Literature Analysis #6

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

1. The main character is a man named Jay Gatsby.  It starts off with a young man named, Nick Carraway, who moves to West Egg in New York. His next door neighbor happens to be a very popular, wealthy man by the name of Jay Gatsby. When he first moves in, he becomes closer with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan and her husband, Tom. They all attend Gatsby's parties later in the summer and Nick meets his love interest, Jordan Baker. They discover Gatsby's past secret love affair with Daisy and come to understand that the affair is continuing throughout the summer. When Tom becomes suspicious of this affair, he starts accusing Gatsby of crimes and put his hate towards Daisy (despite his own affair with a woman named, Myrtle). Later, Gatsby and the crew are driving into town and he accidentally kills Myrtle with his car. When Myrtle's husband finds out Gatsby did it from Tom, he kills Gatsby and then shoots himself. Nick ends the summer with Gatsby's funeral and leaves the town of West Egg, reflecting on the relationships he once knew.

2. The main theme in this novel is the lack of values in a high class society. The characters focus, mainly, on their status in public and their party life instead of going after the typical job, house, and family routine.

3. The tone of the novel changes a lot.  It can love then again it can be annoyed; depending on the setting and who Gatsby is talking to.

4. Literary Devices:

Symbolism: showed up later in the novel

"A single green light, minute and faraway, that might have been the end of a dock…"

Diction: wide vocabulary

“ So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.”

Syntax: long descriptive sentences

"She was extended full length at her end of the divan, completely motionless, and with her chin raised a little, as if she were balancing something on it which was quite likely to fall."

Foreshadow: keeps coming up, reader questions

“He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. “

Imagery: descriptive

“And then one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”