Analyzing Language in The Great Gatsby

English 11 - Phillippi

Discuss with a partner

What helps make a book come alive in your mind?
Interesting characters Interesting settings Interesting plot/events

Descriptive

Literary device: imagery

The use of vivid language - figurative or descriptive - that contributes to creating mental pictures or other sensory perceptions.
Figurative language: language that involves words or phrases that describe one thing in terms of another and is not meant to be understood on a literal level; involves an imaginative comparison of two unlike things (ex: simile, metaphor, symbol, personification) Descriptive language: language that helps the reader to imagine how a subject looks, sounds, smells, tastes, or feels

Imagery
Inside, the crimson room bloomed with light. Tom and Miss Baker sat at either end of the long couch and she read aloud to him from The Saturday Evening Post the words murmurous and uninflected, running together in a soothing tune. The lamp-light, bright on his boots and dull on the autumn-leaf yellow of her hair, glinted along the paper as she turned a page with a flutter of slender muscles in her arms. (17)

Imagery
Inside, the crimson room bloomed with light. Tom and Miss Baker sat at either end of the long couch and she read aloud to him from The Saturday Evening Post the words murmurous and uninflected, running together in a soothing tune. The lamp-light, bright on his boots and dull on the autumn-leaf yellow of her hair, glinted along the paper as she turned a page with a flutter of slender muscles in her arms. (17)

Analyzing the imagery

Sentence frame: On page ___ in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses ___(adjective)___ imagery to ______(effect in the passage)_____. On page 17 in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses luxurious imagery to help draw the reader in to the casual luxury of the Buchanans world.

Describing the sequence

First Next Then After Additionally Lastly

Writing an analysis of imagery

On page 17 in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses effective/descriptive/luxurious imagery to help draw the reader in to the casual luxury of the Buchanans world. First, the author begins to describe the room in which Daisy is reading the paper to a passive Tom and Jordan. The room not only looks but feels warm and gentle as the rich crimson walls are illuminated with light. The light is described as blooming, which has a soft, gentle, and unobtrusive connotation because it is something that delicate flowers do.

Writing an analysis of imagery

Next, Fitzgerald describes Daisys voice as as murmurous and uninflected as her words [run] together. Her voice seems to be monotonous, without any rise and fall, and strung together like a gentle hum. Fitzgerald keys in on the mellow, songlike quality of Daisys voice in describing it as a tune that is soothing.

Writing an analysis of imagery

After describing how the room sounded, Fitzgerald then returns to the look and feel by continuing to describe the light and how it plays off of different items in the room. Unlike the previous imagery that alludes to softness, the light is now described as harsh as it shines bright on [Toms] boots. This makes Tom stand out even more and not only contrasts him to the room but also to Daisys gentleness. Daisys hair is then described as autumn-leaf yellow, a warm color that has lost its vitality and vigor of summer and is now fading and paling as autumn falls. Further, by moving from a description of Toms boots to Daisys hair, the reader explores the room from floor to ceiling.

Writing an analysis of imagery

Then, Fitzgerald again follows the path of light as it glint[s] along the paper as Daisy turns a page. Fitzgerald continues to emphasize subtlety and softness through the word glint as it implies a small, slight shift of light. This brings the reader to examine a seemingly unimportant action, the turning of a newspaper page, in a new and appreciative way. Lastly, reader moves from the [glint] of light along the paper up Daisys slender arm as she turns the page. Again, the subtle, gentle nature of the scene is emphasized as Daisys arm flutters like a butterfly or a falling leaf at her only movement.

Literary analysis of imagery

On page 17 in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses descriptive imagery to help draw the reader in to the casual luxury of the Buchanans world. First, the author begins to describe the room in which Daisy is reading the paper to a passive Tom and Jordan. The room not only looks but feels warm and gentle as the rich crimson walls are illuminated with light. The light is described as blooming, which has a soft, gentle, and unobtrusive connotation because it is something that delicate flowers do.

Next, Fitzgerald describes Daisys voice as as murmurous and uninflected as her words [run] together. Her voice seems to be monotonous, without any rise and fall, and strung together like a gentle hum. Fitzgerald keys in on the mellow, song-like quality of Daisys voice in describing it as a tune that is soothing.
After describing how the room sounded, Fitzgerald then returns to the look and feel by continuing to describe the light and how it plays off of different items in the room. Unlike the previous imagery that alludes to softness, the light is now described as harsh as it shines bright on [Toms] boots. This makes Tom stand out even more and not only contrasts him to the room but also to Daisys gentleness. Daisys hair is then described as autumn-leaf yellow, a warm color that has lost its vitality and vigor of summer and is now fading and paling as autumn falls. Further, by moving from a description of Toms boots to Daisys hair, the reader explores the room from floor to ceiling

Assignment:
Write an analysis of imagery in one of the given passages from The Great Gatsby.
Pick a passage Underline/circle all the descriptive words that contribute to imagery Use the sentence frame to create a thesis Go from beginning end of the passage, quoting the descriptive words and analyzing how they contribute to the imagery of the scene.