What Structural and Linguistic Devices Are Used to Present a Key Event in 3 Texts You Have Studied? Essay Example
The three texts I have studied are ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald, ‘The God of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy and ‘If I Could Tell You’ by W. H. Auden. Within each text the poet or author uses structural and linguistic devices to tell the story and also outline the importance of the message given in a key event. In ‘The Great Gatsby’ an effective event to portray structural and linguistic devices is that of Chapter 2. Within this chapter Fitzgerald demonstrates the difference of worlds, superficiality and description of characterisation and setting.
Fitzgerald uses setting as a device to show the destruction caused by Tom’s affair and also the contrast and cohesion to his life with Daisy. Cohesion is challenged due to the contrast to the previous chapter where it is family like, whereas it also corresponds with cohesion as the destruction of Tom and Daisy’s marriage continues throughout the novel.
Fitzgerald also uses setting to show the lavish affair of the party and the contrast to Egg. ‘At 158th Street the cab stopped at one slice in a long white cake of apartment-houses.’ This shows the superficiality of the location and of the characterisation. This is done effectively using Fitzgerald’s descriptive words to display its greatness.
Fitzgerald also demonstrates superficiality in language when describing clothing. The characterisation of Myrtle ‘changing into a cream-coloured dress’ shows her losing her vitality and increases her artificiality, along with the description of her laughter, gestures and speech. This convincingly shows the change from Egg to the city and the change of clothes reiterates the change of setting and that of Tom’s lover.
Fitzgerald sets up the event nicely, the characterisation of the drunken party guests being garrulous and harsh while talking about Gatsby. Fitzgerald does this evocatively to outline the difference between the worlds. The key event is when Myrtle gets drunk and taunting Tom, ‘I’ll say it whenever I
Fitzgerald uses setting as a device to show the destruction caused by Tom’s affair and also the contrast and cohesion to his life with Daisy. Cohesion is challenged due to the contrast to the previous chapter where it is family like, whereas it also corresponds with cohesion as the destruction of Tom and Daisy’s marriage continues throughout the novel.
Fitzgerald also uses setting to show the lavish affair of the party and the contrast to Egg. ‘At 158th Street the cab stopped at one slice in a long white cake of apartment-houses.’ This shows the superficiality of the location and of the characterisation. This is done effectively using Fitzgerald’s descriptive words to display its greatness.
Fitzgerald also demonstrates superficiality in language when describing clothing. The characterisation of Myrtle ‘changing into a cream-coloured dress’ shows her losing her vitality and increases her artificiality, along with the description of her laughter, gestures and speech. This convincingly shows the change from Egg to the city and the change of clothes reiterates the change of setting and that of Tom’s lover.
Fitzgerald sets up the event nicely, the characterisation of the drunken party guests being garrulous and harsh while talking about Gatsby. Fitzgerald does this evocatively to outline the difference between the worlds. The key event is when Myrtle gets drunk and taunting Tom, ‘I’ll say it whenever I