THE GREAT GATSBY: BELÉN VERDE VALERO

Regarding genre, it is a prose text. Specifically, it is included in a novel and the text type
is narrative. We can extract this conclusion on two bases. First of all, the text is intended
to inform about actions and events in time and with life in motion. Besides, it answers the
question, what happened? This text is telling the reader a story. What type of story? The
way the writer writes, tell us that it could be realistic fiction since the characters seem like
real people with real issues. Characters are involved in events that could happen and they
live in places that could be real; ´Go to Atlantic City or Montreal’ (line 20). Secondly, the
author of this novel is Scott Fitzgerald, a writer of the 20th century who projects part of
his own life in his novels.

Furthermore, it is a narration because there is an abundance of action verbs which are

mainly in past simple tense; `I tossed (line1), jumped out (line 3), began to dress (line 4),
I waited (line 8), I found (line 15).´ There are also time and location indicators; Atlantic
City or Montreal’ (line 20). However, the text is also descriptive and partially dialogic.
There is no doubt that the text presents the actions of the characters, but it also informs
about the state of the people involved in the story, objects and the space where they are.
For example, in lines 6 and 7, there is a description of Gatsby `leaning against a table in
the hall, heavy with dejection or sleep). Besides, from line 10 to 17, we find the
description of the house; `he seemed so enormous, curtains like pavilions´ (line 11). To
provide these descriptions, the writer employs abundant stative verbs; ´was´ (line 6) and
`seemed´ (line 10); a great number of adjectives; `enormous´ (line 10), `dark wall´ (line
12) and `musty´ (line 14). And the use of ing forms and continuous tenses; `he was
leaning (line 6), `throwing open and smoking´ (line 16).

The text may be also dialogic because there is a short conversation reported by the writer
in direct speech; `nothing happened, he said wanly´ (line 8), `you ought to go away… or
up to Montreal´ (lines 18, 19 and 20).

Roman Jakobson defined six functions of language (or communication functions),

according to which an effective act of verbal communication can be described.

In the text, the predominant communicative function is the referential or representational

one which is used to present the situation to the reader using description. `His house had
never seemed so enormous (line 10).´ The narrator also uses the expressive function.
Indeed, A great number of adjectives are used to show that the writer aims to express his
feelings, but he does not express his opinion: `I couldn’t sleep all night (line 1), curtains
THE GREAT GATSBY: BELÉN VERDE VALERO

were like pavilions (line 11).´ The conative function is also found in the middle of the
text the direct quotation to show the conversation.

This type of text structure features a detailed description of something to give the reader
a mental picture of what is going on the story.
Regarding the narrative perspective, The Great Gatsby is written in first-person limited
perspective from Nick’s point of view. This means that Nick uses the word “I” and
describes events as he experienced them. `I couldn’t sleep all night (line 1), I found the
humidor on an unfamiliar table’ (line 15). ´ He does not know what other characters are
thinking unless they tell him. He is another character of the story, but he is not the enter
of the story, and that makes him a peripheral narrator, that is to say, someone who is
always on the outside looking in the story. Carraway’s eyes shape the story. `He wouldn’t
consider it. he couldn’t possible leave Daisy until he knew (line 21). ´
The text is coherent because the components of the surface text are connected with the
sequence of utterances. The text is not structured in a mere sequence of disorganized
arguments. As stated by Hassan and Halliday in Cohesion in English (1976), anaphora is
defined as the way the same term enters the text a second time. Cataphora is also defined
as the use of a word that co-refers with a later. On one hand, anaphora can be found in
line 3 when he mentions `Gatsby’s drive´ and then, he uses the pronoun he to refer to
Gatsby. On the other hand, cataphora is found in line 8 `she came to the window´ and
then, we discover that she refers to Daisy; he couldn’t possibly leave Daisy (line 21).´
Finally, the adjectives found along the text are used in a creative way, as metaphors to
focus on the message for its own sake. The writer combines several figures of speech to
create emotional mood and attitudes. In the text, we mainly find the followings:
Simile: `curtains that were like pavilions´(line 11) since he compares curtains with
pavilions because they were huge. `Had broken up like glass against Tom’ (line24).
Hyperbole: this sentence can also be considered as an exaggeration `curtains that were
like pavilions´(line 11)
Personification: `fog-horn groaning´ (line 1) since he personifies the horn with the sound
of groan.
Antithesis: `reality and dreams´ (line 2) since we have two opposite terms.
Imagery: `dark walls (line 12), musty rooms, (line14) unfamiliar table, dry cigarettes, two
stale´ (line15). Here the language is used to describe something in detail to create a feeling
of decay.