Syntax

Overall, Fitzgerald’s syntax tends to have loose paragraph structure, often beginning with a telegraphic sentence and then elaborating. For example he says that, “This was untrue. I am not even faintly like a rose” with which he follows with more explanation to his thought-process. This syntax mirrors the thinking of the narrator in that his logic gradually reaches a point. In another instance Fitzgerald uses rhetorical questions. “What was it up there in the song that seemed to be calling her back inside? What would happen now in the dim, incalculable hours” (108). They give the author a serious foretelling tone and the repetition intensives his tone. It creates suspense and emphasizes and foreshadows that something monumental will soon occur. Fitzgerald employs fragmented syntax on another occasion when he describes a nervous Gatsby. For example he says that “He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. In this case, Fitzgerald’s purpose is to show how much Gatsby’s love for Daisy affects him and this purpose is amplified by this use of listing syntax. My separating phrases with excess commas it reflects what the anxious thoughts of Gatsby might be—as if he is taking a mental checklist. The author utilizes his syntax similarly to create tone by his use of ellipsis. For instance when he talks about how appalled he is at Tom and Daisy he says that they “let other people clean up the mess they had made….” (179). By leaving the sentence open ended it gives of a hopeless and depressed tone—as if Tom and Daisy are a lost cause. This also aids Fitzgerald’s overall message that overindulgent upper class people can be reckless and unappreciative of the normal everyday struggles of common life.