Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Rhetorical Strategies


The Blog Project
Topic 1 Rhetorical Strategies
·         Simile “For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face… the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk” (17).
·         Paradox: “I came into her room and found her lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress—and as drunk as a monkey” (90).
·         Imagery: “An hour later the front door opened nervously, and Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie, hurried in” (99).
·         Personification: “As my taxi groaned away I saw Gatsby walking toward me across his lawn” (96).
·         Alliteration: “If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him” (2).
·         Invective: “’The poor son-of-a-bitch,’ he said” (213).



In the very interesting novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald creates a very interesting environment with the intellectual placement of his rhetorical strategies. The art of entwining the subtle rhetorical strategies in sly places creates a really big impact.  Fitzgerald’s usage of all of these strategies causes the reader to understand the true motive of the passage.  A paradox is particularly inserted in chapter 4 to give quite particular implication; “I came into her room half an hour before the bridal dinner, and found her lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress – and as drunk as a monkey”(90). The divergence of “as lovely as the June” and “Drunk as a monkey”, create a rift in the sentence to divert more attention to it. The Paradox is also elucidated by two similes that create the paradox to suggest more successive explanation of the rift. Fitzgerald gives an ample amount of description of all the characters and surroundings. Out of many to pick a particular one is, “An hour later the front door opened nervously, and Gatsby in a white flannel suit, silver shirt and gold-colored tie hurried in”(99). The “white flannel suit” with a “silver shirt” and a “gold-colored tie” provides a flamboyant view of Gatsby. This illuminates to the fact of his rich attire and haughty attitude. The fact that the, “the front door opened nervously”, indicates that prominent appearance of Gatsby characterized the door of being shamed of itself, thus being nervous. Fitzgerald’s great implementation of these strategies truly elevates this book to an another level.

No comments:

Post a Comment