Figurative Language

"Tom talked incessantly, exulting and laughing, but his voice was as remote from Jordan and me as the foreign clamor on the sidewalk or tumult of the elevated overhead. [...] Thirty--the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair. [...] As we passed over the dark bridge...the formidable stroke of thirty died away with the reassuring pressure of her hand" (Fitzgerald 143).

In this passage, Tom and Gatsby have just had their fight, which left the other characters feeling uncomfortable and upset. Tom, Nick, and Jordan are in the car on the way home from New York.

Fitzgerald uses connotative diction with "exulting" and "laughing" (143) to allow the reader to understand just how upset Tom was after the argument with Gatsby. These words have positive connotations, so using them to describe Tom's actions when he was undoubtedly unhappy makes Tom appear somewhat crazy and unstable. Fitzgerald uses a metaphor with "sidewalk" (143) to describe the rift felt between Tom, who was incessantly babbling, and Nick and Jordan, who were sitting in the back seat. Nick and Jordan, both made quite uncomfortable by the fight, were essentially tuning Tom out, just as one tunes out noises from the sidewalk which are unimportant. He uses repetition with the word "thinning" (Fitzgerald 143) to highlight the depressing nature of Nick's thirtieth birthday. Nick seems to believe that the best years of his life have passed, and that things are now going to go downhill. His choice to use "thinning" over some other verb, such as "disappearing", highlights the slower, more gradual nature of something thinning, as in one's hair. Fitzgerald then uses juxtaposition by describing the happiness and calm felt by Nick from "the reassuring pressure of her hand" (143). The tone quickly changes from one of pessimism to contentment. This highlights the importance relationships have, in the story especially, in affecting one's moods, and contributing to one's happiness.  

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