The Great Gatsby Quote Analysis Essay

Compelled, page 18. “Her face compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened-then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk.” F. Scott Fitzgerald uses compelled here because it often implies control over the person being compelled. Other words like beckoned wouldn’t convey the lack of control Nick felt, despite being otherwise interchangeable.
Enchanted, page 61. “At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others-poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows waiting until it was time for a solitary restaurant dinner-young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.” The word enchanted gives a mysterious quality to the evening, as if it is floating in memory. The word mystical wouldn't seem as still and quiet, despite both meaning a layer

“He hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford,’ or swallowed it or choked on it as though it had bothered him before.” Choked means to have severe difficulty in breathing because of a constricted or obstructed throat or a lack of air. Fitzgerald uses choked in this manner to describe Gatsby’s reaction to his own words because choking is often a primal reaction of the body against something that doesn’t belong. Gatsby saying his family was educated at Oxford causes his body to react uncontrollably to the false statement. He chose this word over obstruct or clog because choked implies a feeling of helplessness that can’t be controlled.
Pursued, page 85. “‘There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.’” The word pursued brings to mind a chase. It reminds the reader of a scene in nature, a predator chasing her prey. Despite meaning to look for, hunt would not have the same connotation because it brings fear to mind, whereas pursuit brings excitement to mind. This lends the sentence a quality of direction, of determination, as opposed to