The Great Gatsby Mood

A large majority of the scary “campfire” stories you would’ve read as a child, would typically start with something along the lines of, “it was a dark and stormy night”. This short combination of words sets the desired mood of the story and helps the reader get a better understanding of the scene. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of The Great Gatsby uses this strategy all throughout the novel. He not only does this to set the mood, but also to symbolize the conflicts between the characters and the events happening. Gatsby, one the main characters is madly in love with a married women by the name of Daisy. They had a history together, but time passed and Daisy moved on. Gatsby tries everything in his power to get her back, but is stopped in his tracks when he is shot and killed. Throughout the novel the weather changes in accordance to different parts in the book. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses different strategies to do things like symbolize a hidden message, change the scene, or the set a specific tone. When something drastic happens to a character, their manner and mood changes in accordance to the event. A perfect example of this is in the first chapter when Nick, another main character, and Tom his distant cousin meet. Before the meeting of the two, Nick describes the weather as a warm summer day with the sun shining bright. As the story …show more content…
Scott Fitzgerald uses a specific technique to demonstrate that the story is coming to an end. He does this by drastically changing the weather from an unbearably hot day, to a “cold fall day”; to quote him exactly the narrator says “On the last afternoon before he went abroad, he sat with Daisy in his arms for a long, silent time. It was a cold fall day, with fire in the room and her cheeks flushed.” This quote sets a specific tone, and allows the reader to almost “switch gears” into a different scene smoothly, but still