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Rhetorical Analysis of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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“The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart,” was said by Maya Angelou. Many authors strive to write books that have a purpose, including the author of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald. The author strives to display multiple purposes to readers through strong, sophisticated writing. The purposes Fitzgerald shows in The Great Gatsby include that substance in relationships matters, the truth is important, and that actions have consequences. Fitzgerald executes the purposes successfully by using rhetorical choices such as irony, homilies, simple dialogue, similes, and syntax A recurring purpose displayed by Fitzgerald, to his readers, in The Great Gatsby is the importance of substance in relationships. Through the relationships-whether platonic or romantic-between characters he shows that there really isn’t much of a relationship at all if there isn’t substance as a foundation. Substance ranges from developing a real relationship or simply just knowing someone’s name. The importance of substance in a relationship was show when Jordan Baker told Nick Carraway, the narrator, her opinion on parties. She said she likes bigger parties more than small parties and that small parties are “so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy” (Fitzgerald 49). This quote from Jordan shows that rhetorical choice of irony. This rhetorical choice furthered Fitzgerald’s purpose, because most will agree that

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