Stylistic devices

Simile - an indirect relationship where one thing or idea is described as being similar to another. Similes usually contain the words “like” or “as,” but not always.

“Jay Gatsby had broken up like glass against Tom’s hard malice…” 

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Oxymoron - A contradiction in terms.

two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all.” 

“definitely unfamiliar” 

“ferocious indifference”

 

Personification - where inanimate objects or abstract concepts are seemingly endowed with human self-awareness; where human thoughts, actions, perceptions and emotions are directly attributed to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.

“The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens…”

Anaphora - the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism:

“Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth.” 

Asyndeton – the omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list of items, asyndeton gives the effect of inadvertent multiplicity, of an extemporaneous rather than a labored account.

“There were the same people, the same profusion of champagne, the same many-colored, many-keyed commotion” 

 

Alliteration - The repetition of consonant sounds within close proximity, usually in consecutive words within the same sentence or line. 

“fantastic farm” 

“grotesque gardens”

“obscure operations”

Polysyndeton - the use of a conjunction between each word, phrase, or clause, and is thus structurally the opposite of asyndeton. Gives the effect of a labored account, however can also create a feeling of multiplicity or building up.

"By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived, no thin five-piece affair, but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums." 

 

Synaesthesia - description of one kind of sensation in terms of another.

"yellow cocktail music" 

 

 

Symbol - The use of specific objects or images to represent abstract ideas.

The eyes of Dr. T.J. Echleburg can be symbolic of God’s all-seeing eyes.

Wolfshiem’s cufflinks made of human teeth are a symbol of his connection to the underworld.

 

Metaphor - an direct relationship where one thing or idea substitutes for another.

"Her voice is full of money." 

 

Hyperbole - the counterpart of understatement deliberately exaggerates conditions for emphasis or effect.

“I’m p-paralyzed with happiness.” 

"The whole town is desolate. All the cars have the left wheel painted black as a mourning wreath, and there’s a persistant wail all night along the north shore." – Nick on the subject of people in Chicago missing Daisy.

 

Protagonist - The main character in a story, the one with whom the reader is meant to identify. The person is not necessarily “good” by any conventional moral standard, but he/she is the person in whose plight the reader is most invested.

The protagonist in The Great Gatsby can be argued to either be Gatsby or Nick depending on whose plight the reader identifies with and invests in.

 

Allusion - a reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art.

"He was a son of God…and he must be about HisFather’s business"

Wolfsheim’s characterization as “the man who fixed the World Series” serves as an allusion to the Black Sox scandal of 1919.

Motif - a recurring important idea or image. A motif differs from a theme in that it can be expressed as a single word or fragmentary phrase, while a theme usually must be expressed as a complete sentence.

Geography serves as an important motif in The Great Gatsby as location helps to shape the novel’s themes and characters. (East Egg as odd upper-class traditions, West Egg as new money, celebrities, and wild lifestyles, and The valley of ashes as desperate and desolate)

 

Foreshadow – where future events in a story, or perhaps the outcome, are suggested by the author before they happen.

“So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight.” – This statement foreshadows Myrtle’s death and the death of Gatsby’s dream.  

 

Irony – where an event occurs which is unexpected, in the sense that it is somehow in absurd or mocking opposition to what would be expected or appropriate.

Wolfsheim’s characterization as Jewish, yet the title of his office being “The Swastika Holding Company”.

Fitzgerald and fashion. The Great Gatsby look.

The Swinging Twenties are indeed making a comeback in everything from fashion to design to event planning. It is easy to see why this era of glitz and glamour is currently a huge trend.  The fashion (loose but sexy flapper dresses, cloche hats, feather fans and glittering headbands), architecture and decor of the 1920's are filled with punchy graphic geometric detail that immediately catches your eye.

George Wilson

George Wilson, "a blond, spiritless man", who is faintly handsome and pale.

