Rhetorical Strategies

• Euphemism “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (1).
• Symbolism “You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock” (99).
• Polysyndeton “The bar is in full swing and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names” (44).
•  Simile “They were both in white and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house” (19).

Fitzgerald uses various rhetorical strategies to convey his style in The Great Gatsby. The author begins his story with Nick’s father sharing advice, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (1). Fitzgerald’s use of “advantages” is a euphemism for the wealth Nick is born into. The application of this device allows the author to reveal his subtle style and to conceal the fact that Nick is wealthy at the beginning so that the reader feels at an equal status to him. Throughout the novel the narrator makes reference to Daisy’s green light on her dock in East Egg, “You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock” (99). The light is symbolic for Gatsby’s future aspirations and assists in displaying Fitzgerald’s subtle style and implications of the American dream of prosperity. At one of Gatsby’s elaborate parties, the bar is described as “in full swing and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names” (44). The repetition of “and” is a polysyndeton that allows the author to convey a quick and urgent style of language that implicitly describes the nature of Gatsby’s parties. The narrator describes that Daisy and Jordan “were both in white and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house” (19). This simile contributes to Fitzgerald’s implicit style in that he is describing their light and whimsical personalities. The author’s rhetoric assists in revealing his mysterious, implicit style effectively throughout his novel.