Personification: “I had just left a country of wide lawns and friendly trees” (Fitzgerald 3)
Hyperbole: “I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything” (17).
Oxymoron: “Mr Wolfsiem… began to eat with ferocious delicacy” (71).
Polysyndeton/ Simile: “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (39).
Alliteration: “Gatsby’s gorgeous car” (63).
Antithesis: I had reached the point of believing everything and nothing about him” (101).
Simile/personification/Alliteration/Allusions: “Like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secret that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew” (4)
The Great Gatsby is characterized by a large amount of rhetorical strategies. In fact, Fitzgerald’s writing is often supplemented by multiple rhetorical strategies in one single sentence. Often times he is elaborating on his descriptions using excessive imagery, or he cleverly uses comparisons, exaggerations, alliterations, or witty sentence structure. Not only does this make his writing more sophisticated and more interesting to read, but also his rhetorical strategies often emphasize important points or greater meaning behind his words. For instance Fitzgerald uses a great deal of negative imagery to depict the valley of ashes. He says it is a “fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens”(23). By intricately describing every feature of the valley of ashes, Fitzgerald emphasizes his message that society is corruptive and how this “valley of ashes” is symbolic of the decay societal progress can bring. Similarly the author uses many rhetorical strategies when illustrating his characters, for example Miss Baker is introduced as being “completely motionless, and with her chin raised a little, as if she were balancing something on which was quite likely to fall” (8). His metaphor allows the readers to visualize her and with that her character is more believable. It is Fitzgerald’s attention to detail that gives the people in his book life like characteristic. Rather than just list characteristics, he paints pictures of these complex characters through his rich rhetoric.
I agree with your analysis of the valley of ashes. It is fascinating to see that correlate to the decay of progress that you mentioned. I feel that the imagery displayed his style.
ReplyDeleteRhetorical devices allow the reader to break the monotony of the plot with plot-enhancing devices that add to the view of the reader. I agree that there is an overwhelming amount of symbolism/similes in Fitzgerald's writing. The use of such devices suggest that Fitzergarld's main form of description is comparing it to something else. This may be a good or bad thing in that it may uncover an inability to do otherwise or stubbornness to use any other medium to such an extent.
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