LANGUAGE FEATURES

“Paid a high price for living too long with a single dream”

“…… shivered when he found out what a grotesque thing a rose is”

single dream = Gatsby has been focused on completing the American Dream by winning Daisy back. Everything he has done with his life, from the moment he met her, has been for Daisy. He has lived a life with a singular focus and no other purpose.

high price= The price of the dream is the loss of his true self and untimely death. Ultimately he dies for her
“

grotesque= Ugly, horrific, unpleasant, dangerous

This is used as a metaphor to represent Daisy, her true nature is expressed through the grotesqueness of the rose. We think of roses as being pretty, beautiful, and the symbol of love and compassion. They look like the perfect symbol of love. When you actually reach out to pick up the rose it pricks you with the thorns that you don’t see until you get close enough. You then begin to bleed.

Nick suggests that roses aren’t inherently beautiful and that people only view them that way because they choose to do so. Daisy is “grotesque” in the same way: Gatsby has invested her with beauty and meaning by making her the object of his dream. Had Gatsby not instilled her with such value, Daisy would be simply an idle, bored, rich young woman with no particular value or significance. Because Gatsby has held Daisy with such great value, he is willing to do anything to accomplish his dream of being with her. Ultimately he discovers how disgusting a rose (the symbol of love and passion) is. This shows us, readers, how easily the mind can be tricked, and how egotism leads the characters in the novel to different paths of life. Passion, love and desire all blind us to a state of disbelief, to the point where we cannot think rationally. In this quotation, Fitzgerald uses this rose metaphor to express Daisy’s true nature. Gatsby, finally, once it is too late, realizes that she only looks like the perfect woman. In reality, loving and wanting her is a dangerous desire, he will end up bleeding out, and ironically he dies for her. Her elite social status is her “thorns” which makes her unattainable. Her “petals” may seem delicate or precious from afar but once you get past the illusion of beauty there are thorns that pierce through your skin as you try to get close. Rose thorns are poisonous, as a dangerous fungi called porothrix schenckii resides on the tips. If your skin is pierced by a thorn it can cause swelling, redness, ulcers and infection at the puncture sight. Humans usually look at roses from above, they only see the illusion of beauty, not what resides beneath. Gatsby only looks at Daisy’s “white girlhood” from above, he does not care to see beneath the “petals” while developing his obsession, only having the chance to see an “illusion of beauty” created by the petals not what resides beneath. What Daisy truly represents is a white rose, the petals delicate and innocent-like on the surface, but yellow and corrupt on the inside. Beneath the petals of a rose, reside insects and bugs that corrupt the inner beauty of a rose, they slowly eat away at the petals leaving holes and splits behind. Over time these insects break the connections holding together the petals of a rose and the stem, representing how how one day Daisy’s outer beauty will fade, her inner beauty is already gone, but what she has left is the “petals” that conceal her rotten personality. Time on it’s own does this to “a rose”, age wilts the petals leaving them lifeless and dead. Old money has already spoiled Daisy’s inner beauty, insects have infected her petals leaving her just like the rest of society, while her “rotten core” may be concealed for the meantime, time will catch up on her, wilting the outer beauty that she possesses. One day, there will be no petals left, she will be both “grotesque”and “exposed” inside and out. The hooks on the Daisy’s “thorns” draw Gatsby in every time, but the bacteria that resides upon them poisons him like a drug, making him want her more every-time he tries to get closer, blind to all of her flaws. The area of skin that has been infected with this “poison” swells every time Gatsby gets close to Daisy, the infection grows as his obsession becomes stronger. Daisy’s dangerous thorns are poisonous in the same way that Gatsby’s obsession is, in the end they are exposed as murderous due to Gatsby dying for her. This poison is too strong for him to cope with, his social status does not support his obsession and it becomes too overwhelming to cope with.

Daisy once called Nick a rose, they are both thorny underneath the petals of beauty or innocence that are conveyed by each of them. Nick, once innocent and naive has now been infected with the “poison” that old money administers. He has now become a rose, just like his cousin, petals intact, but core rotten. The quotation suggests that, gaining perspective into the way of life in the East makes you become a rose, your naivety has been corrupted by the bitterness and ruthless behaviour of old money society.

“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”

green light= The light on Daisy’s dock represents the hopes and dreams, specifically the American Dream

orgastic future= The peak of perfection or the ideal future that we all want to attain, the American Dream

recedes before us= As you move forward, it moves back

stretch out our arms farther= Constantly be reaching forward trying to achieve that dream even though it is always moving back

