How is language used to create atmosphere in The Great Gatsby?I'm currently working on a report on The Great Gatsby. One of the questions lists the types of language used in the novel such as,...

How is language used to create atmosphere in The Great Gatsby?

I'm currently working on a report on The Great Gatsby. One of the questions lists the types of language used in the novel such as, comic, lyrical, factual, vivid and melancholy. It then asks me to find other examples of language used to create atmosphere and to find examples but I'm really struggling to find any.

Asked on by annaluin

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mstultz72's profile pic

mstultz72 | High School Teacher | (Level 1) Educator Emeritus

Posted on

You will want to contrast Nick's narration (very Midwestern voice, full of maxims and judgements) vs. Gatsby's, Tom's, Daisy's, etc...

Here's classic Midwestern Nick (father):


This reflects the modesty (or false modesty) of Midwestern values: polite to a fault, reserving judgement, plain style.  The irony, of course, is that Nick refuses to take his own advice (he is very judgmental throughout the novel).

And then there's the poet Nick, who is rife with imagery and metaphor:


Gatsby doesn't talk like a real person.  His dialogue is comical, even self-deprecating.  Always with the "old sport," he speaks like some country club college boy who is eager to join the "Good 'ol Boy Network":


And Gatsby is full of lies.  When he prefaces his story with "God's truth" he is setting us up for a tall tale:


But Gatsby can be funny; notice his use of ironic punchline:

“You can’t repeat the past.”


Contrast this with Daisy (whose voice is supposed to be full of money, but she doesn't really say anything important):

.. best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.

Most of the women in the novel are flat characters, archetypal temptresses who are shallow.  Jordan, too, is full of gossip and triteness.

Observe Tom's brutish, racist rhetoric and misogynistic tone:


So, there's three levels of male dialogue: Nick (judgmental, poetic), Tom (tough), and Gatsby (humor, lies) and one level of female dialogue (shallow).


epollock's profile pic

epollock | (Level 3) Valedictorian

Posted on

F. Scott Fitzgerald works in a lyrical, or poetic, style. He uses many of the devices chiefly associated with the poetry of writers like Shakespeare and Keats. A great example of Fitzgerald’s poetic style, is on page 43, near the beginning of the novel, as he introduces the title character, of his novel The Great Gatsby.


Notice the phrase, an unbroken series of successful gestures, and, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, are both in iambic meter. Fitzgerald uses the stress and rhythm of poetry to bring out the grandioiseness of the average situation, to make it more dramatic and emphatic.

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