Blog Topic #3: Syntax
·
"They
were gone, without a word, snapped out, made accidental, isolated, like ghosts,
even from our pity" (135).
This example of unique syntax
demonstrates Daisy's reaction for being allowed to freely unleash her emotions
for Gatsby, after having sealed her true love away in a marriage with Tom. The
asyndeton in the passage emphasizes the abrupt and quick change of Daisy
leaving Tom for Gatsby. This desperation of her seek for true love implies a disordered
tone, since she leaves her marriage to go back to her childhood lover, Gatsby. The
terseness of the statement, "snapped out," exemplifies this decision
making, almost as if a lever was turned 180 degrees, which means that Daisy's
change in liking from Tom to Gatsby was so sudden.
·
"The
bar is in full swing, the floating rounds of cocktail's permeate the garden
outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo
and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between
women who never knew each other's names" (140).
The over usage of conjunctions,
polysyndeton, is incorporated into the author's descriptions of the party at
Gatsby's house. Fitzgerald's use of a run on sentence, made up of several terse
fragments, articulates the busy nature of Gatsby's house party. The use of
several commas to separate unrelated matters conveys the idea that a lot is
going on at the same time. While reading the passage, one almost gets bewildered
in the frantic sentence structure which influences the busy tone of the
section.
Throughout The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald purposefully employs a plethora of asyndetons that convey the chaotic aura of the era’s environment. Like you have suggested, Fitzgerald illustrates this tumultuous tone with the three-way love affair and its capricious incidents that occur in the story. Undoubtedly, the terse fragments that compose the asyndeton you referred to are sharp, bitter, and leave a lasting effect on the reader; they also give insight to the proximity at which such events occur, almost too rapid to process. This closeness of time and therefore as you call it—“disordered”—tone is represented by the omission of conjunctions.
ReplyDelete