Great Gatsby And Monet

Fitzgerald’s ornate writing style reflects the painting style of the great impressionists, Claude Monet. The impressionist movement, which was named after one of Monet’s paintings called Impression, Sunrise, is characterized by the concentration on what the general impression of a scene is and not necessarily what is actually there. Fitzgerald mimics this style by evoking feelings from his use of imagery and descriptive language. While describing Buchanan home in his book The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald says that “the lawn started at the beach and the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens- finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run” (6). This race metaphor gives movement to his style just as the quick paint strokes of Monet’s The Stroll give the feeling of movement and wind in his work. Monet uses his loose brush strokes to show the motion and liveliness of his paintings and the soft colors give his works a serene pleasantness. Fitzgerald uses more imagery to evoke this same feeling again when he is describing Daisy and Jordan and he says that “they were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house” (8). The same feelings are evoked when reading this passage as when looking at Monet’s The Stroll. The work of both of these masters of impressionism is straightforward, and the ideas that they are trying to get across to their audiences is clear. Fitzgerald uses his flowery imagery to show his readers the motion of the surroundings and the sereneness of his character’s appearance while Monet uses his impressionistic style to evoke the same movement and loveliness.

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