Passage Analysis -The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald 6)

“Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope… And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit. Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes but after a certain point I don’t care what it’s founded on. When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction ─ Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.” (Fitzgerald 6)

Nick is giving the reader an explanation of his standards and beliefs. He comes from Old Money and stays true to what his family taught him. The avoidance of judging others caused him to go further in life and keep an open mind.
Juxtaposition of imagery is evident when he states that he does not care what conduct is founded on. It is because he does not care that he uses two opposite examples of imagery for describing a foundation; hard rock or wet marshes.
It is interesting that Nick references Gatsby’s name to be one contributing to the story in the book. A connection is created early on between the reader and narrator. Nick is talking to us in a personal way, as if he were speaking to us face-to-face, excluding the normal rules of writing. The first thing we know about Gatsby is in relation to Nick’s values. Nick said, “Gatsby…represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.” (6) We know the things he represented based on the information Nick has already shared about himself.
The diction throughout The Great Gatsby often stands out as being from the 1920’s. Nick says, “there was something gorgeous about him.” (6) A few times in the novel, the men are described with what our society would decipher as more feminine terms. Another example of this is when we are introduced to a couple later on. The husband is described as feminine and the wife referred to as handsome. Years ago this was more common and less out-of-place.