Review Metaphors

4/9 chapters processed · 141 metaphors found

~5 min
Ch Quote Explanation Topic Conf
3 "men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars" Simile comparing party guests to moths, suggesting their ephemeral, attracted-to-light quality, flut... Light/Darkness 95%
3 "his two motorboats slit the waters of the Sound" Violent verb 'slit' personifies boats as cutting/wounding the water, suggesting aggression against n... Nature Perverted 90%
3 "drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam" Metaphor transforming boat wake into 'cataracts' - both waterfalls and eye disease, suggesting blind... Water/Drowning 85%
3 "his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug" Simile animating the vehicle as an insect, suggesting mechanical life replacing natural life Nature Perverted 90%
3 "repairing the ravages of the night before" Metaphor of party aftermath as 'ravages' - destruction requiring repair, suggesting warfare or pilla... Time 85%
3 "a pyramid of pulpless halves" Visual metaphor of discarded orange rinds as ancient monument, suggesting both grandeur and waste Money as Substance 80%
3 "enough coloured lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby's enormous garden" Metaphor transforming natural space into artificial holiday decoration Nature Perverted 85%
3 "turkeys bewitched to a dark gold" Metaphor of cooking as enchantment, suggesting magical transformation through wealth Money as Substance 90%
3 "a whole pitful of oboes and trombones" Metaphor of orchestra as excavation pit, suggesting depth and perhaps hellish associations Light/Darkness 75%
3 "floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive" Metaphor of drinks as airborne presence, air becoming 'alive' with alcohol Nature Perverted 90%
3 "The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun" Personification of earth 'lurching' like a drunk person, while artificial lights replace natural lig... Light/Darkness 95%
3 "the opera of voices pitches a key higher" Metaphor of conversation as opera, suggesting performative, heightened unreality Money as Substance 85%
3 "Laughter is easier minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word" Metaphor of laughter as liquid being carelessly poured out, suggesting waste and excess Money as Substance 90%
3 "confident girls who weave here and there among the stouter and more stable" Metaphor of movement as weaving, suggesting both textile creation and instability Time 80%
3 "glide on through the sea-change of faces and voices and colour" Shakespearean allusion ('sea-change' from The Tempest) suggesting magical transformation through wat... Water/Drowning 95%
3 "one of these gypsies, in trembling opal" Metaphor of party guest as nomadic outsider, dressed in gem-like quality suggesting both beauty and ... Money as Substance 85%
3 "seizes a cocktail out of the air" Hyperbolic metaphor suggesting drinks materialize from nothing, magical abundance Money as Substance 80%
3 "they conducted themselves according to the rules of behaviour associated with an amusement park" Extended metaphor comparing Gatsby's mansion to a public amusement park Money as Substance 90%
3 "swirls and eddies of people" Water metaphor for crowd movement, suggesting dangerous currents Water/Drowning 90%
3 "all looking a little hungry" Metaphorical hunger suggesting spiritual/financial appetite rather than physical Money as Substance 85%
3 "agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity" Personification of money as having location and presence, causing agony Money as Substance 90%
3 "I slunk off in the direction of the cocktail table" Animalistic verb 'slunk' suggests Nick becoming creature-like in his embarrassment Nature Perverted 75%
3 "the premature moon, produced like the supper, no doubt, out of a caterer's basket" Metaphor suggesting even celestial bodies are artificial, catered like party food Nature Perverted 95%
3 "A tray of cocktails floated at us through the twilight" Metaphor of drinks floating autonomously, as if enchanted Money as Substance 85%
3 "romantic speculation he inspired" Metaphor of Gatsby as investment opportunity, 'speculation' having financial connotations Money as Substance 80%
3 "this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity" Metaphor of 'preserving' suggesting pickling or embalming of social class Time 85%
3 "East Egg condescending to West Egg and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gaiety" Scientific metaphor of 'spectroscopic' suggesting analytical breakdown of light/joy into components Light/Darkness 90%
3 "transported complete from some ruin overseas" Metaphor of American wealth built on European ruins Time 85%
3 "enormous owl-eyed spectacles" Metaphor linking man to owl - symbol of wisdom but also of night-blindness in daylight Vision/Surveillance 90%
3 "if one brick was removed the whole library was liable to collapse" Metaphor of facade as precarious construction Money as Substance 85%
3 "old men pushing young girls backward in eternal graceless circles" Metaphor of dance as temporal regression and eternal repetition Time 90%
3 "happy, vacuous bursts of laughter rose toward the summer sky" Metaphor of laughter as empty bubbles rising and bursting Nature Perverted 85%
