The Great Gatsby

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Personal Review

Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is more than just a tale of a few character’s lives in New York City: it is a story that warns that living solely to acquire wealth, popularity, and love may only lead to tragedy. The misfortune of every character grew as the novel progressed and the characters were more superficial and self-absorbed than ever. This novel profoundly reinforced my view of the world, as it solidified the idea that happiness derived from large social gatherings and nice things is not contentment at all – it is a façade that leaves a person more devastated and depressed than ever. The author’s skillful use of simile, metaphor, and diction raise this novel to a different level than almost all the other books I have read – these aspects of the writing are not just there to be there, but are there because they have a purpose, and they are never too long or off topic – they are usually perfectly suited to what the author is attempting to convey. I feel that the author’s style of writing – using rhetorical strategies to point out the wrongs of his characters – was extremely effective in conveying how he disapproved of his character’s actions and even more so in cautioning his readers from falling into superficiality and becoming self-absorbed like his characters, which he attempted to convey only led to one’s demise, as it did in the case of Gatsby and Myrtle. Various aspects of Fitzgerald’s life are visible throughout the novel. It is widely known that he had a troubled relationship with a woman named Zelda, and this may directly translate into Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship. His depression in life due to his sadness over the war and his alcoholism may have lead him to write a novel that does not end in a particularly positive way, but with a more ominous, saddening line: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald 180). He implies that people will delude themselves and repeat their mistakes time and time again, like Gatsby convincing himself that his love with Daisy was still the same after five years even though he had not seen or talked to her in that amount of time – and indeed, it was not the same. Fitzgerald’s novel teaches readers of all walks that they should avoid the superficial aspects of life, whether they be material or intangible, and should be genuine instead because being a person devoid of any real substance will only lead one to make serious mistakes that can ruin another person or one’s own life. I believe that if all high school students are made to read this novel and are actually forced to comprehend the nuances of the book, not only will their comprehension of literature improve, but also, their character.

Text Connections

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald says of Tom and Daisy: “They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together” (Fitzgerald 6). Some time after World War I, the author had spent a few years in France, as he was disillusioned by the war and was frightened because the war had not improved the safety of the world, as President Wilson claimed it would – it only caused unimaginable death and destruction. For this reason, several artists and writers moved to other countries, mainly France, and were deemed the “lost generation.” This text-to-world connection reveals that he may have been mirroring his own life in the description of Tom and Daisy’s life, and by using the words “drifted” and “unrestfully,” he could possibly have been conveying his own feelings of despair about life at the time he wrote the novel.

Another text-to-world connection can be made from Wolfsheim’s “fix[ing] of the World’s Series back in 1919” (73). In reality, the World Series fix of 1919, sometimes known as the “Black Sox” scandal, was financed by a gang leader and led by a gambler, who is supposed to be Wolfsheim’s counterpart. Several members of the White Sox team agreed to throw several games in order to lose the Series due to their hatred of the team owner, who they claimed did not pay them enough. Regarding Wolfsheim’s fictional role in the fix, Nick states, “It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people…” (73). By making Wolfsheim the mastermind of the World Series fix and not of some other scandal, Fitzgerald makes him even more notorious because the act had an impact on such a vast amount of people. This event also would have been very well-known because it happened around the period that the novel took place, so it makes sense that Fitzgerald would have included it. He also may have wanted to emphasize the regular deceit and gambling that surrounded city and social life.

Syntax

· Exclamatory Sentence: “Sophisticated – God, I’m sophisticated!” (Fitzgerald 17).
· Polysyndeton and Epistrophe: “And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything” (17).

Daisy seems overly obsessed with becoming “sophisticated” and maintaining her high status that comes with living in the East Egg. By possessing a pretentious attitude and claiming that she is the most knowledgeable and experienced person in the world, she is trying to make the type of person she wants to be – an aristocratic, high-class New York woman – a reality. Even more significantly, the exclamation reveals that Daisy is indeed quite unhappy with her life because she repeats the word “sophisticated” twice, as if she is reassuring herself that she is of the upper-class. Fitzgerald embeds this quote into the novel early on in order to set Daisy up as a woman who lacks self-confidence, is unsatisfied in life, and desperately wants to be seen as high-class because these ideas will change how the reader views other events that occur with Daisy, such as her refusal to deny loving Tom and her affair with Gatsby. Her repetition of the prefix “every” and the word “everything” further the idea that the she thinks she is all-knowing and can excel at the highest level at everything in life, and the inclusion of “and” several times seems to make this list even longer. The author uses this syntax to dismiss the view that Daisy has of herself as completely incorrect, and to assert that she really is a shallow person who is only concerned with what happens in her life and therefore, she cannot and truly does not want to know everything.

· Zeugma: “ At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others…young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life” (57).

Nick is beginning to feel overwhelmed and depressed by the city life because the city is so big and stimulating. By utilizing a zeugma, the author stresses that Nick feels that some young women may be losing too much of their lives by emphasizing the words “night” and “life” due to the structure of the sentence. Such a comparison – wasting one short night to wasting one’s entire life – seems almost irrational and Fitzgerald means it to be drastic because he wants the readers to realize that he is being ironic. He really is emphasizing that people who preoccupy themselves with excessive parties and empty social talk are the ones who are truly wasting their lives, rather than people who may miss out on social events occasionally because they are working. Fitzgerald yearns for his readers to consider that one’s existence may not always be simple and filled with fun, and that everyone must work diligently at times if they wish to improve their lives – not to say that a person cannot enjoy themselves.

