Fitzgerald uses very elevated and formal diction. Especially when he is describing
the lavish parties and the people there. When he describes the music as the “orchestra
playing yellow cocktail music” (40) he again uses formal diction and choose words that
are very “fancy”. Fitzgerald uses imagery many times in his novel and one specific time
is when he describes a women with “an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if
the nerves of her body were continually smoldering”(25). This use of elevated word
choice is able to demonstrate the serious tone of this whole book. The Great Gatsby has a
very serious tone throughout the story and a very formal one as well. The formal and
almost prim wording of the book helps to create this serious and “proper” tone.
narrator describes Gatsby’s lavish life style by saying “I watched his guests diving from
the tower of his raft, or taking the son on he hot sand of his beach while his two motor-
boasts slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataract of foam”(39). Here
the reader can infer that Gatsby has led a very privileged lifestyle and one can also
determine the tone of the novel. While talking about the boats and beaches and parties
Fitzgerald does so in a very elegant wording almost romanticizing the life style of
Gatsby.
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ReplyDeleteFitzgerald's employment of elevated and formal diction aids in the presentation of his depiction of 1920s America and the social aspects of the time period. I especially like the example you chose describing the woman with "an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smoldering”(25). Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald stresses the importance of a woman's vitality and this particular description emphasizes the power that this quality has on a woman's overall confidence. Your analysis of the quotation regarding Gatsby's elaborate parties is accurate in that the sophisticated word choice romanticizes Gatsby's privileged life style.
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