Monday, March 11, 2013

#5: Personal Review



The Great Gatsby is my favorite novel that we have been required to read in high school. The novel was extremely interesting and intriguing, and now I will always wish I could attend one of Gatsby’s parties. Fitzgerald’s manipulation of syntax and diction and his employment of numerous effective rhetorical strategies only adds to the excellence of this literature masterpiece. I found it unique that while the novel is written in first person from the view of the narrator, Nick Carraway, the story is centered around another character entirely, Jay Gatsby. In most other novels, if it is written in first person, the narrator is the main character and the focus of the plot is usually the narrator’s own struggles or his dynamism as a character. It was intriguing that this was not the case, and it makes me wonder why Fitzgerald chose to write the story this way. I would say it certainly added to the uniqueness of the novel and multiplied Gatsby’s mysteriousness. Fitzgerald’s use of symbolism further creates an air of sophistication present in the novel. One can easily detect this sophistication primarily when Nick and Gatsby speak, for they are the most formal and grammatically correct out of all the characters’ speech. The Great Gatsby was an interesting read, and would be a something I would have gladly read on my own at home; however, it was saddening to see Fitzgerald’s most likely accurate depiction of the 1920’s and the people’s materialistic, selfish, wasteful, and careless ideals of that time period. I believe the main purpose of the novel was for Fitzgerald to reveal his disgust for the true nature of Americans during the Roaring 20’s.

#4: Text to Text Connection



In Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, one of the main characters and object of fascination is Jay Gatsby. Gatsby can be related to many characters from other novels, but Gatsby is very similar to the fictional comic book character Spiderman. Gatsby’s original name is James Gatz and comes from a sketchy family background, and ends up finding odd jobs to make any money he can. Similarly, Peter Parker also has a sketchy family background in that Peter Parker’s parents died when he was young and he lives with his grandparents up through high school. Peter Parker finds an odd job as a photographer for a newspaper to make some money. Both James Gatz and Peter Parker have a hard time fitting into the society they so badly desire to be a part of. James Gatz creates an alternate alias, Jay Gatsby, in order to reinvent himself; Peter Parker creates Spiderman, albeit with the help of a radioactive spider bite. Both characters don ridiculous costumes, Gatsby in his brightly colored suits, and Spiderman in his, well, Spidey costume. Gatsby and Spiderman become iconic public figures in New York City, and are loved by the masses: Gatsby for his lavish parties, and Spiderman for his crime-fighting skills. However, both characters are held back by a complicated love life. Gatsby is in love with Daisy who is married to Tom Buchanan. Spiderman is in love with Mary Jane, who is in love with his best friend Harry Osborn. Gatsby and Spiderman both meet their unfortunate demise while trying to protect their loved one. Some people remember Gatsby as a hero, a promoter of the lavish lifestyle that was popular during the 1920’s, while still others hardly remember him at all, as evident in his near empty funeral. Spiderman is remembered by some as a hero for protecting New York City, while others view him as a deranged costumed vigilante. This is significant because it shows that both characters could be argued as either heroes or villains.

#3: Syntax



·         “I spent my Saturday nights in New York, because those gleaming, dazzling parties of his were with me so vividly that I could still hear the music and the laughter, faint and incessant, from his garden, and the cars going up and down his drive”(179).
Fitzgerald primarily uses cumulative or loose sentences in The Great Gatsby. He uses long, complex sentences with a central idea, but many unnecessary, dependent clauses to make it seem excessively sophisticated, quite similar to the way Gatsby lived his life: one central idea of fitting in with high society, and all his material possessions to give him credibility and sophistication.
·         “By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived, no thin five-piece affair, but a whole pitiful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums”(40).
Fitzgerald manipulates syntax in this sentence by utilizing a polysyndeton to create a rushed and hurried feeling when reading the sentence, as if no pauses or stops are allowed while reading. This sentence reveals the feeling of crowdedness one must feel at Gatsby’s parties, strictly because of the sheer number of people that must attend in order for an orchestra of this magnitude to be necessary. Fitzgerald manipulates syntax to imply certain elements about the plot or characteristics of a character so as to create an air of mystery, similar to the one that shrouds Gatsby.