Topic #1: Rhetorical Strategies

• Litotes–“In consequence I’m inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.” (Page 1)
• Simile–“In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” (Page 39).
• Polysyndeton–“In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” (Page 39).
• Alliteration–“I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Mæcenas knew.” (Page 4).
• Allusion–“I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Mæcenas knew.” (Page 4).

            In his famous novel, “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald makes use of numerous and varied rhetorical strategies to develop a unique style of writing. While discussing the preparation for one of Gatsby’s lavish parties, he remarks that “At least once a fortnight a corps of caters came down with several hundred feet of canvas and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s enormous garden” (Page 40). The alliterated hyperbole, quickly followed by an additional hyperbole, creates a feeling of amusement, demonstrating the author’s wit and humor. The use of multiple rhetorical strategies in one sentence also characterizes a large portion of Fitzgerald’s writing. This time describing the availability of liquors, Fitzgerald writes that the bar was “stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another” (Page 40). Again establishing a unique form of writing, the author combines polysndeton and wit to not only establish the setting, but to also provide some humor for his readers. The combination of strategies is often difficult to establish into a cohesive whole, and yet Fitzgerald does it with ease and regularity, claiming for himself a style which many writers aspire to. In another description of this important scene, the author observes that “The bar is in full swing and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names” (Page 40). With yet another combination of polysyndeton and wit, the reader must have noticed a pattern that archetypes Fitzgeralds writing. Combinations of rhetorical strategies, often accompanied with humor for those with the skill to recognize it, are quite common throught the novel, and create a unique style that can only be understood as Fitzgerald’s.