The Great Gatsby Its ALL about authors craft

The Great Gatsby: It’s ALL about author’s craft! Analyzing Author’s Purpose

Here’s the way to do it: Literary Element Effect (this is ALL about how this passage affects YOU, the reader) Purpose (this is ALL about why the author used THIS element) Meaning (THEME)

As you move through this process and continue to read, reflect upon these questions: Ø After reading the passage and coming to a conclusion about it, consider why it has an effect on you (Yes, it is sad, but WHY? ) Ø WHY DOES THE AUTHOR USE THIS ELEMENT HERE? Does he use it anywhere else? Why or why not and to what effect? Ø Why does this passage or element command your attention? Are you just choosing an element because it is there, or does it really speak to you?

Symbolism “’You may fool me but you can’t fool God!’ Standing behind him Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg which had just emerged pale and enormous from the dissolving night. ‘God sees everything, ’ repeated Wilson” (159 -160). The contrast of the immorality and this symbol proves how immoral acts result in nothing good. The context in which they exist helps me understand that the characters who have behaved immorally are known (if only to the readers), and will be eternally unhappy. Fitzgerald gives us the repeated symbol of the eyes to evoke a morality that exists nowhere else in the story. That the eyes exist in the Valley of the Ashes, through which these immoral characters pass to conduct their dalliances is also important. By using symbolism, Fitzgerald has used an image that readers can see to connect to the idea of a moral center. The theme he portrays is that the American Dream is not attainable on a superficial, immoral level. None of the people in the novel can possibly ever achieve the “real” dream.