Diction

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses harsh diction in order to communicate his melancholic tone and realistic perspective on the digression of American society. In the Jazz Age where many were careless and therefore reckless, American society encountered a dramatic ethic decrease, ultimately hindering the new nation from any genuine progress. Fitzgerald, the observative and wise individual he was, talks about how the stretch from New York to West Egg is “a valley of ashes” (23), suggesting the human race induced destruction of once beautiful land, which is now nothing but “gray land” and “spasms of bleak dust” (23). This depresses Fitzgerald, and his emotions are conveyed through his morose tone and selective word choice. While main characters Nick and Tom visit Tom’s mistress in New York, Nick describes her as, “continually smouldering,” (25) as to suggest the consistent and constant corrosion of humans themselves as they conquer each day. Her smoulder will not go out nor cease to exist, and therefore, there is no hope for the ever-declining state of all humans within this rocky era. This message of surrender to an inevitable presence is addressed by the author’s careful diction and crestfallen tone. On the “hottest day of the year,” Nick sits with Gatsby and the Buchanans, reflecting on the beauty of the “scalloped ocean” and the “abounding blessed isles” (111) in comparison to the wasteland or “weedy refuse” (111) from which he observes the view. The juxtaposing diction is effective as it romanticizes the pulchritude of a vast area not spoiled by the faults of humankind, contrasting the morally corrupt decadence society is faced with. Fitzgerald’s woeful wishes for a more peaceful, “blessed isles” here on dry land is explicitly exemplified by his woebegone tone. Unlike many people of his time, Fitzgerald recognized the rapid destruction of a society and its ethics; he solicitously expresses his melancholic tone through the selection of brutally candid diction.