The Great Gatsby diction

Sarah Schmitt

Miss Stress

AP Language and Composition

8 January 2012

The Great Diction

            Through the narration of Nick Carraway, F. Scott Fitzgerald employs diction to subtly exemplify the careless and phony culture of the 1920’s elite—specifically his cousin Daisy’s husband Tom Buchanan. At first, Nick’s diction demonstrates an awed and intimidated tone, however, as he begins to discern the selfish and superficial ways of the wealthy during the “Roaring ‘20’s,” his attitude toward the privileged reveals his repulsion to their shallow society. In his first time seeing Tom since their “New Haven years” Nick is intimidated by Tom Buchanan’s “supercilious manner,” yet he remains impressed as he depicts Buchanan, “Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swanks of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body—he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat”(Fitzgerald 7). By using diction such as “glistening…until he strained,” “a great pack of muscle,” “effeminate swank,” and “shining arrogant eyes,” Nick is initially astonished by Tom’s overwhelming outward appearance; Nick sees the blatant arrogance behind Tom’s eyes, yet he still perceives them as “shining.” In the end of the novel, Nick encounters Tom after Myrtle’s traumatizing death, and apathetically describes his head as, “moving sharply here and there, adapting itself to his restless eyes”(Fitzgerald 178). Although he had once described Tom’s eyes as “shining,” Nick now perceives them as “restless”— he had once seen them as beaming and full of life, now they are empty and agitated, consumed by a life that Nick can no longer recognize as desirable. While Nick had once felt as though Tom was above him, he “ felt suddenly as though [he] were talking to a child”(179). In the end, Nick can clearly see who Tom and Daisy are—“ 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…”(179). 

The Great Gatsby Review

Sarah Schmitt

Miss Stress

AP Language and Composition

9 January 2012

The Great Review

             Seldom has one of our required reading novels been as enjoyable for me as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. One of the things I liked most about The Great Gatsby was the narrator, Nick. Nick’s straightforward diction and syntax made me feel as though I was with him every moment of the book. To me, the lack of flowery, elaborate diction made the book all the more pleasant to read. Books like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter are unpleasant to me because of the lengthy sentences and overuse of complex diction and rhetorical strategies; these are excellent for creating beautiful imagery or symbolism, but I prefer books that tell a story. Nick Carraway brilliantly navigated The Great Gatsby’s range of characters; Nick provides a reliable narrator and relief from the superficial wealthy class The Great Gatsby is centered around. Books like The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, and Lord of the Flies, all provide insight into human nature by telling a story, instead of using obvious, complicated rhetorical strategies to attempt to teach a moral lesson. Other students, like my brother, for instance, who told me that Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay trade places before I even started A Tale of Two Cities, usually spoil the books we read in class, but fortunately, I began The Great Gatsby with no idea as to what would happen. Gatsby’s death came as a total shock to me, but only made the book that much better. Ultimately, The Great Gatsby was one of the few required reading books that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this year, that I will probably read many more times in my life.

            

The Great Gatsby Syntax

Sarah Schmitt

Miss Stress

AP Language and Composition

9 January 2012

The Great Syntax

            The phony diction and manner of the superficial 1920’s wealthy class is obvious to the reader of The Great Gatsby; the concise syntax of the narrator, Nick Carraway, makes it clear that he sees through them as well. The brief, telegraphic sentences Nick supplies in reaction to Daisy’s outwardly charming conduct suggest that Daisy fails to influence Nick in the same way she affects Gatsby or Tom Buchanan. When he sees Daisy for the first time since his youth, he describes Daisy as, “Looking up into [his] face, promising that there was no one in the world she so much wanted to see” (Fitzgerald 9). It almost seems as though Nick has fallen for Daisy’s act, however he follows his dreamy reflection abruptly—“ That was a way she had”(Fitzgerald 9). Nick’s nonchalant, telegraphically stated observation implies that Daisy’s flirtatious personality has little effect on him—he casually tosses aside all of her actions in one curt sentence. Later that night, Daisy compliments Nick, calling him, “an absolute rose.” After receiving this artificial compliment, Nick narrates, “This was untrue. I was not even faintly like a rose”(Fitzgerald 15). These two terse sentences could have easily been one—conjoined by a comma, the two sentences could have flowed nicely—as though Nick was aware that he was unlike a rose, but flattered nonetheless. Instead, the two choppy, repetitive sentences insinuate that Nick is sick of hearing Daisy’s false flattery and irritated by her lack of honesty, a trait which Nick prides himself in possessing. Nick is accurate in his idea that, “the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from [him]”(Fitzgerald 17).

The Great Gatsby vs. The Catcher in the Rye

Sarah Schmitt

Miss Stress

AP Language and Composition

10 January 2012

The Great Catcher in the Rye

            In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby, the mysterious yet fabulously wealthy neighbor of the narrator, Nick Carraway, is unhealthily obsessed with the past. Likewise, Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, cannot move forward in his life because he is equally caught up in what once was. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is obsessed with the idea that Daisy “never loved Tom—“ Gatsby has spent the last eight years amassing wealth, building a beautiful house, living minutes away from Daisy—all to make up for the time that he was too far away and too poor to be with Daisy. When he reunites with Daisy, Gatsby childishly thinks they can instantly go back to the time when they were young and in love. When Daisy is talking about Tom, Gatsby naively tells her “That’s all over now. It doesn’t matter anymore. Just tell him the truth—that you never loved him—and it’s all wiped out forever”(Fitzgerald 32). When Tom tells Gatsby “There are things between Daisy and me, that you will never know, things that neither of us can forget”(Fitzgerald 132). Tom’s words shatter Gatsby’s wishful thinking, as Nick observes, “The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby”(Fitzgerald 132). Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy is tantamount to Holden’s desire to keep his first love, Jane Gallagher preserved in the past. Just like Gatsby wants to “wipe it all away” Holden confesses that, “Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone”(Salinger 122). Holden is afraid of the effects of the real world on the things he loves—Gatsby is trying to “wipe away” the negatives effects of reality on Daisy and go back to where they were, to the “glass case” that Holden longs for.  Holden Caulfield and Jay Gatsby are just two of many “Boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”(180). 

The Great Gatsby Rhetorical Strategies

Sarah Schmitt

Miss Stress

AP Language and Composition

10 January 2012

The Great Rhetorical Strategies

• ·       “Daisy, with an expression of unthoughtful sadness”(13).
• ·       “Cried Daisy with tense gayety”(15).

     In comparison to many of the books we have read this year, The Great Gatsby is unusually sparse in it’s usage of rhetorical strategies. Still, one of the most common rhetorical strategies utilized by F. Scott Fitzgerald via the narrator Nick Carraway was an oxymoron.  Oxymorons are employed so often throughout The Great Gatsby because of the superficiality of so many of the people Nick encounter. The excess of oxymorons that Nick uses in describing his cousin, Daisy indicate to the reader that she has no real personality, as is evident when Nick describes her as having “an expression of unthoughtful sadness” (13). Nick’s harsh way of describing Daisy makes it seem as though she cannot think or truly be empathetic. Likewise, when Nick depicts Daisy as shouting with “tense gayety” it reinforces the reader’s impression of Daisy as a shallow person, obsessed with outward appearances. Daisy is so phony that she would hide her unhappiness in front of her cousin, husband, and closest friend. Daisy’s reputation as the happy, beautiful girl that Gatsby is so in love with is more important to her than her own happiness.