Personal Review

At first, having the narrator be a character in the book was a perplexing idea and style to me, but gradually grew on me as the opinions and gossip of his unbiased thoughts hit the pages. Quickly, I enjoyed the idea of Jordan and Daisy and their elegance along with wealth and style. While many distinguished Tom Buchanan as a wild man, callous of others and wife; I personally was intrigued by the man and had no concern for his thoughts and actions of infidelity toward his wife, Daisy. As his contentment grew, so did my curiosity to better understand his reasons and thoughts. Gatsby was always a mystery to me, always slyly speaking on the phone, and lying about his pasts and loves. He lunges into other relationships and sticks himself into each one in his own peculiar way such as destroying the marriage of Tom and Daisy. I enjoyed his hesitancy and was amused by his anxiety towards meeting Daisy; however I am still uncertain of his true depiction of the narrator, Nick. Further creating a mask of absurdness around his summary, Gatsby also is admirable in his tenacity to find the things he loves and fight against all odds to achieve it. I commend him for his daring sacrifice for the one he loves and his boldness against Tom in his fight for Daisy. Daisy, on the other hand, is a corrupted unreliable waste of a woman who places her trust in money and manipulation of the men with it. By the end of the story, I was despised for her selfish and solemn thoughts towards Gatsby's sacrifice. Even going off with Tom on vacation without a thought of looking back at the fire of a man in love with her. Perhaps she was forced or she masked her emotion, but all in all her actions assume her as a corrupted undisturbed woman. From the drama to the humor, I enjoyed and looked forward to the next step of reading to better understand the views of each character. Finally, Nick Carraway is my favorite narrator and character depicted in this book, from his innocence, loyalty, and adaptability he was never caught up in another’s drama and stayed to who he was. A man like him, uncultured by the race for wealth or for the emotions, content with what he haves and what he can get is a figure of importance which some of the characters should learn from. Nick Carraway, while representing something greater than himself, still lives to tell his story again for the next generation of American treasure seekers who desire the same wealth and love that Gatsby gave his life for.

Text Connections

In the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Benjamin Button has an extreme, unique case of aging reverse from the usual aging process of humans. He is born as an aged man, along in all with their pains and weaknesses as he grows longer in age to the appearance of a young man. At a young age, Benjamin had already known and seen his true love, Daisy. Ironically, both Gatsby and Benjamin's true loves are named Daisy and had once before known each other in a past time of their life for Daisy passes by once in a while to see Benjamin numerous times as she winds through her own jumbled relationships and travels. As was in The Great Gatsby, the two lovers are quickly connected and are fantasized by the mere thought of being together and are infatuated with each other if under the right circumstances. Benjamin quickly marries his Daisy after a long struggle between their hearts while sadly, Gatsby truly never gains his dear Daisy back from the hands of Tom Buchanan. The thought of having married his sweetheart, Benjamin is faced with the curse of knowing that when he grows old with his life he will mirror the appearance and needs of his new daughter. As Gatsby had taken the blame and his own life for his beloved Daisy, Benjamin must also give up his desires to love his wife and leave her so that Daisy and their daughter may not have to deal with the pain of losing their father. Each man sacrifice their own selfish and personal desires to find the best in their true loves, one of the greatest sacrifices.

Syntax

Fitzgerald describes many characters in the book illustrated and flourishing with wealth. Gatsby, for instance, is covered in a cloak of majesty and comfort with brand new cars, lavish parties, and exemption from the law. While he may seem to Nick and mostly the rest of the characters that he is a well-respected, and hardworking man; many conspire and assume his as an illegal bootlegger, haggling and manipulating his way to wealth. Fitzgerald hints at these rumors several times in the novel to create an uncertainty about Gatsby, a mysterious dramatic desire to find the truth to the finding of his treasures. For instance, Gatsby quickly hurries the worries words "educated at Oxford" in a hope to conceal a part of his past. More importantly, Fitzgerald puts quotation marks around these words in the novel to hint the reader at a thought of uncertainty about his true roundabouts at Oxford. We later find out that Gatsby spent very little time at Oxford, a few months to be exact, while he was forced to study there after the Great War. Fitzgerald adds this syntax into his novel to give it a certain style of mystery while giving Gatsby also an abstruse or hidden tone for truly he had no intentions or most likely qualifications to be Oxford, and quickly he departed from this esteemed school without a second thought. To lengthen on the tone of concealment, while Gatsby is describing his past to a bunch of guests at his party, he says "'I am the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West--all dead now"'(65). While Gatsby is evidently lying about his past to better cover the amount of rumors surrounding him, Fitzgerald adds dashes to the end of his false statement to better show the amount of thought put into his past. Gatsby, most likely, ponders upon where he came from and how he ended in such a place, even if he misconstrues the truth. Fitzgerald gives the sentence a morbid tone with the addition of their deaths; however it is crucial to Gatsby's soliloquy in how it ties up the loose ends of his stories to more questions. The man may be an illegal bootlegger, but his understanding of language and manipulation is quite admirable to his audience and on-lookers. Tom on the other hand, is not too admirable or majestic in his act, even if he is not participating in illegal actions. Perhaps he is egotistical and callous of other's thoughts and actions, though he is depicted as a rotten man, feared by any man looks at him. While being addressed together with his wife, Gatsby stutters,"Mrs. Buchanan ... and Mr. Buchanan--" (105). Gatsby stutters his name and hesitates as a sign of disrespect or out of a fear of the name. Either way it was perceived disrespectful or impolite towards his guest no matter the circumstances. This impolite style further amplifies the furious rivalry of the men for Daisy.

