“The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s use of language serves to develop the characters of Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. Fitzgerald’s use of specific details, particularly the juxtaposition of those details pertaining to Myrtle, portrays her as contradictory and superficial and Tom as a bullish and arrogant. Fitzgerald’s diction, dually connoting prosperity and deficiency, conveys Myrtle’s false sense of egotism and affluence and enforces the narrator’s disdain for both Tom and Myrtle.
Myrtle’s transition from the slums in between the ‘Eggs’ and New York City is made apparent by Fitzgerald’s selection of details regarding her. Her change in dresses, the purchase of trinkets and perfume, and her methodical choice in taxi cab based upon its luxury interior are details that serve to depict Myrtle as superficial, yet her origins of the ashen slum contradict these actions. The juxtaposition of these details reveals that Myrtle feigns wealth and propriety due to her affair with Tom Buchanan.
Tom’s brash comments following the frivolous purchase of a dog “Here’s your money go buy ten more dogs with it,” characterize him as brashly using his wealth to degrade and deny someone of lower socioeconomic stature, the dog seller. He repeatedly refuses to let Nick leave, saying “No, you don’t,” showing again that he believes he is powerful enough to keep an adult man for an undisclosed amount of time against his will because his own will is greater and stronger.
While Tom is affluent, he lacks politeness and courtesy, believing that he can use his money to subdue and control others such as Nick and Myrtle. The diction of the passage connotes both vanity and deficiency. Words such as “regal,” “hauitlly,” and “pastoral,” connote a type of quiet and subdued perfection found with affluence. Fitzgerald’s description of the “long white cake of apartment-houses” reflects this, yet upon entering the apartment it is described as too small, “crowded,” and over furnished with “tapestried furniture entirely too large for it, so that to move was to stumble continually. The juxtaposition of the outside, the pristinely neat line of apartments described as delicate “cake,” to the inside, a cluttered mess of luxurious yet unnecessary furniture lends to the idea that Myrtle lives in a facade of attempted propriety and wealth that she gains from her relationship with Tom. She attempts prosperity and haughtiness on the surface, made apparent by the use of “regal” and the exterior description of the cake-like apartment. However inside she is fixated on such a luxurious ifestyle but cannot seem to produce it properly, as evident by the cluttered apartment. The contradictions made by Nick and Myrtle in the passage and the narrator’s fixation of those contradictions reveals Nick’s distain for both characters’ actions. The narrator points out the incongruity of “regal” Myrtle opening the cab door and walking into her cluttered small apartment, lending to the attitude of the author that suggests that Myrtle is false in her attempts at affluence and luxury.
The Essay on Fitzgerald’s use of diction in The Great Gatsby
... In conclusion, F. Scott Fitzgerald effectively employed diction and selection of detail to develop the characters of Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. He did ... when Nick tries to leave Tom and Myrtle. “No you don’t,” Tom interposed quickly. “Myrtle’ll be hurt if you don’t come up to the apartment. ...
The narrator’s observation of Myrtle’s incorrect English “I got to call up my sister,” and the “regal homecoming glace” she displays outside the cab serve to illustrate Nick’s opinion that Myrtle is attempting to live a life of luxury, while coming from a poorer, less education and less affluent place that is the grey ashen land. Nick’s observations of Tom, his comment of “It’s a bitch,” and his showering of Myrtle with gifts and luxuries, show that his opinion of Tom is that he is a wealthy yet bullish man, incapable of the niceties and refinement that are associated with wealth.
F. Scot Fitzgerald’s us of language in the passage from the “Great Gatsby,” particularly his use of details and diction, serve to characterize Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson as contradictory people: Myrtle as low in class, yet given luxuries that do not suit her mannerisms, and Tom as a man lacing in refinement that usually comes with his social stature as a wealthy man. These contradictions made by the characters and identified by the narrator serve to characterize the narrator’s opinion of both Tom and Myrtle.
The Essay on Wuthering Heights The Narrator
Emily Brontefs Wuthering Heights, starts off with confusing opening characters and she uses Wuthering Heights as an introduction for the readers and to show the complex relationships the characters have among each other. Bronte uses a peculiar style of narration, she uses second and third person narration throughout the novel. Nothing is ever associated by a perspective of a single observer. In ...