23rd June 2017

Language Features

1. Select three passages from the book (about a paragraph or two in length) that we have NOT annotated as a class. Annotate these passages and identify the language features that Fitzgerald uses. Explain the effect of these features and why he may have chosen to use them.

2. Fitzgerald uses many allusions throughout the novel. Select one of these allusions and explain the connection between it and the book. Bonus: how can you link it to our theme of “illusion”.

1.

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.”

  1. This line from the quote represents Gatsby’s dreams of the future, it relates to what the green light was for Gatsby: the dream of him and Daisy reuniting, but this was not meant to be.

2. This further strengthens Gatsby’s beliefs of chasing his beloved dream of being with Daisy. For Gatsby, he never stopped chasing his dream right up till the end when it was too late.

3. This is the thought of moving on. Once your dream has failed you move on and you forget about the past and focus on the future. However, for Gatsby he could not move on it was like he was stuck in his own never ending dream. Because Gatsby will never get the chance to know if the phone call right before he died was Daisy

4.The final line of this quote is stating that you can not follow back into the past. What’s done is done and you have to move on, life will always keep going.

They were careless people Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made

  1. Shows that Tom and Daisy were careless people and that they really didn’t care about anybody else in their lives, and would destroy and crush things in order to succeed.
  2. This segment proves that money was everything for them, it kept their relationship together. Shows that no matter what went wrong, their money would always be there to keep them together.
  3. Through Tom and Daisy’s path that they tore through life, they left a path of destruction. This destruction that they left behind would be left for others to clean up.

If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay, you always have a green light that burns at the end of your dock

  1. Shows that there is always something blocking Gatsby from achieving his dream, in this case, the mist is acting as a barrier for Gatsby to see through to the green light, which is the hope that his dream will come true.
  2. Proves how many times Gatsby has been looking at the green light and how much Gatsby truly wants his dream of being with Daisy to succeed.

2. The Merton College Library. The Merton College Library describes and relates back to the illusion that is Gatsby’s life. Earlier in the book, Owl Eyes (the old man) states that the books in Gatsby’s library are just for show and that it was all part of the illusion of Gatsby’s life. This proves that Owl Eyes can see right through the illusion of Gatsby’s life and he can see that it is fake. Owl Eyes is making fun of Gatsby.

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