ipl-logo

Literary Techniques In The Great Gatsby

867 Words4 Pages

In the text, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses a wide range of literary techniques to convey a lack of spirituality, and immorality. Techniques such as characterisation, symbolism, and metaphors help to cement the ideas Fitzgerald explores. However, there are some features to this world that redeem it. Which are displayed through expert execution of techniques like characterisation, contrast, and repetition. The world of The Great Gatsby is home to many morally corrupt and spiritually empty characters however, the world itself is not a spiritual and moral wasteland. Spirituality has been replaced by immorality and consumerism, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism to figuratively murder Myrtle Wilson with her own materialism. Gatsby’s …show more content…

The Gatz family are removed from the general population in the text, through their unique characterisation. Jay Gatsby is originally defined as having an “extraordinary gift for hope” (p. 2). This ‘gift for hope’ brings a positive expression to the text, and this positivity arrises whenever Nick describes Gatsby. For example, Gatsby’s smile which “understands you” (p. 51), “believes in you” (p.51), and has a “Prejudice in your favour” (p. 51), all help to lift the tone of the story. Gatsby’s father, Mr Gatz helps the reader to see the contrast between the social climbing, immoral people that this story revolves around and the average people living their normal lives. Mr Gatz’ “pride in his son” (p. 183), and overall love for Gatsby, redeems the text from being a total immoral story. Both members of the Gatz’ family, bring this hope and love to the text which redeems the world. The world of The Great Gatsby is not a spiritual and moral wasteland. F. Scott Fitzgerald has use characterisation to display the extreme moral indecency of the 1920’s New Yorker lifestyle. Through expert use of symbolism and metaphors Fitzgerald displays these characters immorality and the hollow, selfishness of their ambitions and their blatant lack of spirituality. However, the descriptions of Gatsby’s “extraordinary gift for hope” and Mr Gatz’ love for his son redeems the world from the

Show More
Related
1358 Words | 6 Pages

The Great gatsby is the story of several characters who try to accomplish the American dream and live a carefree lifestyle. Three characters who embody this movent are Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy. The live through illusions to escape their realities and try to impress one another with their riches, or devotion to each other. Fitzgerald uses these characters to represent some of the real life illusion of the time such as gender equality, achieving american dream through climbing the social ladder, and returning to a moral code like laws of prohibition. II.

Read More
678 Words | 3 Pages

Altered Page Assignment- The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is an eminent novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald which represents how the pursuit of the marred American Dream leads to the decay of true morality. Pages 174-175, which have been illustrated, are quite significant as it provides the readers with a greater depth of understanding as to how people are corrupted, as well as how there are still a few individuals who have preserved their virtuousness. Consequently, the majority of the characters in the novel were despicable as they were using Gatsby for achieving their own desires.

Read More
726 Words | 3 Pages

The 1920’s, America booming with newly found individuality, independence, and freedom that bared from the fallout of World War 1, a time where practically penniless men turned into billionaires overnight, and back again within the next, where women could dress, do, and go wherever they desired, but above all, what began to determined the world of some, that determined the world of many. “The Great Gatsby”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a perfect example of this truth. This literary piece exemplifies a almost satire like critique of American life in the 1920’s. Each character of “The Great Gatsby” display a certain quality of a particular persona of the middle to high white social classes that were common at the time. All of which are observed by the self righteous judgemental eyes of Nick Carraway, through him we observe immoral, ill content, and irrational actions that enact all in the name of the pursuance of love and happiness.

Read More
872 Words | 4 Pages

“There is no creation without tradition; the 'new' is an inflection on a preceding form; novelty is always a variation on the past.” This quote by Carlos Fuentes presents us with a contemporary perspective into the art and simple aspects of literature. In the novella The Old Man and the Sea and the novel The Great Gatsby, we pocket numerous “variation of the past” through the relations back to the bible. With these allusions back to biblical time, we are also exposed to protagonists that represent a Christ-like savior. “The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of a world lost to superficiality and greed.”

Read More
353 Words | 2 Pages

In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is a common central idea of the book. The central idea of the book is represented by lack of morals. The author develops the central idea of lack of morals by using imagery. There are two main examples that Nick Carraway (the narrator) describes; the valley of ashes and when Tom hits Myrtle in the face. These two situations outline the main idea of the lack of morals in The Great Gatsby

Read More
543 Words | 3 Pages

Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, has a considerable amount of symbolism throughout the entire book. The symbols in the book intensify the main development of the characters in the story, create a well-structured plot, and provide the reader with endless themes. Every time Gatsby stares across the water, he can’t help but notice and admire the luminous flash of green light from Daisy’s dock. With each flash reminding him of the slim, yet joyous memories that he had with daisy five years ago. When we notice the color green, we think “to go”.

