" 'Suppose you met somebody just as
careless as yourself.' 'I hope I never
will,' she
[Jordan] answered. 'I hate careless
people. That's why I like you.' "
(Fitzgerald, pg.
63) Jordan is explaining to Nick how she
is able to drive badly as
long as everyone
else drives carefully. This quote
represents the writing technique of
foreshadowing,
which is being used in one of its finest form.
Fitzgerald is
foreshadowing to
chapter seven where Daisy kills Myrtle Wilson because of her reckless
driving. Fitzgerald uses foreshadowing to strengthen
the plot of his
book. In chapter
nine, Nick begins
to recall the past and relive his old memories.
His must relieve his
lingering
thoughts of the past. During the
chapter, Nick uses a flashback to tell about
Gatsby's funeral
for the readers to know what happen the day Gatsby was shot. Flashback
in The Great
Gatsby also helps to give the reader background information about the
characters. In The Great Gatsby, the structure of the
novel is influenced by
foreshadowing and
flashback.
Fitzgerald utilizes foreshadowing to
the best of its ability to help organize
the novel. "Luckily the clock took this moment to
tilt dangerously at the pressure of
his head,
whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers and set it back in
place. 'I'm sorry
about the clock,' he said. 'It's an old
clock,' I told him
idiotically."
(Fitzgerald, pg. 92) This quote is the
first use of foreshadowing which
is in chapter
five. It pertains to all of the trouble
Gatsby causes as he tries to win
Daisy back. The past is represented by the clock and how
Gatsby wants to repeat it with
Daisy. (Eble, pg. 963) This quote foreshadows to the
end of the novel when Nick is left
to tell the story
of the dreamer whose dreams were corrupted.
(Eble, pg. 963) "they smashed up things
and creatures and then retreated back into
their money or
their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and
let other people
clean up the mess they had made." (Fitzgerald, pg. 188) In chapter
six, Fitzgerald
focuses on the first moment of disillusionment which Gatsby has.
(Magill, pg.
90) " 'Can't repeat the past?' he
cried incredulously. 'Why of course you
can!' "
(Fitzgerald, pg. 116) This quote is
clearly foreshadowing almost the entire
book. It foreshadows Gatsby's attempts to woe Daisy
for Tom and tries to make things
the way they were
before he left for the army . It also
alludes to the fact that he
must be rich and
powerful to do that. Overall, it shows
that he destroys himself trying
to get Daisy back
from Tom Buchanan. In the beginning of
chapter eight Fitzgerald
foreshadows the
death of Gatsby. "I couldn't sleep all night; a fog-horn was groaning
incessantly on
the Sound, and I tossed half sick between grotesque reality and savage
frightening
dreams. I heard a taxi go up Gatsby's
drive and immediately I jumped out of
bed and began to
dress- I felt that I had something to tell him, something to warn him
about and morning
would be too late."
(Fitzgerald, pg.154) This quote definitely foreshadows the death
of Gatsby.
Fitzgerald also
foreshadows Wilson's involvement when his wife died. " 'He murdered
her.' 'It was an
accident, George.' Wilson shook his head.
His eyes narrowed and his
mouth widened
slightly with the ghost of superior 'Hm!' " (Fitzgerald, pg. 166) This
quote clearly
tells the readers that George is not going to let the person who he thinks
killed his wife
get away with it. Foreshadowing is
sparingly displayed though out the
novel and
especially in the last chapters.
Flashback is used quite often in The
Great Gatsby. Jordan begins to remember
when she met
Gatsby with Daisy for the first time and how they were in love. "One
October day in
nineteen- seventeen.....The largest of the banners and the largest of the
lawns belonged to
Daisy Fay's house. She was just
eighteen....His name was Jay Gatsby
and I didn't lay eyes
on him again for over four years." (Fitzgerald, pg. 80) As the
reader can
clearly see, Jordan begins to narrate about the first and last time that she
saw Gatsby with
Daisy which was four years ago. In
chapter eight, Nick flashes back to
the night of
Myrtle's death and begins to tell the story of what went on after her
death. "Now I want to go back a little and tell
what happened at the garage after we
left there the
night before." (Fitzgerald, pg.
163) Nick tells the reader about how
Wilson thought he
had figured out who had killed his wife.
Nick follows step by step as
he walks all the
way to Tom Buchanan's. Nick then
describes Wilson killing Gatsby in
the pool and then
Wilson killing himself.
In chapter nine, another flashback is
told by Nick. Nick recalls the night of
Gatsby's death,
and the next day, when all the policemen
were at Gatsby's house.
"After two
years I remember the rest of that day, and that night and the next day, only
as an endless
drill of police and photographers and newspaper men in and out of Gatsby's
front door."
(Fitzgerald, pg.171) Nick then proceeds
into another flashback where he is
trying to get
people to come to Gatsby's funeral.
During this flashback Nick finally
meets Gatsby's
father, Mr. Gatz, who came to his son's funeral. "Next morning I sent
the butler to New
York with a letter to Wolfshiem which asked for information and urged
him to come out
on the next train. [for Gatsby's funeral]...When the butler brought back
Wolfshiem's
answer I began to have a feeling of defiance.....The third day that a
telegram signed
Henry C. Gatz arrived from a town in Minnesota...It was Gatsby's
father."
(Fitzgerald, pg. 175) In the last
sentence of the novel the reader realizes
the story is
being told as seen through the eyes of a Dutch sailor which transports the
reader into the
past. (Magill, pg. 91) "Boats
against the current, borne back
ceaselessly into
the past." (Fitzgerald, pg. 189)
As one can see, the book came to life
through the use of flashback and
foreshadowing. These two main ingredients in this novel made
it possible for the reader
to be able to
understand Gatsby the way Fitzgerald does.
It also helps one to
understand
Gatsby's relentless pursuit of the American dream. These two elements of the
novel were weaved
into a great book that was read and adored by millions of readers and
school students.
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