Literature Analysis #6

Literature Analysis: The Great Gatsby

 1.  The plot involves a mysterious man named Gatsby.  He  is known by many, but personally known by few.  Gatsby throws lavish, grand parties frequently.  He does this in order to impress an old love named Daisy, and try to get her back.  When an opportunity arises to get her back, Gatsby jumps on it and they rekindle their love.  However, Gatsby's pursuits eventually end in his murder.

2.  The theme of the novel is love.  All of Gatsby's actions were driven by love.  For example, he threw parties, went out of his way to meet up, and took the blame for a hit and run to win Daisy's love.  Love is the reason why Gatsby was living in the past, and couldn't look to his future. Ironically, love is also what ended his life. 

3. The author's tone is solemn. Examples include when Tom breaks his mistress' nose when she disrespects him, when Gatsby is shot dead in his pool, and when Myrtle is run over.  The book consists of tense, serious scenes.  There is almost no humor or happy experiences in the novel. 

4. Five literary elements/techniques that helped my understanding of the theme/tone were imagery, characterization, setting, symbolism, and diction.  An excerpt of symbolism is the green light on Daisy's dock. "A single green light, minute and faraway, that might have been the end of a dock."  It represents the hopefulness and longing for love.  Although Gatsby cannot reach it, it is always there- just like his devotion for Daisy. An example of setting was East Egg and West Egg.  The two both represented wealth, but it also demonstrated that Daisy and Gatsby were disparate; they had grown apart.  An instance of imagery is the valley of ashes.  "This is a valley of ashes--a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight."  This quote uses vivid imagery for the reader to visualize.

Lit Terms 31-56

Dialect: the language of a particular district, class, or group of persons; the sounds , grammar, and diction employed by people distinguished from others.

Dialectics: formal debates usually over the nature of truth.

Dichotomy: split or break between two opposing things.

Diction: the style of speaking or writing as reflected in the choice and use of words.

Didactic: having to do with the transmission of information; education.

Dogmatic: rigid beliefs and principles.

Elegy: a mournful, melancholy poem, especially a funeral song or lament for the dead, sometimes contains general reflections on death, often with a rural or pastoral setting.

Epic: a long narrative poem unified be a hero who reflects the customs, morals, and aspirations of his nation of race as he makes his way through legendary and historic exploits, usually over a long period of time (definition bordering on circumlocution).

Epigram: witty aphorism.

Epitaph: any brief inscription in prose or verse on a tombstone; a short formal poem of commemoration often a credo written by the person who wishes it to be on his tombstone.

Epithet: a short, descriptive name or phrase that may insult someone's character, characteristics.

Euphemism: the use of indirect, mild or vague word or expression for one though to be coarse, offensive, or blunt.

Evocative (evocation): a calling forth of memories and sensation; the suggestion or production through artistry and imagination of a sense of reality.

Exposition: the beginning of a story that sets forth facts, ideas and/or characters, in a detailed explanation.

Expressionism: movement in art, literature, and music consisting of unrealistic representation of an inner idea or feeling.

Fable: a short, simple story, usually with animals as characters, designed to teach a moral truth.

Fallacy: a false or misleading notion, belief, or argument; any kind of erroneous reasoning that makes arguments unsound.

Falling Action: part of the narrative or drama after the climax.

Farce: a boisterous comedy involving ludicrous action and dialogue.

Figurative Language: apt and imaginative language characterized by figures of speech.

Flashback: a narrative device that flashes back to prior events.

Foil: a person that, by contrast, makes another seem better or more prominent.

Folk Tale: a story passed on by word of mouth.

Foreshadowing: in fiction and drama, a device to prepare the reader for the outcome of the action; "planning" to make the outcome convincing, though not to give it away.

Free Verse: verse without conventional metrical pattern, with irregular pattern or no rhyme.

