Read the excerpt.
What is the effect of the word choice in the scene?
In this scene from Chapter 5 of The Great Gatsby, Gatsby has
finally achieved his goal of showing off his home to Daisy.
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It highlights Daisy's shallow, materialistic nature as
well as Gatsby's pitiful efforts to impress her.
"I've got a man in England who buys me clothes. He sends over
a selection of things at the beginning of each season, spring and
fall."
It demonstrates Gatby's achievement of the American
dream and his willingness to share it with others.
It exposes Gatsby's careless nature and his disregard
for the worth of objects and people around him.
He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by
one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel,
which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-
colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft
rich heap mounted higher-shirts with stripes and scrolls and
plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange,
with monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly, with a strained sound,
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Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily.
It reveals Daisy's respect for Gatsby and how much
he has accomplished since they last met.
"They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in
the thick folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such-
such beautiful shirts."