Variation and Complication (97-108)

In this reading of The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I came to understand Gatsby as a man better. It seems as though he is a round character because of both the way that he changes his emotions and because of the knowledge that I am constantly gaining from the side stories told. I found that the building up of the party scene and the tension created by the presence of Tom Buchanan was incredibly effective. Through the use of both superb diction and a variation in syntax, I found the writing style of Fitzgerald to be well done. On page 104, Fitzgerald describe the mood of the party as, "The same people, or at least the same sort of people, the same profusion of champagne, the same many-colored, many keyed commotion, but I felt an unpleasantness in the air, a pervading harshness that hadn't been there before"(Page 104). I found this particular portion of the passage to be so effective because of the development of the thought by the reader demanded by the structure of the sentence including the commas and the description through the diction. I found that this was important to the passage as a whole for the reason that we could relate to how Mr. Buchanan was acting and why he was acting that way. His curiosity began to reveal itself over the course of this chapter through his interest in both Gatsby and his wife. It appears that for the first time Mr. Buchanan is worried about how and who his wife is spending time with. How ironic. Mr. Buchanan himself can cheat on his wife, but his wife cannot do as she pleases? This seems very unfair and I, personally, am hoping that they might end their relationship happily in order to pursue their real lovers.