Within the selected passage from The Great Gatsby, the narrator, Nick, seems to be talking about Gatsby with a longing, almost nostalgic tone. He portrays this tone through his use of long sentences full of adjectives, his imagery focused on nature, and his frequent talk of modes of transportation. He speaks with precise detail, making sure every word helps create his overall message. This message simply seems to be that his misses Gatsby and everything that Gatsby stood for and taught him. One of the first devices that can be noticed from this passage is the long sentences that aren’t run on, but are full of detail and life. The first of these detail full sentences can be found in paragraph two, “I spent my Saturday nights in New York because those gleaming, dazzling parties of his were with me so vividly that I could still hear the music and the laughter, faint and incessant, from his garden, and the cars going up and down his drive”. This sentence simply means that …show more content…
The characters take pride in their vehicles and they are almost always traveling somewhere. The mentioning of these modes of transportation is a common motif found within this passage. Cars represent fast living in this book, as the characters are known for speeding down the road in their cars. A moment that shows the end of this fast living for Nick is when he reveals that he has sold his car to the grocer. Although he never took his car out of his garage, or at least it isn’t mentioned he does, the fact that he has sold his car is almost leaving behind the fast living he’s grown so accustomed to. The last line, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” ends the passage with imagery of transportation as well. It shows that the characters are moving, with or without each other, further into their life and struggling against the current, which could be their past mistakes and