3 "floating in the Sound was a triangle of silver scales, trembling a little to the stiff, tinny drip of the banjoes" Complex metaphor of moonlight on water as musical scales/fish scales/scales of justice, trembling to... Water/Drowning 95%
3 "the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental, and profound" Metaphor of alcohol as alchemical transformer Vision/Surveillance 80%
3 "one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it" Metaphor of smile as containing eternal quality, transcending time Time 90%
3 "It faced—or seemed to face—the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible pre..." Extended metaphor of smile as conscious entity that sees all then chooses you Vision/Surveillance 95%
3 "It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself" Metaphor of smile as mirror reflecting idealized self Vision/Surveillance 95%
3 "I was looking at an elegant young roughneck" Oxymoronic metaphor combining refinement and coarseness Money as Substance 85%
3 "A dim background started to take shape behind him, but at her next remark it faded away" Visual metaphor of identity forming and dissolving like a photograph developing in reverse Vision/Surveillance 85%
3 "Gatsby sprang from the swamps of Louisiana or from the lower East Side of New York" Metaphor of human origin as 'springing' from swamps - primordial emergence Nature Perverted 80%
3 "drift coolly out of nowhere and buy a palace on Long Island Sound" Metaphor of movement as drifting, suggesting aimlessness despite purposeful acquisition Water/Drowning 85%
3 "At small parties there isn't any privacy" Paradoxical metaphor inverting expected relationship between size and intimacy Vision/Surveillance 80%
3 "above the echolalia of the garden" Medical metaphor comparing party chatter to pathological repetition of speech Nature Perverted 90%
3 "he grew more correct as the fraternal hilarity increased" Metaphor of 'growing' suggesting organic development of propriety Nature Perverted 80%
3 "girls were swooning backward playfully into men's arms, even into groups, knowing that someone would arrest their falls" Metaphor of falling as arrested by social safety net Money as Substance 85%
3 "no singing quartets were formed with Gatsby's head for one link" Metaphor of human connection as chain links Vision/Surveillance 85%
3 "she wore her evening-dress, all her dresses, like sports clothes" Metaphor of formal wear transformed into athletic gear Money as Substance 80%
3 "The tears coursed down her cheeks—not freely, however, for when they came into contact with her heavily beaded eyelashes..." Extended metaphor of tears as rivers corrupted by makeup into ink Water/Drowning 95%
3 "she appeared suddenly at his side like an angry diamond" Simile comparing woman to jewel - hard, brilliant, cutting Money as Substance 90%
3 "both wives were lifted, kicking, into the night" Metaphor of night as destination/receptacle for discarded people Light/Darkness 80%
3 "the eagerness in his manner tightened abruptly into formality" Metaphor of emotion as physical substance that can tighten/contract Money as Substance 85%
3 "her brown hand waved a jaunty salute as she melted into her party" Metaphor of person melting into group, losing individual form Water/Drowning 85%
3 "The familiar expression held no more familiarity than the hand which reassuringly brushed my shoulder" Paradoxical metaphor of familiar unfamiliarity Vision/Surveillance 85%
3 "there seemed to be a pleasant significance in having been among the last to go, as if he had desired it all the time" Metaphor of social timing as meaningful communication Time 80%
3 "violently shorn of one wheel" Violent metaphor of mechanical dismemberment Nature Perverted 85%
3 "a harsh, discordant din from those in the rear" Metaphor of traffic sounds as musical discord Nature Perverted 80%
3 "washing his hands of the whole matter" Biblical allusion to Pontius Pilate, metaphor of abdicated responsibility Vision/Surveillance 90%
3 "The crowd—it was now a crowd—stepped back involuntarily" Metaphor of transformation from individuals to crowd entity Vision/Surveillance 80%
3 "a pale, dangling individual stepped out of the wreck, pawing tentatively at the ground with a large uncertain dancing sh..." Metaphor combining human with marionette and animal imagery Nature Perverted 85%
3 "Blinded by the glare of the headlights and confused by the incessant groaning of the horns, the apparition stood swaying" Metaphor of drunk as ghost/apparition, overwhelmed by mechanical sensory assault Light/Darkness 85%
3 "looked upward as though he suspected that it had dropped from the sky" Metaphor suggesting magical thinking about mechanical failure Vision/Surveillance 75%
3 "The caterwauling horns had reached a crescendo" Metaphor of car horns as cats wailing - mechanical noise becomes animal cry Nature Perverted 85%
3 "A wafer of a moon was shining over Gatsby's house" Metaphor of moon as communion wafer - thin, holy, fragile Light/Darkness 85%
3 "A sudden emptiness seemed to flow now from the windows and the great doors" Paradoxical metaphor of emptiness flowing like substance Water/Drowning 90%
3 "endowing with complete isolation the figure of the host" Metaphor of isolation as gift/endowment Money as Substance 85%
3 "the sun threw my shadow westward as I hurried down the white chasms of lower New York" Metaphor of city streets as geological chasms Nature Perverted 90%
