Rhetorical Strategies

• Allusion: “'Have you read 'The Rise of the Colored Empires' by this man Goddard?'”(12).
• Simile: “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars”(39).
• Personification: “[F]loating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter”(40).
• Paradox: “'And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy'”(49).
• Adage: “'One thing's sure and nothing's surer/ The rich get richer and the poor get—children'”(95).
• Alliteration: “His hand took hold of hers”(96).
• Symbolism: “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us”(180).

     In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald makes use of rhetorical devices to emphasize his articulate writing style and Nick Carraway, the narrator's, personality. Symbols are continuously used throughout the story, but none so much as the green light at the end of the Buchanan dock. At first this light represents Gatsby's love for Daisy and his determination to win her affection, but as time goes on it accrues other meanings. It begins to represent the steps he had to take to be in that position, how he earned his wealth and social status. Extending it even farther the green light becomes symbolic for the American Dream; that if one is determined enough one can achieve anything, no matter the likelihood. Of all the objects Fitzgerald could have chosen to represent this array of messages, he chose one of the most simple things, light. This reflects how simple and clear his own writing style is, and is in perfect contrast with the society he is describing. While speaking to Nick at one of Gatsby's parties, Jordan Baker paradoxically states “'And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy'”(49) . Without an explanation, this statement is almost meaningless; it represents the convoluted nature of high society and the backwards thinking of the individuals involved in it. The disparity between Jordan's statement and the surrounding text only helps to further the readers appreciation of and increase the clarity of Fitzgerald's writing, and Nick's thoughts.