Diction Great Gatsby

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The novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is an extremely polarizing book. Some people think that no one should have to read it. Conversely, some people think that it is a great book for every high schooler to read. Some people don’t like the book for its limited audience, which does affect me slightly since I do not like to party, compared to all the characters in the book constantly partying. Nevertheless, people also like the book because of Fitzgerald’s symbolism and unique but direct writing style. My opinion is that The Great Gatsby is a quality novel, but it does have its flaws. How Tom was written was not done at the finest; however, the unpredictability of the plot plus the imagery of the setting of the novel makes …show more content…

One setting that shows how skilled Fitzgerald is at portraying the setting through imagery is the Valley of Ashes in Chapter 2. One description of the Valley that he thoroughly described was what the Dr. T.J. Eckleburg billboard looked like. With descriptive diction such as, “eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their retinas are one yard high.a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose,” it makes me be able to completely visualize what the sign looks like. It can give you the full picture of what the setting is really like in person. Also, Fitzgerald’s description of the setting can create a mood for the reader. For example, his description of the Valley of Ashes contains, “where ashes take the forms of houses.” This creates a sense of sulkiness for the reader when they are thinking about the setting, which can be tough for an author to do, but Fitzgerald does it flawlessly. Another example of the imagery for a setting being written terrifically is during Gatsby’s parties. For instance, Fitzgerald describes the dance floor at the party intricately. He writes, “There was dancing now on the canvas in the garden; old men pushing young girls backward in eternal graceless circles, superior couples holding each other tortuously. single girls dancing individually. A celebrated tenor had sung in Italian, and a notorious contralto had sung in jazz, and between the numbers people were doing “stunts” all over the garden, while happy, vacuous bursts of laughter rose toward the summer sky. A pair of stage twins, who turned out to be the girls in yellow, did a baby act in costume, and champagne was served in glasses bigger than finger-bowls. The moon had risen higher, and floating in the Sound was a triangle of silver scales, trembling a little to the stiff, tiny drip of the banjoes on the lawn.” This incredibly detailed analysis

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