3 "I let it blow quietly away" Metaphor of relationship as something wind-dispersed Nature Perverted 80%
3 "the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye" Metaphor of city life as cinematic flicker, humans and machines equated Vision/Surveillance 85%
3 "they turned and smiled back at me before they faded through a door into warm darkness" Metaphor of people fading like ghosts into inviting darkness Light/Darkness 85%
3 "At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness" Metaphor of twilight as magical but ghostly time Light/Darkness 90%
3 "wasting the most poignant moments of night and life" Metaphor of time as substance that can be wasted Time 85%
3 "when the dark lanes of the Forties were lined five deep with throbbing taxicabs" Metaphor of taxis as pulsing with life/desire Nature Perverted 85%
3 "Forms leaned together in the taxis as they waited" Metaphor reducing humans to abstract 'forms' Vision/Surveillance 80%
3 "lighted cigarettes made unintelligible circles inside" Metaphor of cigarette tips as writing meaningless symbols Light/Darkness 80%
3 "The bored haughty face that she turned to the world concealed something" Metaphor of face as mask/facade hiding truth Vision/Surveillance 85%
3 "she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible" Spatial metaphor of morality as geometric plane Vision/Surveillance 85%
3 "in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world" Metaphor of smile as weapon/shield turned outward Vision/Surveillance 85%
3 "satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body" Metaphor of body as demanding entity separate from self Money as Substance 80%
3 "I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires" Mechanical metaphor of conscience as braking system Nature Perverted 85%
4 "the world and its mistress returned to Gatsby's house and twinkled hilariously on his lawn" Personification of 'the world' having a mistress, and the metaphor of people 'twinkling' like stars ... Light/Darkness 95%
4 "moving somewhere between his cocktails and his flowers" Metaphor positioning people as existing in a liminal space between intoxication and beauty Nature Perverted 85%
4 "second cousin to the devil" Metaphorical kinship with evil Identity/Mythology 90%
4 "It is an old timetable now, disintegrating at its folds" The physical decay of the timetable metaphorically represents the decay of memory and the past Time 95%
4 "paid him the subtle tribute of knowing nothing whatever about him" Ignorance as tribute is a paradoxical metaphor Vision/Surveillance 90%
4 "flipped up their noses like goats at whosoever came near" Simile comparing snobbish guests to goats Class/Society 95%
4 "whose hair, they say, turned cotton-white one winter afternoon for no good reason at all" Hair turning white as metaphor for sudden shock or revelation Transformation/Identity 85%
4 "melodious names of flowers and months or the sterner ones of the great American capitalists" Names as metaphors for social position - soft/natural vs hard/industrial Money as Substance 90%
4 "Gatsby's gorgeous car lurched up the rocky drive to my door and gave out a burst of melody from its three-noted horn" Car personified as singing, 'lurching' like a living creature Material/Spiritual 90%
4 "swollen here and there in its monstrous length" Car described with bodily metaphors - 'swollen' and 'monstrous' Corruption/Decay 95%
4 "terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns" Windshields as labyrinth (confusion/entrapment) and mirrors multiplying suns Light/Darkness 95%
4 "Sitting down behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory" Car interior as conservatory - a greenhouse metaphor Nature Perverted 90%
4 "His right hand suddenly ordered divine retribution to stand by" Hand gesture personified as commanding God's justice Performance/Reality 95%
4 "his whole statement fell to pieces" Words as physical structure that can collapse Construction/Destruction 90%
4 "the memory of that sudden extinction of a clan still haunted him" Family death as 'extinction' (like species) and memory as haunting ghost Time 85%
4 "I lived like a young rajah in all the capitals of Europe" Simile comparing himself to Eastern royalty Identity/Mythology 90%
4 "The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned 'character' leaking sawdust..." Extended metaphor of words as worn fabric and Gatsby as a stuffed toy leaking its filling Performance/Reality 95%
4 "I seemed to bear an enchanted life" Life as magical/fairy tale existence Identity/Mythology 85%
4 "My incredulity was submerged in fascination now; it was like skimming hastily through a dozen magazines" Mental state as drowning/submersion and experience as rapid magazine reading Water/Drowning 90%
4 "Montenegro's warm little heart" Country personified with a heart, described diminutively Performance/Reality 85%
4 "I saw the skins of tigers flaming in his palace on the Grand Canal" Tiger skins 'flaming' - dead animals burning with life/color Light/Darkness 90%
4 "opening a chest of rubies to ease, with their crimson-lighted depths, the gnawings of his broken heart" Rubies as medicine for heartbreak, heart as gnawing animal Money as Substance 95%
4 "I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me" Life as aimless floating/drifting on water Water/Drowning 85%
