Evolution of Excellent Writing

The Great Gatsby: Socratic Seminar Response

Thesis: People who fabricate illusions become so consumed in their convictions that they are eventually convinced by their lies and perceive what is false as real.

            Towards the end of chapter 6, Fitzgerald writes an extended metaphor, “Out of the corner of his eye, Gatsby saw that the blocks of the sidewalks really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees…” He portrays Gatsby as a disillusioned man who purses an unreachable enigma he sees “out the corner of his eye” with full confidence. Gatsby becomes so obsessed in his fantasies that eventually, they seem to become true and then begin to manifest as he wholeheartedly believed the “blocks of sidewalks…[that] formed a ladder” were real, not just a figment of his imagination. By using a metaphor, Fitzgerald gives the literal definition of an illusion by labeling one subject as another, disguising what that subject truly is by obscuring it under a false pretense. Through his way of using metaphor, Fitzgerald implies that reality is covered by illusions, and therefore, illusions make up reality.

            In The Great Gatsby, several characters, especially Gatsby, become so obsessed in what they want to achieve that they fabricate a false image of themselves in how they would like to appear, when in truth, they are far from it. In doing so, the characters create illusions that others, including themselves, believe to be are reality. For instance, in Chapter 5, when Gatsby and Daisy had met together for dinner, Nick observed “there must have been moments that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams” then analyzed, “not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion.” Nick described Gatsby as a man who “had thrown himself into creative passion,” a man who was genuinely convinced that his depiction of Daisy was the real thing, rejecting reality and instead living a fantasy built by his own interpretations. This is essentially what Fitzgerald does with his frequent use of metaphor, calling one thing another, reality an illusion. And furthermore, that reality is in the eye of the beholder.

I believe this piece of writing is excellent because it presents a complex idea in a simple way, and through a well dictated thesis and analysis, backed by much textual evidence.
My writing skill, in rhetorical analyses especially, have evolved and matured since the beginning of the year, where my arguments and interpretations have become more insightful, better articulated, and also formed without the crutch of a teacher.