Syntax

In the beginning of the novel, The Great Gatsby, Nick goes over to Tom and Daisy’s house for dinner. During a conversation, Tom begins to talk about the demise of the white race and how he read about it in a book called, “The Rise of the Colored Empires” (12). He is extremely intrigued by the topic and as he explains it to Nick ignores any type of distraction Daisy or Jordan offer. As Jordan stops Tom’s story with another, Tom cuts her off and continues his as Jordan states, “You ought to live in California-” and Tom interrupts “This idea is that we’re Nordics” (12). Fitzgerald includes these interruptors in his novel in order to show to show the reader that Tom likes to be in control and is also very dominant. He can not stand the thought of the white race being taken over nor can he stand letting anyone else be in control. Just as he likes to have control of the conversation, he likes to have control of his wife by hitting her whenever she does something that is displeasing to him. Fitzgerald includes these interjections in the conversation to demonstrate and reveal the dominating side of Tom’s character and how he loves command any situation. Toward the end of chapter six, F. Scott Fitzgerald writes about Gatsby’s obsession with repeating the past and his longing to recover his relationship with Daisy. When Nick tries to explain to Gatsby that you can’t repeat the past, Gatsby becomes both restless and frantic. His sentences become choppy and short like “She’ll see” and “She doesn’t understand” (109) in order to illustrate that he is becoming defensive and self-conscious over his desires and hopes. Fitzgerald also ends some sentences with explanation points like “Why of course you can!” (110), in order to further emphasize the fact that Gatsby is both defensive and anxious about his situation. This sentence structure helps portray Gatsby’s character somewhat like the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland; very whimsical and sporadic.