In order to establish the increasing drunken state of the characters in chapter two, Fitzgerald uses Nick’s role as narrative focaliser. However, explicit descriptions of drunken behavior are indirectly portrayed through the use of voice. Myrtle’s ‘high mincing shout’ portrays how Fitzgerald avoids large clumsy gestures. The ‘dim heavy cost’ Nick recalls also evokes a surreal atmosphere which suggests drunkenness. Furthermore, the small act of Nick wiping the ‘spot of lather’ from Mckee’s cheek, his reserve broken down by alcohol, also achieves a portrayal of his drunken state.
It’s described as a ‘grey land and the spasms of bleak dust’ giving us a very vivid image of this dull wasteland. We see a recurring motif throughout the novel. Since everyone has faced death and the book is set immediately after the Great War, people are living in a very ephemeral society. There’s a heavy sense of hedonism in
Roo in “The Summer of The Seventeenth Doll.”) Fitzgerald makes it very clear to us that Tom is “A hulking man” by how the other characters in the book refer to him. One could note that Daisy Buchanan (Tom’s wife) several times claims Tom to be “A hulk”, “A brute”, etc. Tom is also shown by Fitzgerald to be a very abusive, short tempered man. Some undeniable evidence of this is when he backhands Myrtle Wilson (his mistress) across the face, breaking her nose in the process. Fitzgerald also reveals bruises on
Write some of the ways Fitzgerald tells the story in Chapter 3 of ‘The Great Gatsby’ Fitzgerald depicts the lavish lifestyle and heightened characterisation with a detailed description of Nick’s first encounter of a party hosted by Gatsby and the meeting of Gatsby himself. The use of poetic prose, materialistic symbolism and gossipy dialogue allows Fitzgerald to continue to entice the reader with the developed plot in chapter 3. In chapter 3, Nick’s unreliable narrative is represented with the influence of alcohol, ‘I had taken two finger bowls of champagne and, the scene had changed before my eyes.’ This implies to the reader that Nick’s vision is distorted, ‘changed before my eyes’, indicating that the recollection of events may not be accurate, which is a common feature of an unreliable narrator. The hazy recall is hinted at with the mention of ‘glasses bigger than finger bowls’ which contrasts with the later comment ‘I had two finger bowls of champagne’ demonstrating blurred memories affecting the plot presented to the reader. The narrative device of gossipy dialogue is used to depict Gatsby’s character and present a heightened sense of mystery and drama surrounding the perplexity of the protagonist.
He there meets a “hideous” Jew, smoking a “vile” cigar. These adjectives make a sinister, dark and gloomy atmosphere. P. 49 The way these descriptions show negative connotations of the West End link and parallel with the change of character, further help demonstrate the transformation Dorian has throughout these chapters. Also the increase of amounts of time Dorian visits the West End shows the literal affect Dorian’s own choices and lifestyle have on himself, the poorer, grimier and more dangerous areas of London could represent Dorian’s current state of mind. Another literary device Wilde uses to portray Dorian’s transformation is form.
Fitzgerald aims to build a sense of trust and so portrays characters as well educated and enlightened, as such that Nick is ‘inclined to reserve all judgments’ and being ‘privy to the secret grief of wild, unknown men’. This forces the reader to trust Nick’s retrospective recollections; and the fact that the reader is aware of how his perceptions may have been altered by future knowledge or the erosion of memory through time indicates this memoir may be an edited version that is not completely reflective on the true events. Fitzgerald clearly sets the setting of the whole novel: the West Egg and East Egg, it is arguably said that it could be referred to the history of the Christopher Columbus story. This enhances the imagery of an egg as the start of a new life; Nick felt that ‘life was beginning over again’. Moreover, Fitzgerald allows Nick to point out the superficial similarities between the two communities, revealing differences gradually; extravagant wealthy people populate both Eggs and to the outsiders they are a source of ‘perpetual wonder’.
This is used as the background to the title character’s story of powerful love for his cousin Roxanne, a love Cyrano does not think he deserves, despite his wit, because of his physical appearance. Dickens, on the other hand, creates his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, during a time of great turmoil, the beginnings of the French Revolution, which would eventually upheave thousands of years of hierarchy and tradition. Dickens’s France is dark, miserable and filled with a climate of overwhelming terror behind the heroic and sacrificial tale of self-deprecating hero, Sydney Carton, who gives his own life in a selfless act of love for Lucie Manette in order to save the man she loves from the guillotine. Though Dickens’s illustration of the revolutionaries is not always positive, he has a deep sympathy towards the plight of the poor therefore his portrayal of France is extremely negative and often exaggerated. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens depict opposing interpretations of life in France which were developed based on the personal backgrounds of the authors and expressed in romanticized portrayals of French society in the mid-17th century and late 18th century respectively.
In the “Falling Man” Don DeLillo attempts to explore the many facets of the human emotion when face with their mortality. From the beginning vision that is created of a man in shock after a horrific event and how he see the foundation of his life around him in a new light: “It was not a street anymore but a world, a time and space of falling ash and near night.” “The roar was still in the air, the buckling rumble of the fall. This was the world now. Smoke and ash came rolling down streets and turning corners, busting around corners, seismic tides of smoke, with office paper flashing past, standard sheets with cutting edge, skimming, whipping past, otherworldly things in the morning pall.” Page 3 With these descriptive words Don forces us to view the world through the eyes of Keith, a man that just survived the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Though Keith’s eyes the stark world with haunting image of mortality all around can be visualize.
The valley of the ashes represents the moral and social decay that results from unreached pursuit of wealth. George and Myrtle Wilson live on this land, and they represent the difficulties of the poor. The results of unreached goals is what is reflected when one thinks of this horrid place. It is dusty, clogging up car engines, perhaps also representing the numerous regrets of not reaching personal and financial goals. The valley of the ashes connects with Gatsby’s failure in obtaining the American Dream because it is obviously is the root of a lack of success.
Fitzgerald uses flashbacks very frequently in the novel, and by doing this Fitzgerald immediately has the reader questioning Nick, as accounts of the past are not as reliable as descriptions of the present. The form is also an important factor of how Fitzgerald tells the story in chapter two, as form is all about perspective. As Nick is the only narrator, we only hear Nick’s perspective on everything and therefore rely on Nick’s perspective on things such as characters and events in order to form our own judgment on them. However, Fitzgerald uses this technique very cleverly as we learn a lot about Nick Carraway as a character through his narration. In chapter one, he mentions that he is “inclined to reserve all