Carelessness In The Great Gatsby

Words: 943
Pages: 4
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Selena White
American Literature
Miss Gibbs
18 November 2016

Expressing Carelessness in Both Texts
F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby and E. E. Cummings, author of “anyone lived in a pretty how town” convey similar themes of carelessness. Both selections reveal that not everyone will care through the use of tone, diction, and symbolism. There are several ways these two pieces of text show this theme. When reading The Great Gatsby, carelessness stands out in many quotes in the book, showing the personalities of each character. As in E. E. Cummings poem, you have to go through and pull a part the text to show the carelessness he is trying to represent. In the Great Gatsby, tone, diction, and symbolism express the definition …show more content…
In The Great Gatsby it says, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- 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 179) It specifically says that they were careless and only cared about themselves. In “anyone lived in a pretty how town” the tone is shown when it says, “ busy folk buried them side by side little by little and was by was.”(Cummings ln 27 and 28) Showing the people just buried them and went back to living their lives, not showing no remorse for their passing. For diction in The Great Gatsby it says “you look so cool.”(Fitzgerald 119) Knowing that Tom could hear, Daisy said it either way, saying that she basically loved Gatsby in that one sentence. For the diction in “anyone lived in a pretty how town” it says “and down they forgot as up they grew”(Cummings ln 10), saying as children they pay attention to their surroundings and care about what goes on around them, but as they get older they forget that and become one will society. The other symbolism for The Great Gatsby is, ‘“I’ve got something to tell you, old sport-” began Gatsby. But Daisy guessed at his intention. “Please don’t!” she interrupted helplessly.”’(Fitzgerald 130) Showing that the whole time Gatsby and Daisy were together, Gatsby only worried about Daisy leaving Tom, …show more content…
My purpose was to show how carelessness is expressed by the two authors in their writing. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s purpose was to be careful who to trust because they might not actually care and only do what the person wants or say what they want to get what they want. Now E. E. Cummings’ purpose was not everyone cares because people will or can make someone feel good, but once something happens they will leave, so they act like nothing happened and they act like they never even knew the person. The reader can learn from the pieces and apply it to their life by not just listening to what someone has to say, pay attention to their behavior because actions speak louder than
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