The Use of Imagery and Irony in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

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Recommended: The satirical description of modern society in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby has been around for ages; it is a story of a young man in the 1920’s who is thrown into a new world made up of the new and the old rich. He is confused by the way these people act and in the end cannot stay another minute in this strange, insensitive, materialistic world. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses many techniques to help the reader understand how Nick Carraway (the narrator) is feeling throughout the story. In the book The Great Gatsby, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses effective language to make his writing successful. He uses the techniques of imagery and irony to display this message.

The first writing technique that makes Fitzgerald’s writing effective is the use of imagery. Nick has moved to West Egg, which is home to the “new” rich. There is a dividing line between the new rich and the “old” rich. Upon coming to West Egg, Nick finds himself living next to a mysteriously wealthy man named Mr. Gatsby. “The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard- it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby’s mansion, or, rather, as I didn’t know Mr. Gatsby, it was a mansion…Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water” (5) The description of Gatsby’s mansion is unbelievable, the author does a great job using imagery that the reader can clearly imagine what this incredible mansion looks like. He compares it to Hotel de Ville in Normandy, which if the reader has seen, or looks up, can really imagine what it looks like and know that it is unbelievable and gigantic. The author de...

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...rite effectively. Throughout the book he is displaying several messages. He is saying that the American dream is not all that it’s cracked up to be and that money isn’t everything. Gatsby worked his whole life to make money and buy fancy things to impress Daisy. In the end, she doesn’t choose him, and he ends up dead. Myrtle longs for money and a luxurious lifestyle, and she ends up dead as well. Fitzgerald expresses this by using imagery and irony. The last thing Nick says to Gatsby is, “They’re a rotten crowd, you’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” (154). Nick is telling Gatsby that those types of rich obsessed people are not good and that Gatsby, who is caring and unselfish, is better than them. He doesn’t need Daisy to have a good life. This book expresses to the reader important messages about life and the superficial ideals that money is everything.

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