Figurative Language In The Great Gatsby

The Effects of Imagery and Sensory-Oriented Writing on the Reader

Imagery is the author’s use of descriptive and figurative language to represent ideas,

actions and entities in a way that it appeals to a reader’s physical sense (Tutorvista). In

both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man

and the Sea, the authors utilize imagery and sensory- oriented writing. There are many

ways in which they appeal to the readers. They use detailed description of the five

senses to create an illusion which makes the readers see, taste, hear, feel, and smell

what the characters do. Many senses are used throughout these novels to provide

further context; therefore, the readers of these books have a deeper understanding of

them.

Both authors use sight frequently in their writing creating extremely detailed
descriptions of the setting. In The Old Man and the Sea, the old man is describing a
fish that he sees in the sea.

He states, “ Why is it the fast-moving fish of the dark

current have purple backs and usually purple stripes or spots? The dolphin looks green

of course because he is really golden” (72). This description makes the readers

visualize exactly what the fish looks like in their heads. It also helps them to infer what

color the water is and what effect it has on the color of the dolphin. Hemingway also

uses figurative language to help visualize. The narrator says, “He could picture the fish

swimming in the water with his purple pectoral fins set wide as wings and the great

erect tail slicing through the dark” (67). In this quote, Hemingway uses a simile and a

metaphor to describe the fish’s appearance and the way in swims. This helps to

understand what the fish looks like and how it moves. Figurative language helps

because it gives the reader something that they already know and compare it to what

the author is describing, which helps the reader visualize. In The Great Gatsby, it is

describing Gatsby’s outfit and it says, “Gatsby in white flannel suit, silver shirt and

gold-colored tie” (84). In The Great Gatsby, the bright and flashy colors represent the

rich and the dull, dark colors represent the poor. This quote gives the reader a

very
good visualization of how Gatsby is dressed and that his personality is very flashy. The
sense of taste can also be used to provide visualizations.

While both books use sight in their writing, Hemingway includes taste as well. In The

Old Man and the Sea, taste is used to describe the fish that the old man eats. The

novel says, “It is a strong full blooded fish’ ‘Dolphin is too sweet. This is hardly sweet at

all and all the strength is still in it” (59). This tells you that it is not sweet which

suggests that it is bitter. It is tough too since all the strength is still there. Also, since it

is full of blood still, it can be assumed that it is uncooked which provide a detail about

the taste of the fish. Taste is a difficult sense to accomplish in writing because it takes

a great deal of detail, but Ernest Hemingway is successful in this. While The Great

Gatsby doesn’t have a great example of taste, F. Scott Fitzgerald used the sense of

sound to explain the party that Gatsby throws.

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses sound to create a sensation where you can hear

the sounds created in the book. The novel says, “While the rain continued it had

seemed like the murmur of the voices, rising and swelling a little now and then with

gusts of emotion” (89). When reading this the sounds flow out of the book and into

the
reader's mind. They can hear the trickle of the rain outside and the murmurs of the
people at the party. They can hear the voices grow and settle down with the “Gusts of
emotion”. Fitzgerald does a fantastic job of creating the illusion of hearing these
sounds when the reader reads the words. This would especially help those who are
auditory learners. Along with sound, a sense that was used effectively in both books is
touch.
Touch is another sense that both authors use in their novels. In The Old Man and the
Sea it says, “ His left hand was still cramped, but he was unknotting it slowly” (61). If
the reader has ever felt their hand cramp themselves then they know exactly what the
old man is feeling. Also in The Old Man and the Sea when the old man is fishing, the
narrator says, “Now it burned his back and his left hand, and his hand was taking all
the strain and cutting badly” (82). From this quote the reader can almost feel the pain
on his hand and back. The cuts and the burns are something that everyone feels in
their life, so they know how it feels and that is felt when they read this quote. Touch is
also used in The Great Gatsby when Daisy is feeling all the beautiful shirts that Gatsby
has and is throwing all over the room. Nick says, “Before us shirts of sheer linen and
thick silk and fine flannel…” (92). The feeling of these shirts can only be felt if the is
familiar with these fabrics. These are very satisfying and soft fabrics and that can be
expressed in this quote. Touch is another hard sense to get across to a reader
because they have to be familiar with the feeling.
Why do writers use imagery? They use it to engage the reader and have them know
and feel what the characters do. These helped the authors to appeal to the reader’s
physical senses. Imagery also provides further context to the novels and gives a
different level of depth to the books. Author’s use these senses to make their books
better and more detailed, which engages the readers and helps provide them with a
better understanding of the books. Imagery also creates an atmosphere that makes
each novel unique. Engagement of five senses, imagery, and atmosphere make The
Old Man and the Sea and The Great Gatsby help to make these books the classics
that they are today.