Diction

Struck by wealth, men and women scamper down the streets with dashing necklaces, jingling watches, and sparkling shoes proud of there glamarous strut to the struggling dismaye onlookers. These characters live smugly in their own bubbles of conceitment, visiting lavish parties, drinking abundently, and dashing down streets in flashy cars while the jumbled world strives to survive. Wealthy friends of Toms "...both in white, their dresses rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blow back in after a short flight around the house" (8). Feathery and delicate descriptions of the clean pure dresses depict these women as peculiar china resting on a platform of supremacy with a small flutter of a dress and a sway as they raise their chins high to the world. However, giving a sense of confusment and brainlessness they are shaken and fluttered by their "flight" through life. Perhaps, this sense of bewilderment has come to this generation in a constant adventure to exploit themselves to find a taste of this wild extravagence, forgetting and pushing aside anything and everything who stands in the path of fortune. Fitzgerald sets a tone about this generation as self centered and egotistical people only exploiting eachother. He describes them in a way of corruption and manipulation prying off eachother to discover the pot of gold at the end of this sly diluted rainbow of manipulation.
At these exquisite parties, "When the Jazz History of the World was over, girls were putting their heads on men's shoulders in a puppyish, covivial way, girls were swooning backward playfully into mens arms, even into groups, knowing that some one would arrest their falls..."(50). Mimicking Daisy, the girls at the party search desperately for money and porsperity from the staggering rich such as puppies to their aiding mother. They swoon towatds the rich, throwing themselves at any man with a lump of cash in their hand. However, without a sense of true love of eachother, these relationships sould surely fail. With a already failing relationship and only a struggle to live the largest luxury the men and women of this curse have become disconnected from true love and living their lives for an honest reason. Perhaps they are not concealing their dismay too easily though, for "her gray sun-strained eyes looked back at me...out of wan...discontented face" (11). This women shows signs of sadness and most importantly discomfort. She symbolizes a faction of the generation who seek splendor but frankly are still hindered by their true feelings for love outside of wealth. She is strained by this life-depleting search, and while she soothes herself to believe the unreality of its value, she is caught up in the love of life, discontented by her position. While, Fitzgerald does give a mocking tone towards the people who live their lives out in misjudgemnt, he gives each a sense of mercy and hope in how he reveals the true heart and discomfort for their own harmful needs. He shows a true side of each human, giving each a conscience and a chance again for redemption.

Rhetorical Strategies

• Chiasmus: "A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags..." (8).
• Symbolism: "'[The books are]absolutely real--have pages and everything. Thought they'd be a nice durable cardboard"' (45).
• Metaphor: "...a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy's wing" (99).
• Colloquial: "'Be ver' nice,' said Mr.Sloane, without gratitude" (102).
• Oxymoron: "'Oh, yes,' said Tom, gruffly polite, but obviously not remembering" (102).
• Imagery: " A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisitng them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea" (8).
• Personification: "I must have stood for a few minutes listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall" (8).

        Fitzgerald embellishes Gatsby to be the elaborate figure of the American dream, using several characters such as "Owl Eyes" to prove the authenticity of his beloved Jay Gatsby. His dignified collection of novels in his library reveals a frank feeling towards Gatsby and his perhaps illegal background serving as a disguise to his true inheritance of new money. While Gatsby is provided with a sweet blanket of mercy and luxury, Tom Buchanan is marked by a flood of greed and selfishness in how he speaks of others with an air of dominance and disgust while remaining covered in his cloak of luxury. Both characters, hidden with secrets and complexities, are washed clean to their audience by the sole quality of their wealth. Avoiding traffic tickets, rude remarks, and consequences, Gatsby and Tom live their lives to the edge of an admiring unknowing world around them.