyzing this book was not easy for me. Usually I can find biblical allusions and light vs. dark references very easily, but perhaps not being given the themes for this book before we started reading it contributed to my struggle. However, when I did realize that The Great Gatsby was full of allusions, it was exciting. This book helped to grasp that not every book we read in school is going to be full of Biblical allusions that I can easily write about because I know the Bible so well. Although Biblical allusions are deep, other types of allusions are deeper for me because they are harder and more challenging for me to discern.

            The ending of this book was very sad. I think the author’s purpose of revealing that money does more harm than good was poignantly displayed through Gatsby’s character. His hopes and dreams were centered on the love he had for a girl who failed him. Tragically, he found his meaning and his purpose in someone who continually chose money over him. Perhaps Fitzgerald’s underlying purpose, through the tragic character of Gatsby, is to expose that putting all of your faith and trust in things of this world, such as money or people, leads to death. Money failed Gatsby because the reason he obtained so much of it was to bring back Daisy, and Daisy failed Gatsby because she is a human being.

The Effect of Syntax on Fitzgerald's Purpose

           Fitzgerald’s often paradoxical way of writing illuminates his purpose to demonstrate that wealth often overpowers what people know is right. The reader can see that Daisy deliberately chooses to be with Tom when Nick observes of both: “They weren’t happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale—yet they weren’t unhappy either” (145). This being the night of the car accident in which Daisy kills Tom’s mistress, Myrtle, the author juxtaposes the two emotions of happiness and unhappiness to emphasize that Tom, who is obviously grieving over his dead mistress, is also glad that Daisy has chosen him, and that Daisy, being the one who ran over Myrtle, is somewhat regretful but also relieved because she knows that the accident will be blamed on Gatsby, and that she is still secure with Tom. Fitzgerald displays his contempt for money because it leads to careless actions that result in something terrible, like Myrtles death, yet easily provides a way out with no justice. Soon after Daisy chooses Tom, Gatsby is recounting to Nick of how one of the letters he received from Daisy at Oxford informed him of her betrothal to someone else. Nick writes about her decision, “Doubtless there was a certain struggle and a certain relief” (151). Fitzgerald juxtaposes the “struggle” and the “relief” Daisy feels, displaying that her acceptance of Tom’s request was difficult because there was still a part of her in love with Gatsby, yet there was still a part of her waiting for Gatsby that was shattered by the safety the proposal promised. By revealing Daisy’s conflicting emotions, the author emphasizes that the security of money overshadowed the love Daisy once had for Gatsby, painting a sad picture that causes the reader to confirm that the author may disagree with her love of money obliterating her love for Gatsby. Through juxtaposing the contradictory emotions felt in both instances, Fitzgerald reveals that the power of money greatly diminishes the power of love.

The Effect of Diction on Fitzgerald's Tone

Fitzgerald’s employment of blatant diction on page 179 of The Great Gatsby creates a tone of anger intermingled with pity. Discovering how Tom told Mr. Wilson that Gatsby was driving the car that killed his wife, Nick does nothing to inform this heartless man the truth of what happened and decides, “I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified” (179). While declaring with resentment how “I couldn’t forgive him” yet admitting how “what he had done was, to him, entirely justified,” Nick is torn between being angry toward this man and feeling sorry for this man; he is angry because Tom’s actions backhandedly resulted in Gatsby’s death, yet Nick also pities him because in his arrogant, egotistical, unchanging mind, Tom truly believes he has done right. He goes on to rage about Daisy and Tom: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” (149). Clearly, the pity Nick had has been abolished by the fury he feels toward “their vast carelessness” that resulted in disasters such as Gatsby’s death, and how they “let other people clean up the mess they had made.” Yet, soon after this tirade, Nick recognizes that “…for I felt suddenly as though I were talking to a child” (149), which displays the conflicting emotions of anger and sorrow toward these people who don’t seem to feel any sorrow at all…no sense of repentance or grief—just like a child who has made a mistake but doesn’t understand the magnitude of the consequences of his actions. Through carefully chosen words, Fitzgerald exhibits the angry yet pitying emotions Nick feels toward Tom and Daisy.

The Effect of Rhetorical Strategies on Fitzgerald's Style

·         Anaphora: “The apartment was on the top floor̶—a small living room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath” (Fitzgerald 29).

·         Alliteration: “She turned to Mrs. McKee and the room rang full of her artificial laughter” (Fitzgerald 36).

·         Simile: “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (Fitzgerald 39).

Throughout The Great Gatsby, the reader constantly encounters repetition such as asyndeton, polysyndeton, and the above anaphora. Nick (the narrator and main character of the book) continually employs this type of repetition to significantly emphasize the scene he is describing and his opinions of it, contributing to the hastily honest and sometimes urgent manner in which he writes. His rapid style seems to reflect upon and draw a parallel to the fast-paced world of the rich he is a part of. Further highlighting his keen observations, Nick often times uses alliteration to make a statement more memorable and to give the reader further thought as to what he is recounting.
This way of writing is heightened through alliterations in that this often flowery diction makes what he is trying to say more difficult to understand yet more intriguing to discover. Through the use of similes, Nick’s melancholy reflections of Gatsby’s life, including the sad lives of all those who are rich, are amplified because the connections he draws paint a picture in the readers mind and make his thoughts more understandable and more unforgettable. The fast, incomprehensible yet haunting style with which Fitzgerald writes—through the use of anaphora, alliterations, and similes—serve to illuminate Nick’s sad recollections and his purpose for sharing them.