Examples Of Ashes In The Great Gatsby

Abraham Choi 3/2/14

IB English R5

Gatsby Annotations

Chapter 2:

1. The phrase “Line of gray cars crawling along an invisible track” Characterizes the ash as something that is in abundance. There is so much ash in the valley that almost everything that you see is ash in the form of what it is.

2. The word ash is repeated multiple times and represents feelings such as depression and death. The valley is becoming more and more of a waste land, the ash is taking over the farms and land which expresses that life in the valley can only be dull. There is nothing that isn’t covered by ash.

3. “But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paint less days” Represents a certain motif, consisting of the words Great and Bright, However it is stated that his eyes are dimmed. This exemplifies that even though people can see, they are not seeing clearly due to the ash covering everything.

4. The phrase “where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys” specifically implies that the whole world has turned into grey ash. Nothing is distinguishable and nothing can be seen.

5. Fitzgerald’s uses the words “powdery air” to describe that the air is nothing near pure, it also characterizes the air to be polluted, gloomy, and sad. The ash itself is making everyone around it sad, depressed, and gloomy.

Chapter 6:

1. The phrase “five years before” Implies that this setting of this passage is in the past. Gatsby is putting himself back into the past to relive the moment he’s trying to remake.

2. “No trees”, “white with moonlight” implies that the setting that once had trees where leaves were falling, no longer had the trees. It is stating that Gatsby is changing his setting as the falling leaves has disappeared. The moonlight int...

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...ator is a lonely person and because he is lonely it affects how he makes and pursues his own decisions.

4. There is a metaphor that is being used in this passage that foreshadows the mood of the speaker. The mood of the speaker is depression and it tells us that there will be a bad event that will occur soon. The Heart is the most vital organ that we humans have to survive and it represents the things we do the most, Love and happiness. He states that his heart is “sinking” which implies that the feelings that he has in his heart are dying from the inside out.

5. The word “seen” introduces us to the idea of sight, Sight is implied to Gatsby. Gatsby here is visualized as a glorious figure. People only see part of who he actually is, the Rich Gatsby but what they cannot see is his true self. This is due to Gatsby being misunderstood by the people who talk about him.