The Great Gatsby Language Analysis

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s language gives the impression that Gatsby’s party is not as bewitching as expected and through the excess of things, types of expressions, types of actions, and types of words spoken by the rich guests their false happiness and displeasure with their own lives is revealed. In the beginning Nick Carraway-Gatsby’s neighbor- gets an actual invitation to Gatsby’s extravagant party. Although, Nick starts by noticing the glamour and wealth of the 1920’s and telling how the party is enchanting, glamorous, and magical, the further Nick scrutinizes he becomes aware of how the guest “have no other interests other than money and the illusion of happiness than happiness itself.” Nick also describes things to indicate that Gatsby is only trying to show off his wealth.

Nick gives the idea that Gatsby is showing off his wealth when Gatsby puts a
butler to do something simple he himself can do and by having excessive things like food.
At the start of the party Nick describes how excessively “a little button

was pressed two
hundred times by a butler’s thumb” to extract juice from oranges. This makes the butler distance from Gatsby making him appear more important and wealthy. It also shows that Gatsby has enough money to throw it away by hiring someone to do something he can do. The excessive amount of food “on buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors d’oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs,” shows how much money Gatsby has to afford this massive amounts of food for his guests who will probably not even eat all the food.

The glamour of Gatsby’s extravagant party appears not to be as glamorous as Nick undercuts the glamour with his words.

Gatsby’s parties tend to attract many people who have or come from certain wealth. In the 1920’s hardly anybody owned cars, but the ones who could afford them. First, Nick describes that Gatsby’s luxurious “Rolls-Royce became an omnibus.” Gatsby’s car looses its glamour because there is a collection of fancy cars from other people, but since it is a fancy car it can be inferred Gatsby has a lot of money. Secondly, the day after the party Nick says that “eight servants, including an extra gardener toiled all day [..] repairing the ravages from the night before.” This describes the party as disgusting and classy at the same time. The party it’s describe as disgusting because of the damages left after the party and classy by saying how many servants were needed to clean up the destructiveness on the house left by the

guests.

Finally, the guests are epitomized as shallow people who wear a mask of lies to suppress their lonely and displeasurable lives by their types of actions and types of words spoken. At the party the “the laughter was easier minute by minute” making the party seem enchanting and beautiful. The more deep and more attention was paid, Nick noticed “introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings” between the guests. This describes the guests as shallow, careless, and not having the manners of the old rich. At the party a girl says to Nick, ‘“Gatsby. Somebody told me-”’ This makes the girl appear communicative and disinterested with her own life because she feels the need to give more importance to someone else’s life.

In conclusion, Fitzgerald’s language is used as evidence to describe the nature of the newly rich in the 1920’s about how they liked to show off their wealth and was not something that made their lives joyous but something that kept them away from their realities.