Rhetorical Analysis Of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is filled with symbolism, clear illustration using words, and a detailed, structural story line that all come together to create tone. In the following passage, the tone is shown using these three literary devices. “About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes — a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.

He also used one of the simplest forms of symbolism: color. When talking about the Valley of Ashes, he mentions gray multiple times. He says that there are gray cars, gray men, and gray land. Gray is meant to symbolize a sort of nothingness or emptiness. Word choice also plays a big role in tone. The repetition of the word gray allows the reader to know that “gray”, or nothingness, is the only thing he sees or feels. This gives him a more detached language style of writing. His choice of words when talking about Doctor T.J. Eckleburg add to this observation. He seems to remember the billboard when it was new, when he met Tom’s mistress. His tone and description almost give the reader the thought that he enjoys this advertisement; however, he quickly changes his word selection to insult the board for being an oculist joke. He also doesn’t spend his time talking about when he met Tom’s mistress or any of the good in that memory. Instead, he focuses of the run down, gloominess of it all. This is where the selection of detail and word choice come into play with tone. These literary devices allow the reader to have an understanding of the narrator’s/author’s views. Using these devices, I’ve come to the conclusion that this passage’s tone is a sort of detached, contemptuous attitude. Not only is he attempting to insult the Valley of Ashes, but he is also attempting to not care for it