Key Passage Analysis Great Gatsby

Great Gatsby- Key passage Analysis
Key Passage
He did extraordinary well in the war. He was a captain before he went to the front and following the Argonne battles he got his majority and the command of the divisional machine guns. After the Armistice he tried frantically to get home but some complication or misunderstanding sent him to Oxford instead. He was worried now–there was a quality of nervous despair in Daisy’s letters. She didn’t see why he couldn’t come. She was feeling the pressure of the world outside and she wanted to see him and feel his presence beside her and be reassured she was doing thing after all.

For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras which set the rhythm of the year, summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of life on new in new tunes. All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the “Beale Street Blues” while hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers shuffled the shining dust. At the grey tea hour there were always rooms that throbbed incessantly with this low sweet fever, while fresh faces drifted here and there like rose petals blown by the sad horns around the floor.

Through this twilight universe Daisy began to move again with the season; suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men and drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor beside her bed. And all the time something within her was crying for a decision. She wanted her life shaped now, immediately–and the decision must be made by some force–of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality– that was close at hand.

That force took shape in the middle of spring with the arrival of Tom Buchanan. There was a wholesome bulkiness about his person and his position and Daisy was flattered. Doubtless there was a certain struggle and a certain relief. The letter reached Gatsby while he was still at Oxford. Key Passage (Annotated)

He did extraordinary well in the war. He was a captain before he went to the front and following the Argonne battles he got his majority and the command of the divisional machine guns. After the Armistice he tried frantically to get home but some complication or misunderstanding sent him to Oxford instead. He was worried now–there was a quality of nervous despair in Daisy’s letters. She didn’t see why he couldn’t come. She was feeling the pressure of the world outside and she wanted to see him and feel his presence beside her and be reassured she was doing thing after all.

For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras which set the rhythm of the year, summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of life on new in new tunes. All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the “Beale Street Blues” while hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers shuffled the shining dust. At the grey tea hour there were always rooms that throbbed incessantly with this low sweet fever, while fresh faces drifted here and there like rose petals blown by the sad horns around the floor.

Through this twilight universe Daisy began to move again with the season; suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men and drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor beside her bed. And all the time something within her was crying for a decision. She wanted her life shaped now, immediately–and the decision must be made by some force–of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality– that was close at hand.

That force took shape in the middle of spring with the arrival of Tom Buchanan. There was a wholesome bulkiness about his person and his position and Daisy was flattered. Doubtless there was a certain struggle and a certain relief. The letter reached Gatsby while he was still at Oxford.

Key Passage Analysis
Although the key passage selected form The Great Gatsby be F. Scott Fitzgerald is a flashback, it is crucial to recognize the relevance between this passage and the plot of the book. Looking closer at the passage, it is apparent that Fitzgerald uses characterization and theme to relate this section back to the plot. The characterization of Gatsby and Daisy eliminates any question of what occurred between them in their somewhat scandalous past, while exciting the theme simultaneously. Although many themes are portrayed throughout the novel, the most prominent is the concept of living in the past.

There is nothing wrong with remembering the good times, but living in the past leads to tragedy. In The Great Gatsby, characters pursue future visions that are determined by their pasts. Gatsby suffers from past memories of Daisy and tries to relive the relationship and in the process, Gatsby was murdered. In the key passage above it states “She wanted her life shaped now, immediately” (line ) This quote explains that Daisy could no longer wait for Gatsby to return, which is ironic considering many years later, Gatsby could not wait any longer for Daisy in the present, and tried to rid Daisy of Tom, allowing for their idealistic relationship that once was, to return again. Gatsby then devotes the rest of his life, trying to win back this unrealistic relationship, which leads him into more trouble than he could have ever foreseen, including his own death.

Gatsby’s idealistic view of Daisy was she was of pure and perfect form and after he kisses her, his ideal perfect relationship starts to decay, “…and the incarnation was complete.” The incarnation meaning Daisy cannot be ideally perfect anymore now that Gatsby is with her. Daisy is not pure and perfect like Gatsby thought she was in the past. With Gatsby’s illusions of the past preoccupying all of his thoughts, he forgets about the dimension he exists in which is the present.

Another importance of this key passage from The Great Gatsby is the depth of characterization. Characterization of Daisy is evident, as it portrays her as a young beautiful woman, in need of a steady foundation to build the rest of her upon. Not only was she desperately in need of this structure, but she needed it at that very point in her life meaning, no longer would she wait for Gatsby’s return. In the passage Fitzgerald describes Daisy’s new sturdy foundation as a “force took shape in the middle of spring with the arrival of Tom Buchanan” (Line ). This shows that Daisy was so desperate to settle down, she gave up everything she once had with Gatsby, to start anew with Buchanan. Along with Daisy’s insecurity, as one might call it, she seemed to show little remorse by the fact that she threw away such a prominent figure in her life so quickly when promised such a steady base for her future. In fact, “Daisy was flattered” (line ).

Fitzgerald is known for his symbolic writing style, and his writing is littered with imagery related to the theme. This writing style is axiomatic in this key passage, and along with it comes and abundance of characterization, and reference to the theme of the entire novel. Although the selected key passage is one of the few flash backs in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses this, and many other writing technique to further the readers understanding of the already well developed, characters and theme.