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The Great Gatsby Tone Analysis

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Tone is the most important for a reader to understand. It can be contradicting in many different ways. An example of a contradicting tone is in the novel, The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald as he establishes a foreboding, gloomy and wistful tone through the setting, Valley of the Ashes and, main characters Gatsby and Nick. Despite the perception of the “Roaring 20’s” as a time of glamour and prosperity, Fitzgerald establishes a gloomy tone through his portrayal of the barren, ashen landscape, presided over by a neglected billboard. Fitzgerald’s ironic use of the natural imagery of the farm and garden establish this setting as a dead, depressing place. For example, he describes it as a “fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens”(27). Such description serves to juxtapose the common perception of the “Roaring 20’s” with a dreary dismal landscape, in stark opposition to the exciting, grandiose …show more content…

Fitzgerald establishes this tone through the dreamy setting that reflects Gatsby’s yearning. For example, Gatsby “knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God” (110). Gatsby’s decision to link his self worth with Daisy creates his current desperation to recreate the past with her. In addition, Fitzgerald continues to construct a wistful tone by illustrating Gatsby’s delusional determination to recreate the past: “‘Can’t repeat the past?’ He cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’” (110). Gatsby’s striving to repeat the past shifts the tone into dreary sadness, contradicting the stereotype of the marvelous 1920’s. To conclude, the melancholy tone of Gatsby’s hopeless obsession, creates a stark contrast to the typical perception of the Roaring

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Both Gatsby and F. Scott Fitzgerald had a dream which both exists only in the past. For Gatsby, it was the life Gatsby imagined with Daisy before he was shipped off into Europe. This left Gatsby with an “emptiness” feeling and Gatsby used Daisy who contained his imagined potential happiness, as well as future, to fill his

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Fitzgerald presents Gatsby with many issues repeating his past instead of living in the present. When Daisy comes back to Gatsby’s life he tries to return to the past he once had with Daisy. This becomes apparent when Nick talks to Gatsby about

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The author introduces the desolate land known as the valley of ashes, which is far from the lavish lives lived in the Eggs’. When introducing this dark and eerie slice of land, Fitzgerald incorporates imagery in helping develop his theme relating to the Roaring 20’s and the American Dream. Nick begins to explain the valley of ashes in discrete detail. “This is the 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…” ( 23). In this excerpt from the text, not only does Fitzgerald use many forms of imagery, but he incorporates diction that helps develop his theme as well as a simile.

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The first them addressed is symbolism. In chapter 7 it is addressed “like silver items washing down their white dresses”. Here it is seen how Fitzgerald compares two characters to idols, making them synomous with a symbol of materialism. This addresses his audience, and the time period of the Roaring 20’s.

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Fitzgerald presents the ideas of not living in the past, and knowing when enough is enough. He does this through Gatsby having this perfect image of the past Daisy, and still trying to get her to fall for him after she has a family and obligations. The obligations being Tom and her daughter along with her image of a loyal undivoerced woman. In The Great Gatsby, Fitsgerrald shows the effects of not leting go and its negativity.

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Although this figure, Gatsby, experiences an intensely intimate relationship with Daisy, his emotions reside on the side of extreme obsession rather than genuine affection. Desire plays a pivotal role in the development of the characters in the novel, showing Fitzgerald’s seminal message

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Weather and heat are frequently used to represent the setting of internal emotions within the characters. Therefore, Fitzgerald uses weather to symbolize Gatsby’s inner emotions and heat to symbolize the climax of the story and the anger

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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.

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The deception of the characters in Fitzgerald’s novel signifies the emptiness and artificial lifestyle of people in the 1920s. From a young age, Gatsby has never accepted the life he was born into, always seeking a way to participate in the abstract customs of the rich, resulting in his lies to convince Daisy as well of others of his rich background. Gatsby is presented as a character that has not been able to transition his life to the present day time period, keeping his eyes shut from the realities of his dreams, "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!"(Fitzgerald 116). In Gatsby’s attempt to change all the features he was born with, including his name, James Gatz, he fails to realize that his dreams are not worthy of him and he will never be able to achieve them.

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In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the past comes up quite a bit for a few of the characters and Fitzgerald shows how the past affects each of the characters. Each character in the book has their own unique characteristics that create who they are. In this book it is explained what happened in Gatsby’s past and how he was able to become the successful person that he now. Throughout the book, Fitzgerald shows us how Gatsby keeps looking back at his past, especially when Daisy is involved she is everything to him and the biggest reason that he wants what he had in the past to come back.

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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

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In The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, one of the characters is “stuck in the past”. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is constantly longing for a past relationship he had with a woman named Daisy, who moved on from Gatsby and married another man when Gatsby left for the war. Gatsby’s view of the past is used to develop a major theme of the novel: the moral decay of society. The novel begins with Nick, the narrator saying how the events that happened in New York, where the novel takes place, caused him to leave, and how he doesn’t like any of the people he was involved with.

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Satire in The Great Gatsby Is Fitzgerald's novel a love story that exposes the American ideals, or may it be a satire that highlights troubles throughout the American Society in the twenties? The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald uses satire to comment on the American society during the roaring twenties. Satire is visible through the contrast between Jay Gatsby and George Wilson, but most importantly through the Valley of Ashes and Gatsby’s parties. Using these characters and places, Fitzgerald shows the American dream has died and been replaced with the pursuit of money, rather than happiness.

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Daisy however, very heartbroken and anxious to start a family, failed to wait for Gatsby while he was at war and she vulnerably fell in love with Tom and his money. Throughout the time Gatsby was away she grew and developed mentally, leaving him to love someone that no longer existed. When Gatsby says “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!”(Fitzgerald 110)it shows how his imagination has affected his sense of reality. He became lost in the idea that he could get Daisy back and things would automatically return to how they were before he went away.

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