He is the owner of a garage in the Valley of Ashes, which shows that he is rather poor. His only hope for starting a new and better life somewhere else, seems to be Tom selling his car to him. But he does not see that Tom does not intend to sell his car and that it is just and excuse to show up there and to meet Myrtle.

Wilson is ”so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive” and that is the reason why he never notices that Tom is the one his wife is having an affair with.
In the end, he is even so desperate that he is not able to think of another way than killing Gatsby and himself, to get out of his misery.

Poor George. He really gets the short end of the stick in this one. And, seeing as he's one of the few characters without staggering flaws, he doesn't even deserve it. From what we can tell, Wilson is hard-working and not cheating on his spouse. He's in a marriage with a woman who doesn't love or respect him, who walks through him as though he's a ghost; and meanwhile he just does what she says: "'Oh, sure,' agreed Wilson hurriedly"...

After Myrtle's death, Wilson is in serious emotional pain. He cries out "Oh, my God" over and over—but because his wife is dead? Because he just found out she was having an affair? Or because he feels guilty for making her run out into the street?

The other thing to note about Wilson is that he's the only character who talks about God. He tells Myrtle that she "can't fool God," that "God sees everything". His comment reminds us that, unlike the rich careless classes, the lower classes can't just retreat "back into […] money". Wilson and his class actually have to take responsibility for their actions, and they don't have trips to Paris to make it all more palatable.

Myrtle Wilson

Myrtle Wilson

Myrtle Wilson is a “thickish figure of a woman” in her “middle thirties”. Even though she is not very beautiful, she still seems attractive.

Myrtle is George Wildon's wife, as well as the woman Tom is having an affair with. She lets Tom push her around, just because she forgets the poor life, her husband can give her and feels like she is part of a life she dreams of, when she is together with him.
Myrtle would rather be treated like a dog by someone who has money instead of being cared for by someone who has no money.Myrtle Wilson is the character who intertwines the entire story together in The Great Gatsby. Every character is connected to her in a significant manner. For example, Tom is her illegitimate partner while Daisy is her partner in crime who has an illegitimate partner, Gatsby. But out of all these characters, Myrtle is the most important. She is the insecure one, the emotional one and the fake one.

Myrtle Wilson is always seeking companionship. Her insecurity is evident through the decisions that she makes. Her husband, Wilson, isn't very useful for anything so she turns to Tom for attention. Although Tom is married, he is wealthy and enjoys the company of other women. Myrtle uses this to her advantage and keeps Tom under her control. When she leaves the New York train station, she sees an old man selling dogs and she immediately asks him for a police dog. He tells her he only has an Airedale and that the coat is water-proof, but she still wants to purchase it. She forgets her need for the police dog and only wants to cuddle with something. Her quick decision-making reflects her insecurity and how she lives her daily life. 

Because Myrtle's heart is easily swayed, she doesn't use logic to make decisions. When she marries Wilson, she knows he is below her, but she still marries him. She hopes that Wilson knows something about breeding, but she is mistaken. Marrying Wilson is a mistake since he can't provide for her expensive needs that only Tom can afford. She regrets ever marrying Wilson so she runs off with Tom whenever the chance appears. She feels that Wilson is too lowly for her. Although marrying Wilson is a serious mistake, she isn't able to learn from this experience. One night when she is on her way to her sister's, she meets a handsome stranger whom she falls in love with on first sight. The stranger is Tom and she only loves him because of his status symbols. Myrtle's behavior reflects her decision making abilities and how she is vulnerable to manipulation. Although Tom is brutal and violent, his wealth keeps her content.

Myrtle is also a poser. She uses Tom's wealth in order to live the life of an aristocrat. She attempts to be an aristocrat when she waves off four taxis before selecting a new taxi. This taxi seems to be of higher class with its lavender-colored grey upholstery. However, any real aristocrat would reveal her as a fraud since they can afford their own transportation. Later that day, she decides to throw a party for her friends at her apartment. This attempt to play hostess miserably fails since she has neither the elegance nor the image. Gatsby is able to host party after party since he knows how to be a host. During the party, Mrs. McKee comments on her dress, but Myrtle simply brushes the comment away stating that she wears it whenever she wants. She doesn't even try to be modest. It's as if she can afford any dress she chooses to buy. As long as she has Tom, her aristocratic facade is safe.