What's the Story

I think he wrote the story the way he did (a bildungsroman about a poor boy with "Dickens-style" characters and themes) to portray how life was like in the time. He showed his opinions on social status by showing the wealthy as unhappy and the poor as satisfied, the women as tyrranical and the men as practical, and the analytical as successful. He indirectly characterized his characters through their actions and motives for their actions, for example Joe takes on Mrs Joe and Pip out of pity and love for the young woman and her infant brother, showing his compassion and good nature.

Lit Terms 6-30

Analogy: a comparison made between two things to show the similarities.

Analysis: a method in which a worker or idea is separated into its parts, and those parts are given rigorous and detailed scrutiny.

Anaphora: a device or repetition in which a word or words are repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Anecdote: a short story used to illustrate a point.


Antagonist: a person or force opposing the protagonist in a drama or narrative.

Antithesis: a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness.

Aphorism: a terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation about life.

Apologia: a defense or justification for some doctrine , piece of writing, or action; also apology.

Apostrophe: a figure of speech in which an absent or dead person, an abstract quality, or something inanimate or nonhuman is addressed directly.

Argument(ation): the process of convincing a reader by either the truth or falsity of an idea or proposition; also, the thesis or proposition itself.

Assumption: the act of supposing, or taking for granted a thing one does.

Audience: the intended listener or listeners.

Characterization: the means by which a writer reveals a character's personality.

Chiasmus: a reversal in the order of words so that the second half or the statement balances the first half in reverse order.

Circumlocution: a roundabout or evasive speech or writing, in which many words are used but a few would have sufficed.

Classicism: art, literature, and music reflecting the principles of ancient Greece and Rome; tradition, reason, clarity, order, and balance.

Cliche: a phrase or situation overused within society.

Climax: the decisive point in a narrative or drama; the point of greatest intensity or interest at which plot question is answered or resolved.

Colloquialism: folksy speech, slang words, or phrases usually used in informal conversation.

Comedy: originally a nondramatic literary piece of work that was marked by a happy ending now a term to describe a ludicrous, farcical, or amusing event designed to provide enjoyment or produce smiles and laughter.

Conflict: struggle or problem in a story causing tension.

Connotation: implicit meaning, going beyond dictionary definition.

Contrast: a rhetorical device by which one element (idea or object) is thrown into opposition to another for the sake of emphasis or clarity.

Denotation: plain dictionary definition.

Denouement (day-new-mahn): loose ends tied up in the story after the climax, closure, conclusion.

Poetry Analysis

Poetry Analysis

1. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
    Paraphrase: This long poem seems to be someone talking of approaching a lover, like a man wanting to approach a woman. Yet this man can't seem to be able to do it. He talks of life, and talks of how others are talking of "Michelangelo." This man seems to think that he is inadequate and not on the level of the woman he loves.
    Purpose: I believe the purpose is the man trying to air out his thoughts about whether he should approach his love or not.
    Structure: This poem actually seems more like a monologue, with rhyming here and there. I think that type of poetry is called free verse.
    Shift: The man seems to start off more hopeful sounding, but towards the end it seems like he has kind of given up. Like he realized that maybe there isn't a point in what he is saying.
    Speaker: Prufrock is the speaker!
    Spelling/Grammar/Diction: The style of writing seems to be quite modern. There are a lot of hyphenated words such as "one-night", "window-panes" and "shirt-sleeves" that you don't see used very often nowadays.
    Tone: Prufrock's tone is very solemn. I picture him standing there, speaking quietly to himself with a look of deep thought on his face.

