Rhetorical Strategies

• Hyperbole and Simile: “as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away" (2).
• Simile: “the middle west now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe” (3).
• Rhetorical question: “neither of them can stand the person They’re married to.” “Cant they?” (33).
• Sexual Innuendo: “She held my hand impersonally, as a promise that she’d take care of me in a minute” (42).
• Misnomer: "He went to Oggsford College" (72).
• Simile: “her voice is full of money” (145).
• Repetition and Hyperbole: “suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men” (151).
• Imagery and Symbolism: “drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor beside her bed” (151).

The Great Gatsby is written in a very fast paced style that quickly moves from topic to topic. This is evidenced by the first example above of Fitzgerald’s use of hyperbole, because in the context of the quote cited, Fitzgerald begins talking about personality in an abstract sense, and then relates it to a simile about a seismograph, including a great exaggeration about the distance from which such machine can measure an earthquake effectively. He continues this exaggeration with an account of Daisy’s dating practices in which he said she is keeping “half a dozen dates a day” (151) which is highly unlikely to be accurate. Fitzgerald writes with a style that is filled with vidid imagery, filled with colorful accounts of things such as Daisy’s evening gown, and orchids.