What literary techniques does F. Scott Fitzgerald use to present Gatsby's party in Chapter III of the novel.

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Ross Leslie

What literary techniques does F. Scott Fitzgerald use to present Gatsby’s party in Chapter III of the novel

The people of 1920’s America often lead a very extravagant lifestyle, rich people often overspent in vast amounts, a term known as Conspicuous Consumption. This basically means the rich spend so much and waste their money to such an extent on highly expensive and pointless things, that it actually makes the less fortunate people living in their midst even more poorer then they already are. The richer people of ‘The Jazz Age’ often wasted time by simply lounging around and getting drunk, having nothing better to do. This was due to the fact that many rich people had more or less done everything that there was to be done and had achieved everything they wanted in life, therefore becoming bored with life, so they wasted their vast fortunes showing off with expensive merchandise, throwing lush parties and going out every night. However the vast amounts of spending through this time soon came to an end, with the Wall Street crash just as Fitzgerald had predicted.

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   The chapter opens up with a very descriptive and detailed introduction given to us by Nick. He seems to give us a lavish description of one of Gatsby’s summer night parties, Nick seems to be looking on from his house watching the party in his usual voyeuristic fashion. It’s possible that he’s maybe slightly envious of the guests, possibly wishing to be there himself; it seems to give the reader that impression as the chapter goes on. This could be a good reason for the extra amount of descriptiveness. Nick also uses a simile at the start: “In his ...

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The Quality of Written Communication (QWC) is very good. The candidate maintains and excellent sense of written propriety when writing their answer, which suggests someone who pays close attention to the content of their essays and the structure of them. I recommend all candidates are as rigorous in their checks for spelling, grammar and punctuation discrepancies in order to ensure clarity in their written expression and a high QWC mark.

The Level of Analysis is very good. The candidate makes a very strategic analysis, analysing important language features in Chapter III like Fitzgerald's metaphors, similes, and his use of symbolism. More could be done on symbolism particularly, but this is still a highly in-depth answer. Elsewhere the candidate makes a good use of metaphorical congruents (such as the metaphors of the "pulpless" oranges and lemons equating to the hollowness of the socialites) and also there is evidence of the candidate commenting on Fitzgerald's anthropomorphism, and how he renders the people subordinate to their lifestyle.

The essay written here is a very competent analytical exploration of the language used by Fitzgerald in 'The Great Gatsby'. There is a clear appreciation of the question as the candidate pinpoints Fitzgerald's linguistic devices easily and analyses their effect clearly and objectively. This is a an excellent answer because of it's extensive knowledge about the book and the characters (aside from one instance early on, where the candidate suggests Nick might be envious of Gatsby's guests - whilst this maybe true, it should be noted alongside talk of Nick as an unreliable narrator because, for the most-part Nick says that he was repelled by the lifestyle). The structure is also very good, each paragraph equally weighted and discussing points and commentaries that naturally flow into one another against the chronology of the chapter, though I would argue many of the points made in the introductory paragraph are superfluous and/or unnecessary - the repeated points of the lavish debauchery of the socialites' lifestyle are not strictly or explicitly related to the question or to Chapter III, but they could be with a few indicators here and there, so this could be revised to be more succinct to the question because everything they say in this paragraph is valid (may require some cutting down though).