Rhetorical Strategies

Blog Topic #1: Rhetorical Strategies

• Metaphor: “her artificial world was redolent of orchids…”(151).
• Simile: “While fresh faces drifted here and there like rose petals blown by the sad horns” (151).
• Aphorism: “whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you have” (1).
• Personification: “I must have stood for a few minutes listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall” (8).

Throughout The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald employs a plethora of rhetorical strategies through the duration of his writing that clearly demonstrate the ideal lifestyle that was longed to be a priority for people in the time of the 1920s. The author opens up the novel with the narrator of the story, Nick, as he relays his father’s wise advice, “whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you have’ (1). This aphorism calls attention to Nick’s observations of the varieties of lifestyles he witnesses in New York. He comes from a middle-class life and when he goes to NY, he doesn’t have to worry about money, but he sees many people wrestling to make ends meet. His dad lets him know that he can’t judge people by his own ethical standards, or else he will not see the big picture. He begins to comprehend the reality of what people were now becoming as he views the wealthy with a different opinion. Gatsby’s depiction of Daisy is that of pure admiration as well as fictitious, one could say he fell in love at first sight after they stumbled upon each other before the coming of war. Here, Gatsby saw her just as a jovial adolescent, yet she was truly living a guarded life.  The specific metaphor “redolent of orchids, ” (151) highlights Daisy’s luxurious, cosmopolitan lifestyle. The orchid, to which she is being compared to, is known to be a sophisticated species of flower, which suits Daisy’s character. Relating Daisy to an orchid illustrates the ultimate reflection of what people desired to become during this era. Going on, the author introduces the setting of the characters teatime, “While fresh faces drifted here and there like rose petals blown by the sad horns” (151).  This simile being incorporated portrays the rhetor’s thoughts that people come and go regularly and are not likely to be remembered just as rose petals are constantly being blown in the wind, they won’t be missed. This symbolizes the “American Dream” as people found a new ambition for leisure time, which they were given due to the shortening of work hours after the war. Fitzgerald applies his central message of living the “American Dream” by assimilating a variety of rhetorical devices in his writing that aid in his explanation of how the lives of the people living in the 1920s were drastically being changed.