The Great Gatsby Diction Analysis

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In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character Nick Carraway is in a great deal of pain after the loss of his neighbor and friend Jay Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald displays Nick Carraway’s feeling toward Jay Gatsby through his use of diction and metaphor. Fitzgerald’s use of diction reveals that Nick is upset about Gatsby’s death and that he misses him greatly. Through metaphor, Fitzgerald also portrays the respect that Nick has for Gatsby regardless of the fact that Nick disapproved of Gatsby’s lifestyle and moral. Nick Carraway is grief-stricken after his friend Jay Gatsby is murdered. F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals Nick’s feeling of sadness through diction. Fitzgerald writes “...perhaps he had made a story about it all his own.…show more content…
Fitzgerald writes “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—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald). These words terminate the novel and Nick finds himself returning to the idea of the significance of the past to dreams of the future. This is represented by the green light on Daisy’s docks. Nick focuses on the struggle of human beings to achieve their goals by both re-creating and venturing into the past. Humans prove themselves unable to move beyond the past. In Fitzgerald’s metaphoric language used here, the current draws them backward as they row forward toward the green light. Peoples’ past, functions as the source of their ideas about the future and they cannot escape it. They continue to struggle to make their dreams a reality. While they never lose hope, they vent all of their energy into a goal that keeps moving farther and farther away. This metaphor characterizes Gatsby’s struggle. Nick’s words do not reveal approval, but they do not reveal disillusionment either. They reveal the respectful melancholy that he ultimately believes about Gatsby and his life. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway is devastated after the loss of his friend Jay
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