Diagnostic Essay

1. Today:a) Hand back diagnostic essaysb) Look at thesis statements/topic sentences. (Do NOT throw away the essay. We will discuss commentary on block-day!)c) Look at the last page of The Great Gatsbyd) Discuss 2007 AP Prompt e) Hand in précis

2. Diagnostic Essay The Great Gatsby Style Analysis

3. Prompt:Read the following passage from The Great Gatsby carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how Fitzgerald uses language to convey his view(s) of society. You might consider word choice, sentence structure, figurative language, etc. Your understanding of the entire novel should inform your argument, but the focus of the essay must be your analysis of the excerpt below. About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes — a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight. But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic — their irises are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.

4. Thesis Statements • In the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald has a very negative view of society and uses symbolism and word choice to convey it. b) In the included passage from The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses dark word choice and figurative language, including similes and metaphors, to convey his view of society as corrupt and broken. c) Fitzgerald uses dark word choice, long running sentences, and figurative language to portray a very boring, monotone society. These elements reveal the author’s view of life in that time. d) Through metaphors, word choice, and symbolism, Fitzgerald reveals that society rebuilt itself to be immoral and greedy. e) In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald makes use of disgusted word choice and degrading comparisons to demonstrate his views of society. f) Through the use of similes, word choice, and personification, Fitzgerald depicts an almost lifeless society filled with forgotten hopes and dreams. g) Fitzgerald uses diction to convey a solemn and brooding view of society, as well as figurative language and sentence structure. h) In a time of gangsters, bootleggers, and prohibition F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the Great Gatsby to convey the darker side of 1920s American society ad the ways people were dominated by greed. i) In the novel “The Great Gatsby” Fitzgerald uses language to convey his views of society through imagery.

5. Topic Sentences • Throughout the passage Fitzgerald uses words that suggest a highly negative view outlook. • In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald also uses personification to further express his view of society. • When describing the journey between West Egg and New York, Fitzgerald continuously uses the color “gray” to describe the “valley of ashes.” • Fitzgerald describes the valley of ashes as “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills” and with men who are “already crumbling through the powdery air.”

6. By Device Topic Sentence #1: Fitzgerald stats by using a simile to convey the neglectful nature of society’s surroundings. Topic Sentence #2: Fitzgerald also employs diction to portray the dangerous result of society’s neglect.

7. By ‘sub-purpose’ Topic Sentence #1: Fitzgerald first lays a foundation by depicting to the reader the impoverished and neglected scene. Topic Sentence #2: Fitzgerald relates to the reader what he thinks of those who forget or turn their back on others.