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Writing Style of

Gatsby

The Great

Town Tattle

Eyes/Glasses

  • What is it?

--> An advertisement/billboard in the Valley of Ashes

--> Magazine about the rich lifestyle of the people in New York

--> Mrytle is seen buying the magazine during an outing with Tom and Nick

  • What does it mean?

--> A visual reminder that 'God is always watching'

--> "“I spoke to her,” he muttered, after a long silence. “I told her she might fool me but she couldn’t fool God. I took her to the window… and I said ‘God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me but you can’t fool God” (Fitzgerald 138).

--> Lets Nick see through a different perspective

--> The life Mrytle always wanted

--> Her ticket to high society

--> The representation that Tom's lifestyle was in her grasp

Time/Clock

Green Light

  • What is it?

--> A green light at the end of Daisy and Tom's dock

--> A clock that Gatsby knocks over during his encounter with Daisy at Nick's house

  • What does it mean?

--> Represents Gatsby's hopes and dreams for the future

--> Gatsby's perfect world, including Daisy

  • What does it mean?

--> How much time we have spent and how much time we have left

--> Emphasizes how much time is spent on Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy

--> clock falling means it was a waste of Gatsby's time

Class Discussion

Green

What colours do you think are important to the Great Gatsby? Why? What do you think they represent?

Unattainable dream, hope; the green light on Daisy’s dock

White

Gold

Pink

Love, happy ‘euphoric’ stages;

Gatsby's suit

Luxury, prosperity and wealth

- when Gatsby begins to lose his wealth, yellow appears more prominent in the novel

Purity, innocence/naivety,

morally unblemished

Daisy almost always wearing white

Places

Symbolism

Blue

Sadness; Gatsby lived a very ‘blue’ life

  • Fitzgerald uses symbolism as a literary device to further relay his prominent messages

East Egg/West Egg

  • Places on either side of a courtesy bay
  • East Egg is 'old money'
  • West Egg is 'new money'

New York City

  • Represents the true American Dream
  • People come to NYC to create their future
  • Ellis Island

Do you think the novel had to be set in New York City?

Valley of Ashes

  • Run down community
  • The home of Mrytle and George Wilson
  • Represents poverty, despair
  • "The symbol of a failure of the American Dream"

Character Significance

Fitzgerald was very careful in naming his characters

Daisy Buchanan

Meyer Wolfsheim

  • Beautiful flower, but no smell
  • Physically beautiful
  • Lacks in substantial knowledge
  • Lives extravagantly, with no purpose
  • Beautiful voice, says nothing of significance

  • He is also in pursuit of American Dream
  • Shows the lengths people take: shady, illegal sales
  • Name suggests he is more primal/animalistic
  • Unlike Gatsby, he focuses on the present, rather than the past, in attaining power/riches

Jay 'James Gatz' Gatsby

“James Gatz- that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career- when he saw Dan Cody’s yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior” (Fitzgerald 91).

  • represents the average man
  • Dan Cody and Gatsby's realization

  • signifies not just a name change, but his character as well

Klipspringer

Myrtle Wilson

  • Gives readers a thorough understanding of just how unappreciative people are
  • Takes advantage of Gatsby's wealth, stays in his home
  • "the boarder"
  • Does not attend Gatsby's funeral, only requests that his tennis shoes are returned
  • Powerful hedge, Aphrodites, lives in dry sparse area
  • Strong feminine personality
  • Allure that comes from her strength as a woman
  • stands out in Valley of Ashes because she knows what she wants

  • Represents her femininity being torn away from her

“... her left breast was swinging loose like a flap and there was no need to listen for the heart beneath” (Fitzgerald 121).

Jordan Baker

  • represents women in the workplace, after the war

  • another strong, independent female character to isolate Daisy

Class Discussion

What kind of writing style did

Fitzgerald use to write The Great Gatsby?

Satire

  • Fitzerald uses satire to help explain the lavish parties that Gatsby throws

  • Nick returns home to the Midwest where he understands the values of upholding culture

Think and create a symbol that represents your life...