Fitzgerald uses the “boat” metaphor to show how Gatsby will use any means necessary to repeat the past, to achieve his dream or to get Daisy back in his life. This metaphor compares the human relationship with time to boats moving against the current. It suggests that as boats resist the current to move in the direction of their choice, humans often resist the passage of time. They hold onto the past even when time moves further away from it. It exposes the true nature of humanity. He focuses on the struggles felt by human beings to achieve their goals by both transcending and recreating the past. Yet humans are unable to move beyond the past thus “boats against the current”. Metaphorically speaking, the current draws them back as they constantly row forward towards “the green light”, or the “American dream”. Nobody can escape the current of reality that draws them backwards, therefore making the American Dream impossible. The past functions as a source of their ideas about the future, and they cannot escape this mindset as they continue to struggle to transform their dreams into a reality. This metaphor exposes the true reality of human nature and the American dream that is struggled to grasp by them. Gatsby holds onto his relationship with Daisy from 5 years ago, building his entire life and illusion around it. The expectation that this is unrealistic is communicated to us through this metaphor, because, like the current, time moves forwards, preventing Gatsby and all of humanity from truly recreating the past or achieving their goals, therefore making their efforts and optimism “ceaseless” While humans never lose their optimism and remain hopeful towards success hence “tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther”, they expend all of their energy in pursuit of a goal that moves even further away, making it unattainable. This metaphor characterizes both Gatsby’s struggle and the American dream itself. Nick’s words register neither blind approval nor cynical disillusionment but rather the respectful melancholy that ultimately is Gatsby’s life.

Allusions

Fitzgerald’s first allusion is a mythical reference to Nick’s financial icons. Carraway’s allusion shows the reader the scope of his research, and also gives some insight into who he aspirates to be like in a financial sense. Straight out of the Great War, Nick decided to go East to learn the “bond business, to prepare for the new career he “bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Mæcenas knew.’ The first of Nick’s financial icons are mentioned in Greek Mythology. King Midas is one of the most known and controversial personas in Greek Mythology, known for his wisdom but also his greed. He is popularly remembered for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. “Morgan” is a reference to J.P Morgan, an American financier and industrialist who dominated corporate finance in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He started his own banking company and was known as “the king of finance and banking”. The last of Nick’s admirations, Mæcenas was a confident Roman statesman who helped advise Emperor Caesar Augustus. He was trusted with extreme administrative control over Italy, making him extremely wealthy and prosperous. This passage gives us a glimpse into Nick’s version of the American Dream, and yet again exposes the true nature of the American Dream. To be like these three icons would be unattainable, it only shows further how blinded the entirety of society is by the American Dream.

Racism

“ ‘Civilization’s going to pieces,’ broke out Tom Violently. ‘I’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. Have you read The Rise of the Colored Empires by this man Goddard?'” The second allusion used in the Great Gatsby is conveyed by Tom: “The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be – will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved”. This is a reminder of how much racism was present among society in the 1920s, the KKK was at it’s high and it had broadened its discrimination to other races, not just African Americans. Racism is still present in modern day society as it seems to be a timeless issue that cannot ever be solved in its entirety. Usually, the most racist remarks come from Tom in the novel, implying that Fitzgerald is trying to convey Tom as a racist man in order to make him even more unlikable to readers. This allusion conveys Tom’s true nature and personality; he is an arrogant, derogatory, and racist man with very little moral values who believes that the white race is superior to others. He is sexist and extremely abusive to women, communicating this, he breaks Myrtle’s nose and hurts Daisy’s finger. Generally, this makes him an unlikable man, as his behaviour can be affiliated with emotional and physical abuse to women, other races, and minorities. Racism during the early 1900s was commonly present among society and was usually between the white race and a colored race such as African Americans. During this time, whites were the most dominant race and had the ideology and mindset that their race was superior to colored races. Although most of the racist remarks come from Tom, Nick later mentions his surprise when seeing a white chauffeur drive three “negroes” over the Brooklyn Bridge; “A limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which say three modish Negroes”. Nick reflects on this by thinking, “anything can happen now that we’re over this bridge” suggesting that he has a racist mindset of his own. Although Nick “an outsider” refrains from saying racist remarks in the presence of other individuals, this passage suggests that he has racist views of his own.

The 1919 World Series

“It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people” The third allusion that Fitzgerald uses is one that relates to a real historical event, the 1919 world series. Commonly referred to as the Black Sox scandal, in 1919, eight players from the Chicago White Sox team were accused of accepting bribe money in exchange for losing the World Series baseball game. While it’s still uncertain who the mastermind was behind this shady transaction, a man named Arnold Rothstein is often given credit for its success. When Gatsby takes Nick into New York, they meet with one of his business associates, Meyer Wolfsheim, who is very much like Rothstein in the way that he was a Jewish gambler who made a fortune from all sorts of illegal and illicit businesses. “‘Meyer Wolfsheim? No, he’s a gambler.’ Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: ‘He’s the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919”. Fitzgerald alludes to this event because it draws attention to the type of people that Gatsby is associated with, foreshadows the reveal of how he got his money through illegal activities and gives the impression that gamblers once ruled baseball; “a lot of these newly rich people are just bootleggers, you know” – Tom Buchanan. These allusions are used to make us subconsciously make connections between characters and historical events to broaden our perception of them as a whole and make it easy for us to imagine the story taking place in reality.