The Great Gatsby - Stylistic Devices
Chapter One
In Chapter One, F. Scott Fitzgerald mainly uses detail to introduce the setting and
characters. For example, when introducing the main setting of the book, he describes his house as
squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. (9). One
of these houses was Gatsby's. This detail gives the reader an idea of what kind of town this was,
and what kind of people lived in it. Fitzgerald also uses detail to introduce characters. When
introducing Daisy, one of the main characters, he says that she had bright eyes and a bright
passionate mouth with an excitement in her voice that men who cared for her found difficult to
forget... (14). These details show that Daisy is obviously a character hard to forget,
foreshadowing future events with her in the book. When he first mentions Gatsby he describes
him saying "if personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures then there was something
gorgeous about him"(6) This shows how Gatsby is looked up to in the town, and he says himself
he is never met him but there is the rumors spread about his mystery. You also see Nick's
attraction to Miss Baker saying her voice "compelled [him] forward breathlessly as [he]
listened"(18). The detail shows his immediate attraction right away and some sort of romantic
chemistry between them.
Chapter Two
Fitzgerald uses many stylistic devices in chapter two, but the most dominant and important
is the syntax. He opens the chapter describing the valley which is about half way between the West
Egg and New York in a loose sentence. He says it's a "valley of ashes" where they take "forms of
houses" and the "men move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air"(27). The
syntax of the sentence shows the valley is gray and the poverty grown people who live there are
over looked by the wealthy people that live on both sides of them. This is where the poor
characters of the book live. Above
In Chapter One, F. Scott Fitzgerald mainly uses detail to introduce the setting and
characters. For example, when introducing the main setting of the book, he describes his house as
squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. (9). One
of these houses was Gatsby's. This detail gives the reader an idea of what kind of town this was,
and what kind of people lived in it. Fitzgerald also uses detail to introduce characters. When
introducing Daisy, one of the main characters, he says that she had bright eyes and a bright
passionate mouth with an excitement in her voice that men who cared for her found difficult to
forget... (14). These details show that Daisy is obviously a character hard to forget,
foreshadowing future events with her in the book. When he first mentions Gatsby he describes
him saying "if personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures then there was something
gorgeous about him"(6) This shows how Gatsby is looked up to in the town, and he says himself
he is never met him but there is the rumors spread about his mystery. You also see Nick's
attraction to Miss Baker saying her voice "compelled [him] forward breathlessly as [he]
listened"(18). The detail shows his immediate attraction right away and some sort of romantic
chemistry between them.
Chapter Two
Fitzgerald uses many stylistic devices in chapter two, but the most dominant and important
is the syntax. He opens the chapter describing the valley which is about half way between the West
Egg and New York in a loose sentence. He says it's a "valley of ashes" where they take "forms of
houses" and the "men move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air"(27). The
syntax of the sentence shows the valley is gray and the poverty grown people who live there are
over looked by the wealthy people that live on both sides of them. This is where the poor
characters of the book live. Above