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Diction In The Great Gatsby Analysis

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F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” Fitzgerald had something great to reveal to his readers in The Great Gatsby. To give some background, the novel is about a man, Nick, who is on the outside peering into the lifestyle of the extremely wealthy. His neighbor, Gatsby, has persistently worked for the past few years to meet Daisy again after he woefully departed from her to fight in the war. In the classic novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald has something to say and he uses effective diction, symbolism, and characterization to convey his idea that Americans must ceaselessly work towards living their own version of the great American Dream but they must not get caught up in wanting too much. On page …show more content…

One specific piece of this passage where diction is significant is: “gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes- a fresh, green breast of the new world.” The word “flowered” represents success which is what the sailors came to America to achieve. Flowers only bloom in places where they thrive and the flowers and the immigrants thrived on this island. Another example of great word choice is in the following quote: “It’s vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams....” The word “pandered” means to indulge, which suggests great pleasure. Nick was trying to emphasize how amazing these dreams are and how much pleasure they brought. Lastly, in this passage Nick says, “for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face

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