Meeting Fitzgerald Thru Syntax

“The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there wan a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died out about the room…” (8).

                    In this passage, the reader is exposed to Nick’s thought process as he enters the Buchanan residency. At first, it seems to be a mix of random observations conveyed to the reader but upon closer examination, one can see that every sentence ends with a prepositional phrase. The whole passage almost immediately becomes a list of Nick’s thoughts as he draws a mental diagram of the setting and the location of people in the room. This syntactical judgment proves important as Fitzgerald conveys a sense of levitation in the room due to the “wind” trapped in it. My providing concrete “locations,” the author is able to create a whimsical setting without it being unrealistic.

“But I didn't call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone - he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling”(21).

                   This sentence showcases the use of an asyndeton.  By choosing to omit conjunctions, the author strays away from an organized sentence to better imply Nick’s confusion. At first, Nick believes that Gatsby is happy to be alone, but his hasty judgment is contradicted by Gatsby “trembling” and peculiar hand gestures. The structure of this sentence also suggests a series fluctuating thoughts influenced by Gatsby’s progressive actions within the sentence. By employing a syntactical device such as an asyndeton, the author is able to express a lot more than the general plot when describing a situation.