Great Gatsby and Dinner Party

“The mouth was wide open and ripped a little at the corners,

as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored for so long”

“A fantastic farm where

ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens”

“The quality was continually

breaking through his punctilious manner in the shape of restlessness”

“After Gatsby’s death the East was haunted for me like that,

distorted beyond my eye’s power of correction”

“But his eyes,

dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground

Techniques and themes:

“A fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens”

Metaphor: 

• A farm is where life and food grow rather than a place of death and decay

• The inversion of the American dream

Irony: 

• Use of ‘fantastic’, suggests something unnatural

Visual imagery:

• Picture of bleak, ashen landscape with mounds and hills

• Geological in scale, suggesting industrial decay has consumed the land

Alliteration:

• Gardens suggests beauty, life, and cultivation

• Grotesque, twists it into something ugly and disturbing

• Makes the phrase striking and memorable 

Themes:

• Moral and social decay

• Greed of the wealthy

• Stark contrast to lushness of Gatsby’s parties 

• Barren, industrial wasteland

“Gatsby believed in the green light,

the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us”

“They conducted themselves according to the

rules and behaviour associated with an amusement park”

“Her voice

 is full of money”

“I like large parties. They’re so intimate.

At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”

“Can’t repeat the past?..

Why of course you can!”

“Her face was

sad and lovely with bright things in it”

techniques and themes:

“But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground”

Symbolism:

• Interpreted as the eyes of god

• Moral judgement

Imagery:

• Neglect

• Decay

• Passing of time

• Mirrors the moral and social deterioration

Juxtaposition: 

• Dignity and filth 

• Clashing between appearance and reality 

Metaphor:

• Moral wasteland of the ashes

• Wealthy classes carelessness

Themes:

• Moral decay 

• Corruption

• Illusion

• Decay of American Dream

techniques and themes:

“After Gatsby’s death the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eye’s power of correction”

Simile:

• ‘Haunted like that

• Negative connotations

• Lingering sense of unease and moral decay

Imagery: 

• Warped

• Corruption

Metaphor:

• Adjusting a lens or perspective

• His moral perspective could no longer be changed or restored

Themes: 

• Disillusionment

• Moral decay

• Loss of innocence 

• Alienation

techniques and themes:

“Her voice is full of money”

Metaphor:

• Wealth and luxury 

• Her allure is due to her status

Symbolism: 

• Money is a symbol

• Exclusivity and glamour of the wealth 

Auditory imagery:

• Her irresistible voice

• Even her voice embodies wealth

Themes:

• Materialism

• Wealth

• American Dream

• Class

techniques and themes:

“I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy”

Irony: 

• Contradictory

• Superficiality 

Juxtaposition

• Absurdity of the wealthy

Themes:

• Isolation

• Disillusionment 

techniques and themes:

“The mouth was wide open and ripped a little at the corners, as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored for so long”

Graphic imagery:

• Violence of her death

• Confronts the brutality 

Irony:

• ‘Tremendous vitality’ in her death

• Passionate personality extinguished

 Symbolism:

• Longing for a better life

• Pursuit of wealth and status

Pathos:

• Sympathy 

• Tragedy of lost potential 

Themes: 

• Death and mortality 

• Loss of vitality 

• Destruction caused by American Dream

techniques and themes:

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us”

Symbolism:

• Represents Gatsby's hopes, dreams

• Pursuit of the American dream

• Light is always in sight but unreachable 

Metaphor:

• Intense pleasure and fulfillment

Themes: 

• American dream

• Hope 

• Time 

• Obsession with the past

techniques and themes:

“They conducted themselves according to the rules and behaviour associated with an amusement park”

Irony: 

• ‘Rules’ and ‘behaviour’ related to an amusement park

Imagery:

• Playful and chaotic setting

• Decadence and extravagance of Gatsby’s parties 

Hyperbole: 

• Rules in an amusement park

Themes:

• Hedonism 

• Social critique 

• Alienation

• Superficiality

• Performance

techniques and themes:

“Can’t repeat the past?...Why of course you can!”

rhetorical question: 

• Questioning reality

• Disbelief that time can’t be undone

Hyperbole: 

• Exaggerates confidence 

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”

Extended metaphor:

• Human struggle against time 

• Inevitability of the past

Symbolism:

• Time 

• Reality

• Forces that keep people moving forward

Themes:

• Time

• Past

• Futility of the American Dream

• Perseverance

• Disillusionment

techniques and themes:

“Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it”

Juxtaposition:

• Contrast sorrow with beauty

• Complexity of Daisy’s character

• Evokes sympathy and admiration

Imagery:

• Vivid picture of fleeting joy

• Vitality within her sadness

Symbolism:

• ‘Bright things’ similar to the green light

• Hope and innocence 

Themes: 

• Illusion, appears beautiful but the sadness hints to reality 

• Desire 

• yearning/longing

themes in gatsby and the dinner party

• alienation

• superficiality

• dehumanisation

• superficiality

• mockery and hostility