Myrtle Wilson is a woman with many flaws. She sees Tom more as a source of money than as a source of love. Her actions make her seem shallow especially when she sees Tom with Jordan Baker. In The Great Gatsby, she is the essential character that intertwines the entire story together. Her aristocratic nature represents both the East Egg and West Egg, yet she is from the valley of the ashes. Her insecurity and easily manipulative nature ultimately results in her tragic death.er quick decision-making reflects her insecurity and how she lives her daily life.  

Tom Buchanan

Tom Buchanan

In this novel Tom Buchanan is the “bad boy”. Mr. Buchanan, Daisy Fay's husband, comes from an old social and immensely wealthy family. He is a Yale graduate showing also his high social standing and profanity.

Because of his college reputation, he still has the nick-names “The Athlete” and “The Polo-Player”. He is oftentimes seen as an idol. Tom is a good-looking, sporty and though guy who has verifiable “physical accomplishments”. He is a sturdy, muscular man with “arrogant eyes” and a husky voice.

Nevertheless, he has a racial attitude. He, for example, disapproves intermarriage between the black and white race. He is very egoistic and has a high opinion of himself. Therefore Tom has no moral problems about his affair with Myrtle Wilson. He says of himself that he “has almost a second sight […] that tells [him] what to do”.This shows his careless behavior and his supercilious manner.

Moreover he is a rude and violent person, who sometimes acts boisterously and maliciously.

Never being confronted with the consequences of his faults, because of always running away when he is in trouble, he is described as a restless person. Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan

Jordan Baker

Jordan Baker 

Jordan Baker is also from Louisville, Kentucky. Different to Tom and Daisy, her only living relative is an aunt. Being a famous professional golf player, she represents the new type of woman in the 20s. She is harsh, self-sufficient and always does her own thing meaning she does not need a man to help and guide her through life. Jordan is a very sportive and also masculine woman with an erect carriage. She is a “slender, small-breasted girl”. Jordan always wants to win whatever it takes. Being a very dishonest person she even lies in order to get what she wants. This is a reason why she tries to avoid meetings with clever men. Nevertheless she needs attention from the men surrounding her. Jordan basically just plays with the men's feelings and is not really interested in a relationship. You can see this very clearly when she tells Nick Carraway that she has a boyfriend.

Nick Carraway, though, has a special relationship with Jordan in a for us maybe unbelievable way. One second they love each other but later both of them go their own direction again. They are on the same wave length. In general, Jordan also likes going to parties at Gatsby's house although she does not like the host himself. In The Great Gatsby Jordan plays an important role. She is the one who introduces Nick to Gatsby and her curiosity also leads us through the book and helps us find out more about the other main characters.

Symbols

1.  Gatsby's books

An owl-eyed man at a Gatsby party sits in awe in the library, murmuring with amazement that all the books on Gatsby's shelves are "real books":

"See!" he cried triumphantly. "It's a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too - didn't cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?" 

Books used to come with their pages uncut, meaning that the sheets that are folded to make the books aren't sliced open on the top. You'd have to cut them open before reading. If you didn't, everyone would know that you hadn't actually read the book.

Gatsby's uncut books tell us that much of what Gatsby presents to the world is a facade. He wants people to believe that he's a well-educated man, an Oxford man, but in fact he only spent a short time there after the war. He wants people to think that he's well-read, but he's never even cracked the covers. So, the simple answer is that the books represent the fact that Gatsby is a fraud. He's built up an image of himself that isn't consistent with the facts of his life. But you could also argue that the unopened, unread books represent Gatsby himself: eternally mysterious, eternally unopened.

