Gatsby Rhetorical Strategies

·      Asyndeton-  “The crowd—it was now a crowd—stepped back involuntarily, and when the door had opened wide there was a ghostly pause. Then gradually, part by part, a pale, dangling individual stepped out of the wreck, pawing tentatively at the ground with a large uncertain dancing shoe” (Fitzgerald page 54)

·      Simile- “Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete” (Fitzgerald page 111)

·      Simile- “A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about… like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees.” (Fitzgerald page 161)

·      Metaphor- “…Gatsby saw that the blocks of the sidewalks really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees—he could climb to it, if he climbed alone, and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder” (Fitzgerald 110)

·      Foreshadowing- “ ‘Go away now, old sport?’ ‘Go to Atlantic City for a week, or up to Montreal.’ ”(Fitzgerald 148)

            Style is an opinion of the writer and the reader combined. It essentially is an idea or situation proposed by the writer, and it is reacted too by the reader thus the creation of style. Fitzgerald’s style is ever-changing based on what he is talking about and how far in the book you are. Firstly, in the beginning of the book, Fitzgerald uses an asyndeton to express the sheer elementary drunkenness of this man. His style in the excerpt is slow, and simple, like the man. “The crowd—it was now a crowd—stepped back involuntarily, and when the door had opened wide there was a ghostly pause. Then gradually, part by part, a pale, dangling individual stepped out of the wreck, pawing tentatively at the ground with a large uncertain dancing shoe” (Fitzgerald page 54). However, his style is not always slow and simple, it becomes elegant and almost ritualistic when he describes a scene with Gatsby and Daisy, “Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete” (Fitzgerald page 111). His style, even though he does not mention any surroundings, makes a picture and creates a feeling in the reader’s head. Lastly, after Gatsby dies, his style turns for the serious and solemn. As he describes the scene of Gatsby’s death, he uses many rhetorical devices, “A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about… like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees.” (Fitzgerald page 161).  The apparitions described seem to mirror his style as he writes in slow, dark, and almost monotone. Throughout the book his style mirrors the actions in the book.