A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Great Gatsby

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Maddie Reingold Lit. Comp 3 Ms. Falcone 16 March 2013 An Unfinished Thought The final section of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald uses a cautious tone, returning images, and specific sentence structure to bring together the essential themes of the novel. Through the use of these methods, Fitzgerald underscores something of higher significance, that the American Dream is a false and unachievable one, as dreams are naturally unattainable. Nick believes, due to his optimistic demeanor, that one fine morning everything will fall into its proper place, but, due to his extensive amount of time spent with Gatsby, he chooses not to finish his thought as he has come to realize that dreams are indeed centered around the hopefulness of…show more content…
Because of Nick’s acceptance of this fact at the end of the novel, Fitzgerald stops Nick in mid sentence, leaving the reader hanging. Fitzgerald, through leaving the sentence unfinished, is indicating to the reader his belief that the "American dream" has shifted into something that is unachievable and unable to be completed, like the sentence. The fractured syntax in the passage plays a role in portraying how Gatsby's dream was abruptly shattered and its impossibility turned into reality. Though optimistic about being able to achieve the dream that continues to evade them, seen with, "It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms further...And one fine morning-" the ellipsis points and the dashes indicate an unfinished thought, a point at which the speaker, Nick, comes to the sudden realization that this "orgastic future" may be impossible to…show more content…
In Gatsby's quest for self-fulfillment, he chases his one true love, Daisy, which is essentially the manifestation of his unattainable dream. Gatsby had extravagant parties in which many people excitedly attended and many “people were not invited--they went there.” Because of the various parties, it brought on the illusion that Gatsby knew many people. However, the purpose of these parties was only to see if Daisy would show up. Gatsby put all of his time, energy and money into this dream and when he was not able to attain his dream he was left with nothing. After Gatsby’s death, we can see how many true friends he made in his lifetime by observing who attended his funeral graciously organized by Nick. On the day of the funeral “the minister glanced several times at his watch so I (Nick) took him aside and asked him to wait for half an hour. But it wasn't any use. Nobody came” (Fitzgerald, 174). In the end, despite the evident fact that he had worked hard and sacrificed years of his life to fulfill his dreams, which failed him, Gatsby had no one that wanted to be there for him, not even Daisy, his
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