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What's Weather Got to Do with It?

Decent Essays

What's Weather Got to Do With It? In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, weather is often an undercurrent of what's happening in the novel. "When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure" (Alice Hoffman, Here on Earth). With weather one is never sure of how the day is going turn out, sunny or rainy? The same goes for love, loves me or loves me not? Throughout The Great Gatsby, the weather and location often reflects the mood and the people in the surrounding area. Gatsby and Daisy see each other for the first time after many years; however, it becomes awkward for them to be there with one another. Fitzgerald wrote, "The day agreed upon was pouring rain" (64). When Daisy …show more content…

With Gatsby and Daisy leaving together, Tom knows he has won and feels relieved. Fitzgerald wrote, "So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight" (Fitzgerald 98). The day is finally cooling down, thus reflecting the feud between Gatsby and Tom has finished. When driving back, Tom is calm and collected. With the weather change there is a change in the characters' moods toward each other; first sticky with tension then relieved that all was finished. Weather is a useful symbol to reflect the mood in a story. Fitzgerald used this technique throughout his book to bring out the surrounding emotions the characters portrayed. From rain and doubt to heat and tension, the conditions were there to be interpreted. He also was able to use the location of residence to give extra emphasis on how the living conditions of each character

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