Flashbacks

Writing Structure

  • James Gatz
  • The American Dream
  • Not written in chronological order

--> Gatsby's past is recalled in order to explain his present situation

--> Portrays rejection of his family and his original name as a necessary precondition to his later glory and wealth

--> It is told the way Nick remembers the story

  • Written in first person

  • Jordan Baker

--> Has a flashback about when she initially met Gatsby, and his relationship with Daisy

--> Gives the readers insight into how Nick - and therefore Fitzgerald - feels about certain situations

--> Experiences the events first hand, but merely as an observer, not taking part

  • Detailed writing

Irony

The Great Gatsby is.....

Gatsby's Smile

Foreshadowing

Daisy's Voice

--> More time is spent describing the character's personalities rather than their physical traits

--> Shows Nick's character, and further, Fitzgerald's

Descriptive Narrative!!!

  • Mrytle
  • Klipsringer's Song
  • Gatsby is unable to physically touch the green light
  • Uses adjectives to create a vivid picture for the readers

--> This foreshadows that he will be unable to acheive his goal of having Daisy

--> Myrtle ran out to the yellow car, thinking her lover was coming to rescue her

-->“‘Beat me!’ he heard her cry. ‘Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!’... A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting…” (Fitzgerald 121).

--> “In the morning,

In the evening,

Ain’t we got fun-----

One thing’s sure and nothing’s surer

The rich get richer and the poor get--children.

In the meantime,

In between time-----” (Fitzgerald 89).

--> The song is told from the perspective of a poor man who is happy

  • Gatsby knocking over Nick's clock

--> At his first encounter with Daisy, this foreshadows all the trouble that he will cause Daisy

Tom has “a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning forward” (Fitzgerald 23).

Writing Influences

  • “‘I hate careless people. That’s why I like you’” (Fitzgerald 61)

--> Jordan tells Nick while they are driving

--> Foreshadows an event involving driving

  • F Scott Fitzgerald's own life
  • Grew up in poverty
  • Attained the 'American Dream'
  • Zelda Fitzgerald

Class Discussion

  • Significant similarities to Daisy Buchanan
  • would not marry Scott until he could support her financially
  • although he moved to New York to work in advertising and write short stories, she broke off the engagement
  • "Yeah, Gatsby's very careful about women. He would never so much as look at a friend's wife." (Fitzgerald 71)
  • "'Wreck!' said Tom. "That's good. Wilson'll have a little business at last'" (Fitzgerald 122)

CLASS DISCUSSION: Is the title ironic? Was Gatsby 'great?'

Remember from Unit One...

Conclusion

  • Alcoholism
  • Became an alcoholic during the great depression
  • His conditioned worsened due to Zelda's schizophrenia

What are the four types

of writing styles?

  • The Great Gatsby is a descriptive narrative novel
  • it is a fictional story, full of rhetorical devices to keep it interesting
  • Fitzgerald writes from what he knows, using many of his personal experiences in this novel
  • The use of Flashbacks, Foreshadowing, Satire, and Irony are all key ways in which Fitzgerald points out important aspects of his novel
  • Symbolism
  • Objects: reflect character's actions
  • Places: characters live in stereotypical neighbourhoods
  • Colours: associated with characters and emotions
  • Characters: everyone represents a different type of person

Descriptive

Expository

Narrative

Persuasive

  • Convincing readers of a certain opinion
  • Factual information
  • Story
  • Has a thesis to prove
  • Commonly used in fiction
  • Large use of rhetorical devices

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, F S. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995. Print.

"Great Gatsby, Daisy and Myrtle." Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo!, 1 Jan. 2008. Web. 9 Jan.

2015. <https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080610004727AAj1qbe>.

Hendrickson, Caroline. "Style." Caroline's Study of F. Scott Fitzgerald. 20 Apr. 2009.

Web. 9 Jan. 2015. <https://chendrickson.wordpress.com/style/>.

McGregor. "The Great Gatsby." Enotes.com. Enotes.com, 20 Sept. 2008. Web. 9 Jan.

2015. <http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-was-writing-style-f-scott-fitzgerald-used-37881>.

O'Connor, Kate. "The Curious Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald." The University of Oxford.

Web. 9 Jan. 2015. <http://writersinspire.org/content/curious-life-f-scott-fitzgerald>.

Saunders, Jen. "What Does the Clock Gatsby Knocks Over Symbolize?" The

Classroom. Synonym.com. Web. 9 Jan. 2015. <http://classroom.synonym.com/clock-gatsby-knocks-over-symbolize-3490.html>.

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