Diction

· Fitzgerald portrays his characters to be empty characters, unaffected by the trials of the real world, and uses a disapproving and condescending tone to describe them, while also utilizing a solemn tone to convey the misfortune that surrounds their lives due to the way they act. Initially, Fitzgerald spotlights the superficiality of Jordan and Daisy by recounting their “bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter, that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire” (Fitzgerald 12). Describing their conversations as “bantering inconsequence,” and convicting them of being “impersonal,” Fitzgerald seeks to convey how dispassionate and ridiculous the women are in thought and action, traits which they have been taught by the growing personal detachedness of humans to one another in the era of the novel. The author employs a condescending tone, revealing that he is critical of their ignorant way of life, and he desires for people to receive his criticality welcomingly so that they will be willing to prevent themselves from becoming superficial as well.

· Conversely, the author utilizes a solemn, forlorn tone in order to relay the implications of acting uncaringly and without regard for others and the world around oneself, as his characters are well-versed in. Tom is depicted as scared and almost fanatical because of his emotional uprising after he determines that Daisy is cheating on him: “Flushed with his impassioned gibberish, he saw himself standing alone on the last barrier of civilization” (130). Portraying Tom as being in a state of hilarity with his “impassioned gibberish,” and causing the reader to feel despair for him, as he is “on the last barrier of civilization,” the author’s diction causes the reader to feel that Tom is hopelessly alone and alienated by his family and friends, who are supposed to love and care for him, and largely, by society itself. These ideas associated with the diction contribute to the author’s solemn tone because they cause the reader to be aware of the idea that most people during this time period and in this class were unhappy people, even though they lived in immense luxury – the author warns that possessions and status should not comprise a person’s happiness.

· As Nick discovers that both Gatsby and Wilson are dead, he states “…that the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete” (162). Deeming the ordeal as a “holocaust” not only effectively characterizes the deaths of Myrtle, Wilson, and Gatsby as great and highly unnecessary tragedies, but also condemns the decadence that all the characters participate in. The author means to compare the thoughtless aspects of the Holocaust in respect to Jews and other minority groups – the senseless and irrational killing of innocent people – to the numb actions of the characters of the novel that lead them to be superficial, uncaring, unfaithful, and capable of murder without shame or regret. Adding to the somber mood of the passage, the allusion to the Holocaust contributes to the solemn, despairing tone in that it refers to a time of great desperation. Following the deaths, Nick describes the reports as “grotesque, circumstantial, eager, and untrue” (163). By spotlighting the lurid style of journalism that the reporters were not afraid to use, Fitzgerald conveys how selfish and self-absorbed the people were in that they only cared about what would make them or their prospects better. He calls the reporting “grotesque” because he feels that the way in which the journalists treat delicate issues is obscene, and he wants to reveal his disapproving tone in order to push readers to not be so selfish and over-exaggeratory.

Rhetorical Strategies

· Symbolism (Referring to the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg): “But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground” (Fitzgerald 24).
· Symbolism: “…I said ‘God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me, but you can’t fool God!’ Standing behind him, Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night” (160).

The author’s use of the eyes of an advertisement watching everything that happens as a symbol is utilized several times throughout the novel. Fitzgerald uses them to symbolize God constantly watching all of the characters’ actions, which are based in the frivolousness of the period and their own unhappiness and emptiness which mars their lives. His use of the words “brood” and “solemn” convey that this mysterious force that has been and will continue to watch them does not approve of what they do. By suggesting that God disapproves of their lifestyles, he is able to convey that he also despises the way that his characters have been living their lives –only caring for themselves and being highly superficial and dishonest. This symbolism contributes to his style, which is largely composed of subtly highlighting the deficiencies his characters has in order to prevent the readers of his novel from following the same path.

· Irony: “‘And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy’” (49).

Fitzgerald presents his style largely by making characters appear superficial. Jordan Baker appears to make an empty, almost obtuse, remark which makes no sense. The irony manifests itself in that one would usually say the opposite of what she has claimed, as technically, when there are many people around, it is difficult to find privacy. Succeeding both in creating an aura of levity and portraying Jordan as typical of the era, the author emphasizes her demeanor, which is typical of his style, to warn his audience that they should not conform to her ideals, even though she is talented, rich, and beautiful because they will be unhappy and superficial.

· Aphorism: “The bored haughty face that she turned to the world concealed something – most affectations conceal something eventually, even though they don’t in the beginning…” (57).

Nick, the usually honest narrator, who is amongst extreme superficiality and pretension throughout the entire novel, is relaying his honesty only to disperse his wisdom and to bolster the knowledge of the reader. The aphorism contributes to his style in that it is characteristic of the author’s purpose of intending for the reader to avoid superficiality of the 1920s, and Fitzgerald embeds this piece of knowledge into the novel in order to convey to the reader that if one acts in a certain way, specifically, in a negative manner, then they will soon be transformed into whatever they are impersonating.

· Ethos: “It seemed to me that the thing for Daisy to do was to rush out of the house, child in arms – but apparently there were no such intentions in her head” (20).
· Ethos: “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known” (59).
· Ethos: “I’d be damned if I’d go in; I’d had enough of all of them for one day…” (142).

Fitzgerald utilizes Nick’s inner thoughts to present him as a credible source of information, even though it is true that at times, his emotions influence how he views situations. While he may not always view a situation neutrally, he usually attempts to provide correct information and even believes himself to be an honest and basically good person. While the audience may or may not view him as a credible source, the author infuses the novel with instances in which Nick is both honest and dishonest in order to let the audience decide whether or not he is trustworthy – the author’s style, in this aspect, aims increasingly toward revealing discrepancies in Nick’s recount in order to reveal that dishonesty was a large part of the time he lived in and that people should avoid being dishonest at all costs, unless they wish to end up like the rest of the characters.