Rhetorical Analysis The Great Gatsby

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Pages: 5
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Wojciech J. Osetkowski
Reading American Writing
The Great Gatsby (p. 48): “On a chance, we tried an important looking door, and walked into a high Gothic library, paneled with carved English oak, and probably transported complete from some ruin overseas (…) He snatched the book from me and replaced it hastily on its shelf, muttering that if one brick was removed the whole library was liable to collapse.”
The passage begins with a brief description of Gatsby’s library, which was accessed by “an important-looking door”. The language, just like the rest of the book, is rather informal and almost chatty – emulating a spoken account. Given that the book is written in first person, the reader has a chance to have an insight into the narrator’s thoughts …show more content…
It is clear that the whole chapter is all about the theatrics and smoke and mirrors; the scene in the library is yet another commentary on honesty or lack thereof, perception and also helps to gradually build an image of Gatsby, providing his background by means of presenting his taste for interiors and hosting lavish parties before the reader actually gets to know the man. Again, Fitzgerald’s choice of words is quite telling: everything about the library is summarized by just one sentence: “a high Gothic library, paneled with English oak, and probably transported from some ruin overseas”.
This description pretty much summarizes the pretense of the Nouveau Riches: it must be old or at least look the part to give the impression of being cultured and ‘established’ – hence Gothic, and since Gothic style originated in France, the shelves and the paneling more than likely came from a ruined chateau in France or from somewhere in England since they are made of English oak. One thing is certain – no expense has been spared to transport the library across the …show more content…
While he does seem to at least superficially care about the host, he suggests that Gatsby is a genius when it comes to creating illusions. This is particularly ironic, since the illusion of Gatsby being highly educated was created using real books, where most of the New Wealth usually make do with faux books, because they never use them. In this respect Gatsby is no different, and he too attempts to appear like a member of the high social class by buying real books and thus replicating their behavior. However, as Owl Eyes points out, no one even bothered to cut the pages, suggesting the books never have or would be read. At this point, there is another reference to theatre – the bespectacled man calls Gatsby “a regular Belasco”: David Belasco was an American theatrical producer, director and was famous for his extraordinary attention to detail when creating sets for his plays. However, the sets were artificial and had nothing to do with real life – the main in Owl glasses hints at Gatsby’s lavish lifestyle being just a play and his mansion – a theatrical set. This is even more evident in the last sentence from the excerpt: if one brick was removed, the whole library would collapse and the image that was meticulously built by Gatsby would also fall into pieces. Given that both the library scene and the whole chapter 3 are all about appearances and honesty versus lie, they also allow the reader to make some observations
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