How Does Nick Carraway Manipulate The Language In The Great Gatsby

At this point in the novel, Nick Carraway was invited to one of Gatsby’s extravagant parties and was searching for Gatsby among the crowd. Nick became reacquainted with a man he had fought with in the war, only to realize the man was Gatsby. As Nick was struck with realization, his surprise melted into interest as exhibited in the syntax and imagery of the passage above. Gatsby seemed to “[smile] understandingly—much more than understandingly” and had a smile that “faced—or seemed to face—the whole external world;” the pauses in Nick’s descriptions—noted by the hyphens—emphasize the succeeding clauses that continue to shape Nick’s opinion of Gatsby. More importantly, however, these pauses serve to manipulate the passage’s fluency and mimic