Zepeda 1

Raquel Zepeda

G. Shows

English 1301

September 09, 2019

Reading response four

Every story or article has a theme that has to unravel as it is told. Sometimes the author

just dives right into telling it and forgets how to make things far more interesting. This just ends

up trashing the entire paper up. Details can be added by using figures of speech or literal

language. For instance the feelings and emotions can be easily said like sad, happy, jealous but

once objective correlation is added to the story it has more meaning or clues as to how a

character or a situation is going on. Well what is objective correlation? It is “the artistic and

literary technique of representing or evoking a particular emotion by means of symbols that

objectify that emotion and are associated with it.” This is done to keep a reader more hooked on

to the story to find the real meaning of those certain symbols. As well it helps to keep it well

organized.

The Great Gatsby has a few examples of objective correlation, though there is one that

speaks out the most. In chapter one Gatsby is seen along the dock “he gave a sudden intimation

that he was content to be alone — he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious

way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced

seaward — and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that

might have been the end of a dock”, that being from Daisy’s and Tom’s house, Tom being

Daisy’s husband. Green at many times symbolizes envy or money, in this scenario it meant both.

Gatsby has all the riches but he envied Tom’s wife. Gatsby wanted to be with Daisy, he wanted
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the life Tom had with her. He had been obsessing over her for years that he bought a house

across from her. Therefore T.S. Eliot’s point was proven “The only way of expressing emotion in

the form of art is by finding an ‘objective correlative’; in other words, a set of objects, a

situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when

the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is

immediately evoked.” So the objective here would be Gatsby’s emotions and feelings; the

jealousy and the love.