How Does Fitzgerald Use Langauge In The Great Gatsby
Narrative Style & Langauge in ‘The Great Gatsby’
The narrator
The role of Nick as the narrator is fundamental to the narrative style of the story. Gatsby’s character is ‘filtered’ through Nick Carraway’s narration.
However, Nick himself, becomes a figure whom we must interpret. As Nick tells us the story and we piece together our interpretation of Gatsby, we are also inevitably adjusting our sense of who the man is telling Gatsby’s story.
Nick is able to comment on, and pass judgement on the events around him with the involved immediacy of a first-person voice.
Dialogue & the scenic method
Narrating the story from Nick’s perspective could have resulted in a monotonous voice. This is avoided by having Nick recreate dramatic exchanges as dialogue; he recreates the voices of the characters he …show more content…
Invariably, Nick lets the dialogue stand without comment, leaving it to the readers to weigh the significance of what is said.
Cinematic techniques
Fitzgerald was writing at a time when cinema was becoming popular and this seems to have had an influence on the structure of his novel. There are lots of ‘cuts’ between scenes, which are symptomatic of a cinematic style.
Descriptions often alternate between a type of ‘wide-angle’ panoramic shot (Gatsby’s parties) and close-up.
Symbolism
It is difficult, in this novel, to regard objects as objects pure and simple. There are a variety of different objects that takes on a significance above and beyond the literal; the car, for example, represents more than a vehicle for physical mobility.
Fitzgerald often uses familiar associations of symbols in an ironic way; the colour green is not used to represent traditional associations such as fertility, growth and lushness. Instead, the electric green light at the end of the Buchanan’s implies jealousy and envy (Gatsby’s envy of Tom’s marriage to
The narrator
The role of Nick as the narrator is fundamental to the narrative style of the story. Gatsby’s character is ‘filtered’ through Nick Carraway’s narration.
However, Nick himself, becomes a figure whom we must interpret. As Nick tells us the story and we piece together our interpretation of Gatsby, we are also inevitably adjusting our sense of who the man is telling Gatsby’s story.
Nick is able to comment on, and pass judgement on the events around him with the involved immediacy of a first-person voice.
Dialogue & the scenic method
Narrating the story from Nick’s perspective could have resulted in a monotonous voice. This is avoided by having Nick recreate dramatic exchanges as dialogue; he recreates the voices of the characters he …show more content…
Invariably, Nick lets the dialogue stand without comment, leaving it to the readers to weigh the significance of what is said.
Cinematic techniques
Fitzgerald was writing at a time when cinema was becoming popular and this seems to have had an influence on the structure of his novel. There are lots of ‘cuts’ between scenes, which are symptomatic of a cinematic style.
Descriptions often alternate between a type of ‘wide-angle’ panoramic shot (Gatsby’s parties) and close-up.
Symbolism
It is difficult, in this novel, to regard objects as objects pure and simple. There are a variety of different objects that takes on a significance above and beyond the literal; the car, for example, represents more than a vehicle for physical mobility.
Fitzgerald often uses familiar associations of symbols in an ironic way; the colour green is not used to represent traditional associations such as fertility, growth and lushness. Instead, the electric green light at the end of the Buchanan’s implies jealousy and envy (Gatsby’s envy of Tom’s marriage to