Metaphors in The Great Gatsby - Ch 2
Dead Metaphor:
- [ ] "He's so dumb he doesn't know he's alive."
- [ ] "Throwing a regal homecoming glance around the neighborhood..."
- [ ] "...stumbled continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles."
- [ ] "I've done some nice things out on Long Island."
- [ ] "All I ask is that they should give me a start."
- [ ] "I tried to show by my expression that I had played no part in her past."
- [ ] "Tom rang for the janitor and sent him for some celebrated sandwiches, which were a complete supper in themselves."
- [ ] "I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park through the soft twilight but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair."
Standard Metaphor:
- [ ] "This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens..."
- [ ] "but his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground."
- [ ] "a sort of compact Main Street ministering to it and contiguous to absolutely nothing."
- [ ] "the nerves of her body were continually smouldering."
- [ ] "walking through her husband as if he were a ghost"
- [ ] "mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls."
- [ ] "She let four taxi cabs drive away before she selected a new one, lavender-colored with grey upholstery."
- [ ] "Mr. McKee was a pale feminine man from the flat below." "Mrs. Wilson's mother which hovered like an ectoplasm on the wall."
- [ ] "With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change."
- [ ] "The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur."
- [ ] "The room grew smaller around her until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy, creaking pivot through the smoky air."
- [ ] "Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders."
- [ ] "She flounced over to the dog, kissed it with ecstasy and swept into the kitchen, implying that a dozen chefs awaited her orders there."
- [ ] "The late afternoon sky bloomed in the window for a moment like the blue honey of the Mediterranean"
- [ ] "The bottle of whiskey—a second one—was now in constant demand by all present, excepting Catherine who 'felt just as good on nothing at all.'"
- [ ] "I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life."
Implied Metaphor:
- [ ] "The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river..."
- [ ] "Doctor Eckleburg's persistent stare."
- [ ] "A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity..."
- [ ] "We backed up to a grey old man who bore an absurd resemblance to John D. Rockefeller."
- [ ] "I wouldn't have been surprised to see a great flock of white sheep turn the corner."
- [ ] "Mr. McKee regarded her intently with his head on one side and then moved his hand back and forth slowly in front of his face."
- [ ] "You'll give McKee a letter of introduction to your husband, so he can do some studies of him."
- [ ] "Mr. McKee was asleep on a chair with his fists clenched in his lap, like a photograph of a man of action."
- [ ] "When he had gone half way he turned around and stared at the scene—his wife and Catherine scolding and consoling as they stumbled here and there among the crowded furniture with articles of aid, and the despairing figure on the couch bleeding fluently and trying to spread a copy of 'Town Tattle' over the tapestry scenes of Versailles."
Visual Metaphor:
- [ ] "But above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg."
- [ ] "The little dog was sitting on the table looking with blind eyes through the smoke and from time to time groaning faintly."
Extended Metaphor:
The "valley of ashes" description is an extended metaphor that portrays a desolate and decaying landscape, representing moral decay and the social aftermath of rapid economic growth.