Topic #1: Rhetorical Strategies

• Metaphor: “When he realized what I was talking about, that there were twinkle-bells of sunshine in the room…” (89).
• Hyperbole: “‘He’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive’” (26).
• Repetition: “…a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom…” (29).
• Cliché: “‘…he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe’” (34).
• Oxymoron: “Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it…” (9).
• Personification: “It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down…" (9).
• Alliteration: “I inquired innocently” (14).
• Simile: “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars,” (39).
• Symbolism: “Standing behind him, Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the end of Doctor TJ Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night. ‘God sees everything,’ repeated Wilson,” (159-106).

In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald utilizes a large amount of rhetorical strategies to express his unique style. “‘He is so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive’” is just one hyperbole the author uses to emphasize the arrogance often shown by Mr. Wilson. Although many signs point to his wife’s unfaithfulness, Wilson refuses to accept the harsh reality. Another rhetorical strategy Fitzgerald applies to his writing is a symbol that connects an old optometry billboard to the eyes of God. Wilson claims “‘God sees everything,’” which refers to God witnessing every sin and disloyal movement of each person involved in the minute circle of friends.