Write about the ways Fitzgerald tells the story in chapter seven
Fitzgerald conveys key events of the narrative in Chapter Seven through a range of methods to foreshadow plotlines, reveal truths and support events. He uses techniques such as strong imagery combined with harsh vocabulary, pathetic fallacy and eyewitness accounts to help convey chapter sevens narrative.
Fitzgerald uses methods such as the conflict surrounding the two affairs and Myrtles death within the chapter to foreshadow the ending of the novel through these recent turn of events. We are presented with grotesque imagery to portray Myrtles death used to deliberately shock the reader, especially a contemporary reader whom are naive to such strong vocabulary used by Fitzgerald. Myrtle’s “breast was swinging loose” after her death, the use of this thorough physical description highlights Myrtle’s role within the affair being purely physical and sexual, suggesting Myrtle is a possession used by Tom only for his satisfaction, supported by Tom’s reaction to her death being unemotional and nonchalant, proving his disinterest in Myrtle’s character for any reasons other than the affair. Fitzgerald uses animalistic imagery that “her mouth was wide open and a little ripped at the corners” to dehumanise her character and devastate the reader. Using Myrtle as a corpse “mingled her thick dark blood with dust”, supplies the reader with sympathy for her as she is portrayed in a violent and grotesque manor, which is a complete contrast to her “continually smouldering” character. Fitzgerald refers to the Valley of the Ashes as her blood mingled “with dust”, symbolising that her death reunited her with her home, just as the Valley of the Ashes symbolises death, despair and hope, appropriately fitting Myrtle’s death. Her death also signifies the immorality of New York and the ambiguity which is attached to the place, symbolising hope, whilst also symbolising sin and wrongdoings. This is used to signify Myrtle’s death as sinful, but also the relationship as wrong and inappropriate, therefore, some may argue that Myrtle reaped what she sowed. By Fitzgerald using her death in such a manor, it creates tension within the reader and sets up the novel for the later events in which Gatsby takes the blame for Myrtle’s death, prefiguring even further events in which Gatsby is killed because of her death.
Throughout Chapter Seven, the reader is presented with Pathetic Fallacy used by Fitzgerald in order to allow the weather to parallel the mood and tone of the atmosphere. Vocabulary surrounding the heat is used extremely regularly at the beginning of the Chapter “Hot, Hot, Hot”, “Is it hot enough for you”, “The next day was broiling”, “Certainly the warmest day of summer”, “perspired delicately”, “The sun’s getting hotter every year”, “stagnant in the heat” “But it’s so hot” conveying very detailed imagery of a “stifling” day which helps the reader in imaging the atmosphere. Fitzgerald does this in order to create pathetic fallacy as the day is “uncomfortably hot” which parallels the atmosphere being uncomfortable and “intense”, foreshadowing the conflict about to arise regarding the affair and the suspense through our lack of knowledge of the ending as the reader. Fitzgerald uses the heat to create tension as the atmosphere rises and the mood lessens, creating a negative tone in which the reader can understand will symbolise the negative events nearing further into the chapter. Disagreements start to become apparent on a smaller scale such as “but it’s so hot”, signifying that if the weather is paralleling the mood that some disagreements on a larger scale will in turn be revealed. This makes the audience more keen to find out why the weather is conveyed in such a mass and why it is portrayed negatively, foreshadowing the rest of the novel.
The Eye Witness account we receive on Nick’s behalf in Chapter Seven is biased and unreliable as it is a third party source due to Nick’s lacking presence at the scene of the death. Instead Fitzgerald has Nick’s character narrate eye witness events he has viewed from a newspaper “The ‘Death Car’ as the newspapers have called it” proving that this event in the novel may be unreliable and fictitious as this information is third party by the time Nick receives it, so it isn’t the exact happenings which is relayed to the reader disproving the validity of the novel and with this, the reader’s trust within the glorified details of the event. Newspapers have a reputation for sensationalising stories and Myrtle’s death may be the prime example of a fallacious hyped headliner. Newspapers speculate many accounts which would lead the reader in thinking that the falsehood within this story is only to convey the immorality liked with New York, prefiguring Gatsby’s death later in the novel. This makes the reader yearn to know the truth and the legitimacy behind this story, symbolising the ambiguity and uncertainty regarding the novel as a whole due to Nick’s narration and now a third party unreliable source. This makes the reader slightly less naive towards the novel as we are aware that Newspapers signify their tendencies to over exaggerate therefore we are more open minded and not as easily deterred by headlines or other unreliable sources.