The Great Gatsby

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby: Style 1 key example

Style
Explanation and Analysis:

The Great Gatsby is written in a poetic and elegiac style in order to convey a sense of both nostalgia and mournfulness. The novel’s plot is fast-paced to reflect the characters’ whirlwind lifestyles and the sense of momentum and progress that defined American culture in the 1920s (when Gatsby takes place). Yet many of the sentences are long and use evocative imagery and figurative language to reflect the characters’ surroundings and emotions. The narrator, Nick Carraway’s, descriptions are often drawn-out and poetic. For instance, he describes the sky in New York City as “blooming in the window for a moment like the blue honey of the Mediterranean” and Gatsby’s Rolls-Royce as “terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns.”