2. An owl-eyed man

Owls are a symbol of wisdom, but can also be an omen of death. Did you notice that it was the owl-eyed man who had the car accident outside of Gatsby's house? And that, shortly after he got out of the car, he revealed that someone else was driving? He really is acting as an omen, or a harbinger, of death.

But it's really the glasses bit that has our hearts beating faster. A man with large eyes and spectacles would be expected to be more perceptive than those around him. And Fitzgerald makes sure we notice the glasses; the guy is always taking them off and wiping them: "He took off his glasses and wiped them again, outside and in". Is all that wiping the reason that the owl-eyed man is the only one of Gatsby's guests who really gets him?

Well, he is the only guest who, in doubting Gatsby, is also wise enough to investigate further. And when he does investigate, he understands what he sees: "See!" he cried triumphantly. "It's a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too – didn't cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?".

There's a lot stuffed into that paragraph, so let's unpack it: first, the owl-eyed man is surprised (and a little delighted) to find out that the books are real. So, Gatsby's done his due diligence in trying to fool people: he's actually gone out and purchased real books. But, as the man discovers, he hasn't cut the pages and actually read them. Gatsby knows how much he has to do to fool people, and he knows that he doesn't need to cut the pages. Nobody in this crowd is going to check, because they're just as fake as he is. That's what the owl-eyed man sees.

3.  The eyes of T.J.Eckleburg

The first time we see the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg, they're looming over the valley of ashes, which Nick and the others have to pass through any time they travel between the Eggs and the city: "above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg". The ashes are, as ashes tend to be, "desolate" and "grotesque". Think of the valley of ashes as one big, grey reality check. Compare Gatsby's lavish parties of fresh fruit and live music and champagne to this land of smokestacks and ash-men, and you quickly realize that not all the world is as privileged as our cast of characters.

But the valley of ashes can also be seen as more commentary on the American Dream. The America of The Great Gatsby is ashen, decaying, and barren. And the Wilsons live there, which means their whole sordid story—the infidelity, immorality, lack of compassion, and anger—is associated with this failed American Dream, too.

Which brings us to the eyes. T.J. Eckleburg's billboard is the second notable pair of eyes in the novel (owl-eyes being the first). But these ones are a little different from those of the party-going bibliophile: "The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose".

This description is only slightly less freaky once you realize that they're not actually giant disembodied eyes; they're on a billboard, an ad for an eye doctor.

Nick goes on for three sentences about these weird, disembodied eyes before actually explaining that they're on a billboard. He gives your mind time to picture eerie images, to wonder what's going on, even to form other notions of what the eyes could be. Clearly, to us, the readers, the eyes are more than just a billboard.

Not long before the Tom vs. Gatsby showdown, Nick notes the eyes again keeping a "watchful vigil"; and then, George takes Myrtle to the window (from which, we know, the billboard is visible) and tells her she can't fool God. Wilson makes the same connection you might be: the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg are always watching, and so are the eyes of God.

There are a few directions you can take from here. The first is that, despite the absence of religion from the characters in this story, God is still there. He's all seeing, ever-present, and, as Nick points out, frowning. Things are not well in the valley of American ashes. The other shot you could take at this is to say that God has been replaced by capitalism. Instead of a truly religious representation, the best this world can do is manifest God in a billboard – an advertisement. 

4. The green light

We hate to think about the amount of ink that's been spilled writing about the green light in Gatsby: the "single green light" on Daisy's dock that Gatsby gazes wistfully at from his own house across the water represents the "unattainable dream," the "dream [that] must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it".

But the green light also represents the hazy future, the future that is forever elusive, as Nick claims in the last page of the novel: "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter – to-morrow we will run farther, stretch out our arms farther….". But if the green light represents Gatsby's dream of Daisy, in the past, then how does it represent the future, as well? Is the future always tied to our dreams of the past?

One last thing. Red-green traffic lights began to be installed in the U.S. in the 1910s and 1920s. Coincidence? Maybe.