...Brennen O’Reilly 5 Fitzgerald´s Imagery According to Coolin Powell ”There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure”(BrainyQuote). Scott Fitzgerald paints a vivid picture of life during the roaring 20s in his novel, The Great Gatsby. From Fitzgerald's novel readers gain an understanding of the setting and life during the 1920s. Along with the history of that time period, Fitzgerald also develops a magnificent story with great literary devices. The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald is an excellent novel developed with superb characterization, beautiful imagery, vivid figurative language, and great themes. First, Fitzgerald´s characterization is fascinating. Characterization is the author´s...
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...The Great Gatsby, a story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is one based on the American Dream or should I say the “demise” of the American Dream. This so called dream in the 20’s was portrayed by wickedness and greed. Week three of our lecture we were asked to discuss what the American Dream meant to us and my response was one based off freedom, discovery, and hard work. Immigrants, salves, lower class citizens, etc. were accustomed to earning their money through manual labor, not through family inheritance as seen by most of the characters from The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses this story and the characteristics and actions of these characters to say that the “American Dream” was based on a lie in the 1920’s. The carefree satisfaction of the Jazz Age, also seen as the Materialistic Era, led to the extortion of the American Dream. The Declaration of Independence states that “all man are created equal and that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” F. Scott Fitzgerald created this story to reveal that people in the 20’s were in a pursuit of selfish delight, and the equality of people was based on their financial assets. The line that states all mean are created equal is broken in the scene where Tom is bashing Gatsby for how he became wealthy. He calls Gatsby a crook, and in this in turn leads to retaliation from Gatsby and a fight almost breaking out. Two mean that hold such high class and dignity, yelling and...
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...The Great Gatsby chapter 7 is all about changes. For changes in books to be entertaining to the audience it must include rhetorical devices; and that is what chapter seven is all about. The speaker and narrator of the book is Nick Carraway a bank broker who lives in West Egg, Long island. Nick uses Rhetorical devices throughout the story. He uses imagery to help us imagine what he sees. He also uses figurative language to make comparisons between two different things and it makes the book more exciting. Last but not least he uses tone to emphasize how he feels at that exact moment. The author, S.Scott Fitzgerald, and narrator, Nick Carraway, uses rhetoric devices like imagery, figurative language, and tone in chapter 7 to create an aesthetic impact on the audience. Imagery was used in chapter 7 from the very first page....
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...The Great Gatsby : Investigating the novel refers to links on www.crossref-it.info Who might we want to criticise in this novel? Of whom might Nick be critical? Do they fit the criteria of not having ‘the advantages that you’ve had’? Do you assume that the ‘advantages’ are monetary? What other kinds of advantage might there be? ‘he meant a great deal more than that.’ What more do you think Nick’s father meant? Could the idea of criticism be extended to include literary criticism or interpretation? Look more closely at the characters of Daisy and Tom. At the end of the novel, Nick comments that they are ‘careless people’. Can you find any evidence showing them to be careless or corrupt? Does this comment extend to Jordan or Nick himself? Consider the structure of this chapter – how does Nick order his recollections and his thoughts here? What narrative devices does he use? Investigating Chapter 2 List the different aspects of Chapter 2 which are concerned with religion. What are the differences between the party at Tom’s flat and the other parties in the novel? Nick observes several betrayals in this chapter – which do you find the most shocking and why? ‘I knew he was below me….But if I hadn’t met Chester, he’d of got me sure.’ How does Mrs McKee’s comment reflect on the marriage of Daisy and Tom? Fitzgerald is here depicting the poorer members of American society – why do you think he chooses to give Wilson the occupation of repairing cars? List...
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...In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is a distinct development of emotions and symbols, and one of the key vehicles for illustrating this change is the final line of each chapter. Hidden within each final sentence lies an inner message that either pulls together a major theme in the chapter leading up to the sentence, or is a harbinger of the coming chapters. Beginning with the final word in chapter one, “darkness” (21), and concluding with the novel’s final word, “past” (180), Fitzgerald uses simple closing words to represent a deeper, continuous meaning that pervades the book. By doing this, Fitzgerald is able to outline major themes in the novel, including facial expressions, honesty, and balance. Most clearly and powerfully, however, the outline of lightness through positive imagery and darkness through negative imagery is presented in the final lines of each chapter. By grouping the chapters by hopefulness shown in their respective final lines, a trend is apparent. In chapters one through three, the final lines provide a dark, sullen preview for the chapters to come, while chapter four provides a transition into the final lines of chapters five and six, which signify a brief sense of giddiness that begins to darken. Finally, the last lines of chapters seven through nine mark the development and completion of the violent “holocaust” (162). Supplying a preview at the end of chapter one as to the violence to occur later in the novel, Nick says he is “alone...