2. Mending Wall by Robert Frost
    Paraphrase: The narrator and his neighbor spend some time mending the wall that separates their properties. The narrator questions why there is a wall there at all, while the neighbor just says that "Good fences make good neighbors." Even though the narrator doesn't seem to totally agree with it, the neighbor repeats it once again.
    Purpose: This seems like the kind of poem that could be interpreted in many different ways and on many different levels. Maybe Frost is using the narrator as his window to his own question of the purpose of building and mending walls between us. I can only hope to touch the surface of the purpose.
    Structure: A quick search seems to show that this is blank verse.
    Shift: Towards the beginning, the narrator talks of the process of going with his neighbor to fix the wall. It seems to be a routine thing for them. Then he goes on to talk of their conversation of the significance of the wall. He questions it's presence, while his neighbor just accepts it.
    Speaker: The speaker is anonymous to the audience.
    Spelling/Grammar/Diction: There is nothing special or out of the ordinary in the spelling or grammar, except for the strange hyphenated word "frozen-ground-swell."
    Tone: Frost has a very light, conversational tone. It sounds a little thoughtful, but not in a super serious way.

3. Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes
    Paraphrase: The speaker seems to yearn for his old America, land of equality, liberty, and dreams. When asked who is speaking, he describes himself as every kind of American that had been wronged, and begs for America to be America again.
    Purpose: This poem seems to be rallying for America to change, to be the America that every purpose dreams it to be.
    Structure: The poem has no particular structure with a few rhyming parts here and there, so I would categorize it as free verse.
    Shift: The speaker starts the poem by saying how America isn't what it's supposed to be. He then goes on to describe himself as the wronged Americans, then back to begging for America to change.
    Speaker: I would say Hughes is the speaker in this poem.
    Spelling/Grammar/Diction: The spelling and grammar are simple and modern.
    Tone: Hughes' tone is motivational, and powerful. He sounds as if he was speaking to a crowd of people who are upset with the way America has treated them.

4. The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats
    Paraphrase: The narrator describes a terrible scene, where anarchy is set loose and innocence is lost. It seems as if the Second Coming has arrived, and there is a terrible beast coming towards Bethlehem with a lion body and a head of a man. Sounds nightmarish.
    Purpose: This seems to be the painting of what Yeats might imagine the second coming of Christ is to be like.
    Structure: There seems to be no rhyming or structure, so it is probably free verse. Although, after a quick search, it might be very loosely considered iambic pentameter. But only barely.
    Shift: In the beginning, the narrator seems to be afraid of the monstrosities happening. But when he realizes that this is the second coming, he seems to be accepting of the new age that is coming, no matter how terrifying.
    Speaker: Anonymous.
    Spelling/Grammar/Diction: Modern style of writing.
    Tone: The tone seems to be quite calm for such a horrible description. It's as if a preacher is talking of the coming of the end of the world, passionate yet not panicky.

5. Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold
    Paraphrase: Arnold describes the sea, and the many things you hear and see when near it. He talks of a philosopher playwright who compared the tide's ebb and flow to human misery. He than calls for love instead of the war that goes on in the world.
    Purpose: I'm unclear as to what this poem's purpose truly is. After a quick search it is shown to be a poem that he wrote for his wife after they visited Dover.
    Structure: Free verse! :) I'm gettin' good at this.
    Shift: The poem starts with a simple yet beautiful description of the sea itself. Then it changes to how it's related to humans and the world itself.
    Speaker: Matthew Arnold himself.
    Spelling/Grammar/Diction: Not too difficult, modern style of writing and speech.
    Tone: The tone seems to be very dramatic, like a story teller spinning and weaving a tale of the ocean. The poem itself is very pretty sounding. A perfect thing to write for your significant other.

    Purpose: I'm unclear as to what this poem's purpose truly is. After a quick search it is shown to be a poem that he wrote for his wife after they visited Dover.
    Structure: Free verse! :) I'm gettin' good at this.
    Shift: The poem starts with a simple yet beautiful description of the sea itself. Then it changes to how it's related to humans and the world itself.
    Speaker: Matthew Arnold himself.
    Spelling/Grammar/Diction: Not too difficult, modern style of writing and speech.
    Tone: The tone seems to be very dramatic, like a story teller spinning and weaving a tale of the ocean. The poem itself is very pretty sounding. A perfect thing to write for your significant other.