oh hey, old sport. . .

As I've read each chapter of The Great Gatsby, I've come to find that not much happens from page to page. The plot itself is relatively thin, leaving one to wonder how Mr. Fitzgerald has created such a respected novel out of very little story line. The answer lies within his exceptionally descriptive writing style.

I find it odd how much detail Fitzgerald uses in depicting seemingly insignificant elements of his story. He spends paragraphs at a time illustrating simple, unimportant details, such as a piece of clothing or a certain physical characteristic. For example, Catherine, a relatively minor character, is described in great detail: "The sister, Catherine was a slender, worldly girl of about thirty, with a solid, sticky bob of red heair, and a complexion powedered milky white. Her eyebrows had been plucked and then drawn on again at a more rakish angle but the efforts of nature toward the restoration of the old alignment game a blurred air to her face. When she moved about there was an incessant clicking as innumerable pottery bracelets jingled up and down her arms." (p. 30) While Fitzgerald could have easily gone without this entire paragraph describing a minor character, he chooses to thoroughly introduce each new individual in full description.

At the same time, this amount of carefulness in his writing helps the reader better comprehend what the exact mood of the story is at any one point. I'm amazed at how he can describe a certain reaction or emotion in such a way that I can perfectly understand what he's feeling. To illustrate the heat in the book, he writes, ". . .I have a sharp physical memory that, in the course of it, my underwear kept climbing like a damp snake around my legs and intermittent beads of sweat raced cool across my back." In his writing, Fitzgerald holds nothing back -- he yearns to let his audience into his mind so as to let them know everything he portrays. This writing style is effective because unlike other books I've read, I am always able to get a grasp on the mood of each scene. Without this depictive style, Gatsby would be undoubtedly bland and entirely monotonous.