Blog # 3: syntax
· “’Are we just going to go?’ she objected. ‘Like this? Aren’t we going to let anyone smoke a cigarette first?’
‘Everybody smoked all through lunch.’
‘Oh, let’s have fun,’ she begged him. ‘It’s too hot to fuss.’
He didn’t answer.
‘Have it your own way,’ she said. ‘Come on, Jordan’”(119).
The author’s use of short scattered syntax while describing the afternoon where Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby all go into town together helps illustrate the awkwardness of the situation. This usage of unique syntax allows the reader to identify that the characters do not feel comfortable with each other and they are trying to mask their true feelings with forced pleasantness. Their obsession with social stature leads them to fabricate a new identity that is different from their own. This particular syntax helps induce a melancholy mood because it causes the reader to feel sad for the characters that are too wrapped up in what others think that they forget about themselves.
· “‘What happened? - That’s what I want to know.’
‘Auto hit her. Ins’antly killed.’
‘Instantly killed,’ repeated Tom, staring.
‘She ran out ina road. Son-of-a-b**** didn’t even stopus car’”(139).
While explaining the feelings of the bystanders who witnessed the car accident, Fitzgerald uses short syntax. The employment of short sentences and contractions implies a shocked tone- one that is expected at the scene of a car crash. This shocked tone allows the reader to relate to the characters’ feelings because it is likely that the reader would feel the same way in a similar situation.
Fitzgerald does a remarkable job at developing an uneasy tone between the characters. You are very right about how the telegraphic and short sentence lengths illustrates a uneasiness among the characters with in he book. The short syntax of the second passage does great justice to shocked mood of a car crash.
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