Sample Paragraph for my Gatsby essay on Characterization
My thesis: One of the reasons The Great Gatsby is a classic is Fitzgerald's characterization, as shown by
his many minor characters. Through the brilliant creation of the vivacious mistress, the gullible husband
and the harsh antagonist, the reader understands Fitzgerald’s point that there are no truly innocent
characters in the novel and each person convicts her or himself.
To begin, Fitzgerald has created the minor character, Myrtle, to be a selfish opportunityseeker who knows what she is getting into with Tom. Literary Reference Centre suggests
Fitzgerald’s thinking when creating Myrtle: “authors imagine traits appropriate to the purpose of
a literary work and reveal them through narration of events, dialogue, and reports of the
characters’ thoughts” (“Characterization”). Fitzgerald uses speech, actions and possessions to
create his characters. First, Myrtle’s speech suggests that she has abandoned her husband in order
to have an affair. At the apartment party in chapter two, Myrtle describes Wilson, “I married
him because I thought he was a gentleman,… I thought he knew something about breeding, but
he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe” (Fitzgerald, 37). Clearly, Myrtle’s speech allows readers to see the
disrespect with which she holds her husband. As a result, she chooses Tom to give her a lifestyle
that she cannot have with Wilson. Myrtle’s actions upon meeting Tom, a stranger on a train,
indicate that she willingly chooses to enter into their relationship: “I was so excited that when I
got into a taxi with him I didn't hardly know I wasn't getting into a subway train” (Fitzgerald,
38). Myrtle decides that she “can't live forever" (Fitzgerald, 38) and follows this stranger into an
affair, leaving her loving husband behind. Because she willingly follows a strange man off the
train, the reader can deduce that she has been looking for just such an opportunity. Along with
speech and actions, possessions are another part of the character created for Myrtle which shows
her to be worthy of condemnation. When she, Nick and Tom travel together by taxi, Myrtle is
quick to buy things, indicating how she is attempting to fit into upper class society. When they
see a dog salesman, immediately she says, “I want to get one for the apartment. They’re nice to
have—a dog” (Fitzgerald, 29). Why two people who visit an apartment irregularly need a pet is
irrelevant; Myrtle has the money and feels the need to fill the apartment with trappings. Good
characterization techniques have made Myrtle a strong character with whom the reader can feel a
connection. According to Bernardo, characterization “allows us to empathize with the
protagonist and secondary characters, and thus feel that what is happening to these people in the
story is vicariously happening to us.” Myrtle is in no way innocent and readers feel their own
judgment through learning her story. Her character, brilliantly created by Fitzgerald, is
condemned by readers for selfishness and immorality.
Notes on paragraphing:
1. This paragraph is long enough. Once you reach a page in length, you should start
winding up or thinking of how you can break the paragraph into two.
2. “Characterization” is a source from Literary Reference Centre and has no author. In my
Works Cited, it would be listed alphabetically as “Characterization” and therefore, that is
what I put in parenthesis.
3. Near the end here, I mention Bernardo, a critical source. Because I name her in the
sentence, I don’t need to name her in brackets after the quotation.
4. I have chosen to start with a definition of “characterization.” There is no rule saying you
must, but the beginning of a paragraph is one place to put a secondary source.
5. The other place to put a secondary source is at the end as I have done here with
“Bernardo.” Her quotation backs up my claims about the good techniques of
characterization that Fitzgerald is using.
6. In the quotation, “I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,… I thought he
knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe” (Fitzgerald, 37), I
have included ellipsis to indicate that a little piece is missing in the middle.
7. Since I have more than one author here, I have to include the name “Fitzgerald” for each
quotation to be clear of the source. Because my research is from the internet, I don’t
have page numbers. If I did have a page number for Literary Reference Centre, my
citation might look like this: (“Characterization”, 12).