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...relationships in their life. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby this idea is explored in the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy in which Gatsby uses his wealth in attempts to gain back to her love. Through symbolism, irony and imagery it becomes evident in Fitzgerald's writing that wealth and material objects cannot replace relationships or personal happiness. Through the usage of symbolism it is obvious Gatsby’s wealth is a proponent in the failure of his and Daisy’s relationship. Gatsby obtained his money and all of his extravagances in hopes of earning back the love he and Daisy once shared. However in one moment it is obvious that it is not possible, “He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them...While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher…, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily” (92). The shirts are representative of Gatsby's riches, which is he throwing in Daisy’s face in hopes of impressing her. Meanwhile, Daisy is realizing the life she left...
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...has a tragic flaw which eventually leads to his downfall. Gatsby might not seem to be the everyday man, in reality he actually is. At one point Gatsby's past is being examined and his parents are described as "shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" which shows the readers that he came from humble roots and was just like everyone else (Fitzgerald 95). He was not born into wealth and privilege and did not have any special background that gave him an advantage over others. Another instance in which Gatsby is portrayed as the average man is when Nick is discussing Gatsby's past and he says, "So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent"(Fitzgerald 95). This shows that the identity that Gatsby has created for himself is that of any average, immature boy. As the novel progresses further you find Nick recounting Gatsby's past and describing him as being a "penniless young man" which again shows the reader that Gatsby is really just the common man with a big dream (Fitzgerald 141). This statement helps take away some of the disguise of wealth and overwhelming power, and brings him into a more human perspective. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is a tragic hero because he displays the fundamental characteristics of modern tragic hero. Gatsby's tragic flaw is that his view of the world is obstructed by his own naive idealism. It is very clear to the reader that Gatsby is idealistic when, while Nick is over at Gatsby's house, he...
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...THE GREAT GATSBY The Great Gatsby is a tale of luxury, lust, deceit, and murder. In Long Island, New York, Nick Carraway lives next door to the mysterious Jay Gatsby, the owner of a huge mansion and host of frequent and lavish parties. Although prohibition has made alcohol illegal, Gatsby always has a surplus available at his wild social gatherings. As Nick starts to spend more time with Gatsby, he begins to learn about Gatsby’s past, his strange profession, and his love for Nick’s cousin, Daisy. The story that unfolds truly highlights the scandalous and risky nature of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald had encompassed many literary devices in order to make this novel effective and more appealing. He has used techniques such as imagery, similes and the strongest one is symbolism. Fitzgerald has very smartly constructed his novel. "And only let me leave it in the soap dish when she saw that it was coming to pieces like snow.”(page 76) is an example of simile used in the text. This sentence suggests that Daisy was holding onto that letter until there wasn't really anything left of it. The letter obviously meant a whole lot to her if she took a bath with it. A representative of imagery used in the novel is "Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes.” This sentence paints a picture in our heads of Gatsby feeling cold with his hands in his pockets, while standing in a puddle...
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...The themes of love and money, and the quest to find them, are universal, ineffable ideals as old as time. In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald effectively combines these, centering the plot around the titular character's pursuit of Daisy, a wealthy young woman. As can be seen in the passage provided, Fitzgerald explains Gatsby's desire for Daisy in a manner that simultaneously explains his quest for wealth, essentially equating Daisy to her money. He does this by juxtaposing Gatsby's then-poverty with Daisy's wealth, providing detailed imagery of both Daisy and the luxuries surrounding her, and deliberately choosing the words used to describe Daisy. Gatsby represents every poverty-stricken dreamer as surely as Daisy embodies...
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...In the novel The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses colors not only literally but also figuratively. The use of color imagery gives the characters more depth, and it also gives readers a deeper understanding of the characters. For example, Fitzgerald often associates the color green with Jay Gatsby. The color green has various cultural connotations that fit ideally with Gatsby’s jealousy, wealth, and hope, along with the sense of safety with which he is able to provide Daisy. Commonly colors are linked to feelings, and green is often given the label of jealousy and envy. This negative connotation of the color green ties in fittingly with Gatsby’s feelings throughout the novel. One does not have to look far to see that Gatsby is jealous of Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband. During their second encounter, Gatsby tells Tom that he knows his wife, “almost aggressively” (108). He is clearly jealous of their marriage and wishes to make it obvious that he has already established a relationship with Daisy....
