Syntax

·         “Please don’t. Her voice was cold. The rancor was gone from it. She looked at Gatsby” (132).

Fitzgerald’s use of this telegraphic sentence displays the change in Daisy’s attitude towards Gatsby. Gatsby tries to force Daisy to tell Tom that she never truly loved him; that she was still in love with Gatsby the whole time she was with Tom, even though Daisy did love Tom. This causes Daisy to resent Gatsby. The sharp end of each thought illustrates Daisy’s annoyance with Gatsby.

·         “They were gone, without a word, snapped out, made accidental, isolated, like ghosts, even from our pity” (135).

This rambling sentence is used shortly after Gatsby and Daisy express their feelings about each other to Tom. Of course, Tom does not approve of this, yet he is also not frightened by Gatsby either; and just like that, Daisy and Gatsby’s potential continuation of their past is ruined. This sentence displays the disparity felt by Gatsby when he realizes that the past cannot be repeated.

·         “I spent my Saturday nights in New York, because those gleaming, dazzling parties of his were with me so vividly that I could still hear the music and the laughter, faint and incessant, from his garden, and the cars going up and down his drive” (179).

Fitzgerald utilizes cumulative sentences in order to strengthen his syntax throughout the book. This exhibits Nick’s sadness due to the loss of his neighbor, Gatsby. He has to escape to New York because the memories of Gatsby are still with him so strongly. By placing the main idea of the sentence at the beginning, Fitzgerald is able to elaborate on why Nick spends his Saturday nights in New York.