Gastby Chapter 3

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  • Created on: 16-05-16 17:55
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  • Gatsby Chapter 3
    • Nick describes Gatsby's parties
      • use of sensuous imagery and possessive adjectives highlights wealth an provides an overload of glamour and luxury. Imagery is cloying and vulgar.
        • 'his beach... his guests... his two motorboats'
        • 'blue gardens' - suggests artifice
      • parties are of a regimented nature, shows they are highly organised but suggests Gatsby's power also.
        • 'Every Friday... every Monday'
        • 'corps of caterers' - metaphorcial army
      • excessive amount of connectives used for hyperbolic personifying of food - even in retrospect the sensual nature is undimmed
        • 'spiced baked hams crowded... turkeys bewitched to a dark gold'
      • Although opulent, the party is vibrant and gaudy. Deeply symbolic as primary colours lack subtly or finesse, reinforcing the vulgar, artificial nature of the party.
        • 'gaudy with primary colours'
      • Structurally, the party is a direct contrast to Gatsby's funeral - prophetically ironic
        • when Gatsby is dead, no one attends, highlighting the vacuous, greedy self-centred nature of upper class.
    • Nick attends Gatsby's party, meets new characters
      • Nick has been invited
        • 'I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited'
          • adverb 'actually' highlights gratitude
            • we question Nick's pride, as previously he established the party as excessively vulgar - structure - he oscillates between admiration and disgust.
        • we question Nick's pride, as previously he established the party as excessively vulgar - structure - he oscillates between admiration and disgust.
        • reinforces that Nick is an outsider, as well as the ridiculous nature of parties as an open, socially indulgent gathering, vacuous and lacking all morality.
      • Introduced to the character of 'owl eyes' and Library
        • Fitzgerald uses recurring motif of eyes to reinforce the theme of appearance vs reality
          • 'enormous owl-eyed spectacles' 'stout man'
        • Library setting used to set up a contradiction of Gatsby.
          • books described hyperbolically, owl eyes knows Gatsby is corrupt/fake, uses irony.
            • 'absolutely real, pages and everything'    'its a triumph... what thoroughness!What realism!' However, ironic as 'pages aren't cut'
            • Gatsby's house is like a 'Belasco' - famous for creating magnificent theatre sets.
          • 'Gothic panelled library' 'probably transported... overseas'
            • Gatsby is trying to create an authentic environment, but juxtaposed structurally with the 'thin beard of ivy' we know outside - connotations of façade and falsity  surrounding Gatsby
              • all adding to the growing enigma of Gatsby
            • 'Gothic' =    re-creating the past, closely links to his efforts to recapture Daisy
    • Nick meets Gatsby
      • Bathos effect is used - Nick is sitting with Gatsby and does not realise - Gatsby has no commanding aura like his house does, he juxtaposed with his setting
        • ought to be climactical, particularly with the use of 'Great' in eponymous title
      • Fitzgerald has  manipulated the structure prior to this point to create an enigma surrounding  Gatsby, with rumours, all adding to his elusive quality.
        • 'he killed a man once' 'romantic speculation' 'whispers about him'  'Gatsby was not there'
      • Gatsby's speech is deliberately stilted and artificial to make the reader aware of the contradiction and artifice he represents.
        • 'I thought I knew you, old sport' 'elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd'
        • irony is used here -  despite Nick realising Gatsby's pretence he still feels there is something deeper about him than other party goers - sort of subversion here about who really is false.
          • his smile offers 'eternal reassurance'
      • Enigma surrounding Gatsby is developed further, firstly with telephone calls to gangster cities suggesting a duplicity about Gatsby
        • 'Chicago' and 'Philadelphia' 'on the line'
          • The names of cities, as opposed to people creates a dark mystery, validates the 'bootlegger' rumour
        • enigma is also heightened with Gatsby's isolation both literally and morally from the rest - he is not drunk and is almost invisible, this discreet juxtaposition allows Fitzgerald to be critical of the snobbery of the upper class
          • 'the isolation of the figure of the host'

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