The Great Gatsby: Finished

I knew that this book was based in the 1920's and that it is well known, so I thought it would be interesting to concentrate on the style of Fitzgerald's writing. At first I figured this would be a struggle, to pick apart his style, but it is so rich in this book it was simple.

The first observation I want to point out is the importance of gossip. He portrays this by alowing the reader to discover large events and suprising actions within conversations. I can't say Nick is the main character because all five of them are, Gatsby, Tom, Daisy, Jordan, and Nick. The reader could discover everything through the mind of Nick.This is similar to most books I have read. His style allows you to feel as if you were standing in the room with all five, discovering everything right next to Nick instead of from him. Another way Fitzgerald does this is by sticking with common terms. Gatsby's being "old sport" and Tom's being "that's so?" It gives you a sense of familiarity.

The way Fitzgerald sticks negative adjectives with positive nouns is brilliant. On page 156 for instance, "...Myrtle Wilsons's tragic achievement was forgotten." Achievment is normally seem as a positive thing, a step forward, a goal met, but Wilson's is tragic. She escaped from the room where her husband was keeping her, in order to keep her from having an affair with Tom, but with that she was hit by two cars. Her achievment was escaping, the accident was tragic. This style adds to the overall mood, gloomy.

I would just like to add that I found a thin line between his style of writing and what he chose to happen in the story. For instance, Tom is having an affair with Myrtle and Daisy ends up running her over and killing her. Would this be considered a style of irony? I believe so. For some reason, that I now can not lay my finger on, I got confused. So his style of irony is pleasing. Another example is that Daisy is having an affair with Gatsby and Tom can be blamed for Gatsby's death. So Tom's chosen one for his affair is dead, along with Daisy's, which leaves Tom and Daisy to continue with their marriage. It's a crazy tale Fitzgerald is telling and these ironic incidents add to that craziness, as well as some dark humor, maybe?

Fitgerald will have small sections within paragraphs that switch from viewing everything from the five main charcters too him narrating. On page 136 he does this to describe Mr. Wilson's neighbor discovering Myrtle locked upstairs and her escaping and getting hit by Daisy. He does this to describe the situation and explain what happened before Tom, Nick, and Jordan pulled up to the accident. His style of going off on tangants mixes up the story telling and creates more deep thinking from the reader.

Another thing I noticed is the repetition of the number five. At first I thought it was just coincidence until I dog eared around 30 pages. All contained the number five, sometimes more then once. I've decided that it is a style of repetition and Fitzgerald's reason for it being the sense of time at a stand still. Throughout the book Gatsby is trying to hold onto the past with Daisy. He moved to East Egg in order to be closer to her. He throws the large parties in hopes that she will come. He makes friends with hundreds, including Nick, in order to get closer to Daisy and return to what they once were. I believe that the repetition of the number five, especially used as a time frame, and twlight, helps with the sence of being stuck at a certain time. He also refers to the time of twilight a lot, as well as Gatsby's repetition of "old sport."

Once or twice I noticed the repetition of one word in a sentence. On page 135 a sentence contains the word "thinning" three times to explain turning thirty. A style that gives emphasis to any sentence.