Literary Analysis in "the Great Gatsby"

Ghady Kanaan

Mrs. Heather Conley

AP Language and Composition

28 Feb. 2017

Rhetorical Strategies in Fitzgerald’s:

“The Great Gatsby”

        As the novel comes to an end, Nick Caraway sympathized towards Gatsby, an extremely wealthy man who utilized his fame & fortune to get closer to his golden dream. However, Gatsby was so close to realizing his dream that he could hardly fail to grasp it, however, before even reaching out, death seized Gatsby’s golden life. Before the melancholic tragedy, Gatsby managed to form a subtle friendship with Nick Caraway, who happens to be related to Gatsby's dream. In the beginning, Nick was mindful that he was utilized as an assistant to help Gatsby win the golden girl’s heart, Daisy Buchanan. However, he never once not supported Gatsby's dream. Finally, at the end of the novel, Nick replaced his opposition and anger with the attitude of gratitude and acknowledgment towards Gatsby. Fitzgerald utilized many strategies to narrate the story through Nick Caraway’s senses. Caraway’s depiction of the events was shaped by a constant use of adjectives, themes, and comparisons. 

        In his novel, Fitzgerald first sets the stage by specifically describing every character and the lifestyle that he or she lives by, in addition, the author sets the settings and the carelessness and purposeless nature of the wealthy that the novel’s mood/tone is revolving around.

        Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald ignites the novel by exploiting negative diction to label the antagonist of the novel, Tom Buchanan. He paints the picture by portraying Tom as a “negative” and “aggressive” character, in addition, many parts of the novel were dedicated to portray tom as a violent person. However, when Gatsby was mentioned or described in the novel, Nick almost always portray Gatsby as a perfect character and role model and admires his personality. Nick mentions that “there is something gorgeous about him” and alas his final compliment to Gatsby was “They're a rotten crowd. You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.” This twist by the author juxtaposed Nick’s depiction of Gatsby in the commencement of the novel and the conclusion.

        Along Fitzgerald’s strong use of adjectives, he appealed to pathos throughout his novel to make the reader loath Tom even further. He portrays Gatsby as the innocent man that only wants to realize his wondrous dream, the American Dream. While he portrayed Tom as the man who has everything and is longing to destroy Gatsby’s dream.

        Finally, Nick produces a feeling of compassion towards Gatsby, and demonstrates it through metaphors. In the final paragraph, Nick states, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future…It eluded us then, but that’s no matter- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning - So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”. The green light represents Gatsby’s impossible golden dream but also an unclear, and unknown future. However, in the last paragraph, Nick uses the green light to represent a future and a dream that appears so unattainable to all humans. He uses words like “us”, “our”, and “we” to connect his dreams, and his unclear future to Gatsby. His metaphor of “boats against the current” represent a common struggle that all of humans faces in their journey of achieving their “American Dream”. Nick comprehends the struggle and provides hope with his statements: “we will run faster, stretch our arms farther…And one fine morning”. Nick’s compassion creates a feeling that Gatsby’s struggles weren’t in hopeless and all of us, humans will keep fighting until, finally, the dream is realized.

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