Read More
594 Words | 3 Pages

Gatsby’s attempt to change himself from his true self determines a weak relationship with God. Gatsby’s actions are somewhat like the Mariners, whereas the Mariner kills Gods creation, Gatsby kills his past to attain something, through wealth and fame. Fitzgerald also uses symbolisms to relate to Gatsby and Daisy’s history. Fitzgerald’s writing, “His mid would never romp again like the mind of God… Then he kissed her…

Read More
1876 Words | 8 Pages

The Great Gatsby understands the intricate struggle citizens possess with their desire for wonder and fantasy, particularly in American society. As Gatsby had with Daisy, fantasies for the future are a universal experience. The search for wonder and fantasy occasionally leads to the point of self-destruction, of which Joshua Rothman in his New Yorker article “The Serious Superficiality of The Great Gatsby” states is “most appealing about ‘Gatsby’; its mood of witty hopelessness, of vivacious self-destructiveness… This atmosphere of casual, defiant, disillusioned cool is the novel’s unique contribution to literature. It’s the reason the novel’s endured.”

Read More
825 Words | 4 Pages

The Great Gatsby is a classic book in which most characters’ lives revolve around wealth, however, that wealth could not buy them happiness. It is illustrated by F. Scott Fitzgerald where most of the story includes wealth and power. It also includes the Pursuit of happiness by which Jay Gatsby’s tries to get back the love of his life Daisy. His downfall is witnessed by his one and only good friend Nick Carraway. On one side of the story it is about love and money, but on the other darker side it is about the destruction of society’s morals.

Read More
1010 Words | 5 Pages

F. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby constructs a reflection upon individual desire in a darker, extravagant and secular manner, whilst using intertextual values of love and women in society. Through the 1st person narrator, Nick Carraway, we explore the extravagant and bustling life of the ‘roaring 20s’ in the fictional region of East and West Egg, New York, notably depicted through the lifestyle of Jay Gatsby, the ultimate personification of desire and aspiration. Jay Gatsby’s aspirations is not for that of wealth or power, rather, these are the means for which he can unify the love held between himself and former lover Daisy Buchanan, now married to Tom Buchanan. This ill-fated romantic schism ultimately results in the deaths of Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan’s mistress Myrtle, and Myrtle’s husband George, with the novel ending upon Nick’s reflection of events and his resignation from the East. Fitzgerald compounds his text with the flavourful language of Nick, a bystander and sceptic to the ‘American Dream’, thus, 1st person language is an effective medium through which we perceive Gatsby’s apparent individualistic

Read More
447 Words | 2 Pages

Those who solely focus on wealth may have completely empty lives. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald highlights the fact that wealthy people have meaningless lives. He does this by using rhetoric that shows the carelessness, materialism, and ironies in their lives. In order to show this, Fitzgerald implements rhetoric and stylistic devices that show the emptiness of the characters throughout his novel that reinforces his theme that if materialism, not God, drives one, one’s dreams and hopes will eventually implode. To support his theme of emptiness, Fitzgerald facilitates ironic rhetoric to show the characters’ emptiness, weakness, and eventual destruction.

Read More
512 Words | 3 Pages

In the beginning of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Nick perceives Jay Gatsby as a mysterious yet typical rich man. Nick’s limited knowledge of Gatsby leads him to view Gatsby by his belongings, as he refers to Gatsby’s mansion as “a mansion… inhabited by a gentleman of that name” (5). However, building a relationship with Gatsby, Nick quickly distinguishes Gatsby’s personality from that of the typical rich man in 1920’s New York. Therefore, despite the dubious source of his wealth, the reader discerns Gatsby as “great” because of his extreme generosity, remarkable attitude and motivation, and everlasting love for Daisy. Unlike other rich West- and East-Egg citizens, Gatsby uses his wealth to benefit others and offer them opportunities.

Read More
1572 Words | 7 Pages

Illusion of Gatsby v. Allusion to Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald’s greatest work, The Great Gatsby, is seen as an image representative of opulence, deception, and the period of the Roaring 20’s in America. The common themes allowed the novel to relate to the average reader’s life while also casting shade on the average American’s life. The viewing of Jay Gatsby’s convoluted life, shrouded past, and love affairs through Nicks Carraway’s narration caused The Great Gatsby to become an instant classic in the twenties, and to this day is still viewed in this way, resulting in Fitzgerald’s work to be read by almost every high school student in the United States. Due to The Great Gatsby’s vast array of readers, other sources have been able to utilize

Read More
794 Words | 4 Pages

In the “The Great Gatsby”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the novel contains several noticeable, but hidden, themes throughout the chapters that is difficult to comprehend or even often overlooked. The few noticeable themes that was brought to attention, is the inevitable dangers of obsession with another said character, commonly hinted at Gatsby, and the ill-known dishonesty amongst each character's. During the beginning arc of the novel, Chapter 3 first notes the entrance of Gatsby’s overall presence. However, when Nick finally bumps into a mysterious man after hours of wondering around passed, it's revealed that the man is none other than Gatsby himself - to which soon follows a conversation between the two gentleman's.

Read More
1208 Words | 5 Pages

The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and narrated by a man named Nick Carraway. This novel was written with the intent of showing the readers how morally corrupt the 1920s were. Throughout the novel, characters abandon their moral values for a materialistic lifestyle. The novel depicts a great picture of the roles men and women played in the 1920s. Even with the changing roles of men and women, they continued to rely heavily on whom they were married to and what social class they belonged to.

Read More

More about Literary Techniques In The Great Gatsby

Open Document