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Essay / The Great Gatsby - Stylistic Devices - 1857
Chapter OneIn the first chapter, F. Scott Fitzgerald primarily uses details to introduce the setting and characters. For example, in introducing the main setting of the book, he describes his house wedged between two huge premises which rented for twelve or fifteen thousand dollars per season. (9). One of these houses was Gatsby's. This detail gives the reader an idea of what kind of town it was and the kind of people who lived there. Fitzgerald also uses details to introduce characters. Introducing Daisy, one of the main characters, he said she had bright eyes and a bright, passionate mouth, with an excitement in her voice that the men who cared for her found it hard to forget... (14). These details show that Daisy is obviously a difficult character to forget, foreshadowing future events with her in the book. When he first mentions Gatsby, he describes him by saying "if personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something magnificent about him" (6). This shows how much Gatsby is admired in the city, and he himself says that he never met him but there. these are the rumors that circulate about its mystery. You also see Nick's attraction to Miss Baker, saying that her voice "forced [him] forward breathlessly while [he] listened" (18). The detail immediately shows his immediate attraction and a sort of romantic alchemy between them. Chapter Two Fitzgerald uses many stylistic devices in chapter two, but the most dominant and important is syntax. He opens the chapter describing the valley that lies halfway between the WestEgg and New York in a vague sentence. He says that it is a “valley of ashes” where they take “the forms of houses” and where “men move vaguely and are already crumbling in the powdery air” (27). The syntax of the sentence shows that the valley is gray and the poor people who live there are looked down upon by the rich people who live on both sides of the valley. This is where the poor characters in the book live. Above the Gray Valley, Fitzgerald introduces Dr. TJ Eckleburg. The syntax adds more mystery to the story as it does not describe Eckleburg's characteristics as a person but just his eyes. He says the eyes are "blue and gigantic and "they don't come out of a face, but rather a pair of huge yellow glasses that pass over a non-existent nose."(27).