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...you get what you want? In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick, the main character, lives next door to a rich yet shy figure named Gatsby. Gatsby throws parties all the time, but nobody seems to know who he is. As the story goes on, we find out that Gatsby is in love with Daisy, Nick’s cousin. Behind all of this, Fitzgerald uses light imagery to convey Gatsby’s love for Daisy to show the hope involved in this relationship. A green light across a lake doesn’t seem like anything, right? In the novel, Gatsby is caught by Nick staring across the lake at a green light with his hands in the air. Nick later realizes that the green light across the lake is Daisy’s house. Furthermore, Jordan, Nicks friend, reveals that Gatsby bought the house on that particular spot so Daisy can see it lit up. The green light in the novel represents hope, which later we find out, is part of Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship. “He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could...
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...to do. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the observant narrator Nick Carraway moves out east to New York’s bright West Egg, in hopes of pursuing a fresh start with his new career in the bond business. Nick becomes utterly mystified by his new neighbor, the one and only Jay Gatsby, whose entire life revolves around his longing for something he cannot have, Daisy Buchanan. As Nick begins to acquaint himself more with East and West Egg, and the people who live there he learns how deceiving the glamorous lifestyles are truly that wealthy Americans appear to be living. In every chapter Fitzgerald uses colors as prominent symbols and thematic...
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...Annotated Bibliography Rev. of Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'., by Brian Sutton. Gale Cengage Learning. The Explicator, 1997. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. <http://find.galegroup.com>. Brian Sutton asserts that F. Scott Fitzgerald's book, The Great Gatsby, has four interlinked images that traces Gatsby’s rise and fall as he attempts to recapture Daisy Buchanan's love. The first image is in the beginning of the book when Gatsby is seen by the narrator holding his arms wide open to a green light in the distance. Which we later learn is that the green light is on Daisy's porch. It symbolizes how Gatsby wants Daisy's love back again and that his arms are wide open for her. The second image occurs in the middle of the book when Gatsby experiences a moment of triumph, Gatsby and Daisy finally meet. During this meeting, Daisy is smoking a cigarette...which is another symbol of light! The third image is when Tom and Gatsby finally confront each other and while all this i is going on, Daisy throws her cigarette and the burning match to the carpet...which symbolizes that their(Gatsby and Daisy) love is over. The fourth image is at the end of the book when Gatsby is standing in the distance where he once looked at the light in Daisy's house, just hoping and praying that maybe she will return her love for him. Throughout this article, Sutton uses examples from the text to heighten the meaning of these...
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...Gatsby’s Archetypal Quest for Daisy, the Monetary Prize In The Great Gatsby, the characterizations of Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, particularly in the flashback of when they first met in Chapter VIII, expose the absence of love that lies beneath the glitz and glamour of wealthy living. When seen through an archetypal lens, Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy can be seen as an Archetypal quest where the “golden girl” is a treasure, rather than a love interest (Fitzgerald, 120) (Delahoyde, 1). To Jay Gatsby, Daisy is materialistically the ultimate peak of wealth to be obtained, a metaphor best illustrated in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s choice of descriptive words that portray her in the same way that money might be defined. Daisy is a princess “high in a white palace the king’s daughter”, beautiful and comfortably assured a life of ease due to her wealthy place in society (Fitzgerald, 120). In this novel she is more a material, a monetary symbol, than a person, and this best proved in Chapter VIII (Delahoyde, 1). In a flashback of Gatsby’s to when he first knew and loved Daisy, his descriptions paint a picture of her “gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor” (Fitzgerald, 150). In this glowing portrayal that showcases Daisy’s beauty and power, (both things that she was born with, that she did not earn) her appearance and social class is all that is focused on, she is merely an outward image. From the point of view of a man that supposedly loves her, there...
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...Discuss the portrayal of New York Society at the turn of the twentieth century in Edith Wharton’s “The House of Mirth.” Edith Wharton’s ‘House of Mirth’ critically depicts New York’s society at the turn of the 19th century as money orientated, unequal and content with its missing morals and ethics. Having experienced first-hand the upper class of America, Wharton is able to expose this dismal society in a way many other writers were unable to. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, the Great Gatsby society is also a key theme. Based in the growing New York of the 1920s, Fitzgerald portrays the theme of society through the influx of new money and its difference between those of old money. Due to the historical differences between the two novels, Wharton’s novel can been seen as a criticism of this society; Fitzgerald’s novel uses society to enhance the plot, sometimes he does criticise it. Fitzgerald criticises this society as he reveals it to be a lost generation after a major worldwide conflict, which has turned into a hedonistic and materialistic society. Word Count for Page One: 313 Word Count for Page One: 313 Money plays a big part within the characters’ lives and the society within ‘House of Mirth’. Wealth is an important factor, in order to be accepted into the higher society. Lily teeters on the edge of this society, however her lack of money limits her from being accepted fully. Wharton explores the idea of inherited wealth through characters such as Percy Gryce, she displays...
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