Rhetorical Strategies

·         Asyndeton: “I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler” (4).
·         Simile: “For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as  I listened—then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk”(14).

·         Polysyndeton: “By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived, no thin five-piece affair, but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums”(40).

·         Simile: Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets…” (86).

·         Personification: “The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby” (132).

·         Personification: “Tom’s words suddenly leaned down over Gatsby” (133).

            In F.Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, he uses various types of rhetorical strategies to further enhance his sophisticated and eloquent style of writing. His use of rhetorical strategies allows the reader to live through the events rather than just reading them in a dull manner. In the beginning of the book Nick Carraway describes his feelings of loneliness until a man asks him for directions. After that moment Nick acquires a new found feeling of importance, the author writes, “I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler” (4). Through the use of asyndeton, Fitzgerald characterizes Nick’s importance and sets the stage for the entire the novel. Rather than adding conjunctions in-between each individual adjective, the use of asyndeton allows the sentence to flow while also characterizing him in all of those aspects. While describing the parties held at Gatsby’s house, the author uses polysyndeton to display how truly extravagant they are. The author writes, “By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived, no thin five-piece affair, but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums” (40). Rather than mentioning that a band was arriving at the party, the author lists out every instrument that is being brought in. This allows the reader to fully understand that Gatsby’s parties were more than a little get together, but a huge event. Not only does this characterize the parties, but also Gatsby’s lifestyle, which was filled with many luxurious things. Later in the novel the author uses personification to convey to the reader how hurt Gatsby is when Daisy says she loves both Tom and Gatsby. By illustrating that “The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby” (132), Fitzgerald shows that Gatsby was much more than just emotionally in pain but almost in physical pain as well. This part in the story is catastrophic to Gatsby because throughout the entire novel, and the last five years of his life, he has built himself into a successful man in the hopes that one day Daisy will come back to him. He believed that Daisy was married to Tom as a place holder until he could fill the role, but now that idea has vanished. Fitzgerald does an excellent job of displaying Gatsby’s pain through the use of his personification to show it was much more to him than a love affair but his whole life’s goal.