4 "the valley of ashes opened out on both sides of us" Valley personified as opening itself Nature Perverted 90%
4 "Mrs. Wilson straining at the garage pump with panting vitality" Vitality as breathless, strained effort Class/Society 85%
4 "With fenders spread like wings we scattered light through half Astoria" Car as bird with wings, dispersing light like seeds Light/Darkness 95%
4 "the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of nonolfactory money" City as confection made of sugar, built from wishes and 'nonolfactory' money Money as Substance 95%
4 "The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all th..." City as eternal virgin experience, containing all world's mystery and beauty Vision/Surveillance 90%
4 "A dead man passed us in a hearse heaped with blooms" Death decorated with life (blooms) Nature Perverted 85%
4 "the tragic eyes and short upper lips of southeastern Europe" Ethnic features as inherently tragic Identity/Mythology 80%
4 "as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry" Eyes as eggs with yolks, suggesting both fragility and nourishment Vision/Surveillance 85%
4 "Anything can happen now that we've slid over this bridge" Bridge crossing as sliding into new reality Transformation/Identity 90%
4 "Roaring noon" Time of day personified as making sound Time 85%
4 "Blinking away the brightness of the street outside" Light as something that clings and must be blinked away Light/Darkness 80%
4 "two fine growths of hair which luxuriated in either nostril" Nostril hair as luxuriant growth, like plants Nature Perverted 85%
4 "covered Gatsby with his expressive nose" Nose as covering/protecting, synecdoche for attention Identity/Mythology 85%
4 "lapsed into a somnambulatory abstraction" Consciousness as sleepwalking Performance/Reality 80%
4 "presbyterian nymphs on the ceiling" Religious figures as pagan spirits Corruption/Decay 85%
4 "Filled with faces dead and gone. Filled with friends gone now forever" Restaurant as container for ghosts Time 90%
4 "Mr. Wolfshiem's nose flashed at me indignantly" Nose as expressing emotion through light Light/Darkness 85%
4 "forgetting the more sentimental atmosphere of the old Metropole, began to eat with ferocious delicacy" Eating style as oxymoron - fierce yet delicate Performance/Reality 85%
4 "His eyes, meanwhile, roved very slowly all around the room" Eyes as independent agents roving/wandering Vision/Surveillance 85%
4 "Finest specimens of human molars" Human teeth as scientific specimens Corruption/Decay 90%
4 "his tragic nose was trembling" Nose as tragic hero, trembling with emotion Performance/Reality 85%
4 "a denizen of Broadway" Person as creature inhabiting a specific environment Identity/Mythology 80%
4 "start to play with the faith of fifty million people—with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe" Corrupting baseball as safe-cracking, faith as object to be stolen Corruption/Decay 95%
4 "red, white, and blue banners in front of all the houses stretched out stiff and said tut-tut-tut-tut, in a disapproving ..." Flags personified as disapproving voices Performance/Reality 90%
4 "in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime" Male gaze as universal female desire Vision/Surveillance 85%
4 "as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress—and as drunk as a monkey" Similes comparing Daisy to nature (June night) and animal (monkey) Nature Perverted 90%
4 "She took it into the tub with her and squeezed it up in a wet ball, and only let me leave it in the soap-dish when she s..." Letter disintegrating like snow melting Water/Drowning 90%
4 "rubbing her fingers over his eyes and looking at him with unfathomable delight" Touch affecting vision, delight as oceanic depth Vision/Surveillance 85%
4 "It's a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people. You can hold your tongue and, moreover, you can time any..." Sobriety as strategic advantage, drunkenness as blindness Vision/Surveillance 90%
4 "there's something in that voice of hers" Voice containing unnamed essence Money as Substance 85%
4 "The sun had gone down behind the tall apartments of the movie stars in the West Fifties" Celebrity homes blocking/consuming the sun Light/Darkness 85%
4 "the clear voices of children, already gathered like crickets on the grass" Children's voices as insect sounds Nature Perverted 85%
4 "He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendour" Understanding as birth, Gatsby's parties as womb Transformation/Identity 95%
4 "where he dispensed starlight to casual moths" Gatsby as source of light, guests as moths drawn to flame Light/Darkness 95%
4 "this clean, hard, limited person, who dealt in universal scepticism" Jordan as dealer/merchant of doubt Money as Substance 85%
4 "There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired" All humanity reduced to four types based on motion/energy Time 90%
4 "the façade of Fifty-Ninth Street, a block of delicate pale light, beamed down into the park" Street as facade (false front) emanating light Light/Darkness 85%
4 "I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs" Beloved's face as ghost haunting urban architecture Vision/Surveillance 90%
4 "Her wan, scornful mouth smiled" Mouth as independent agent capable of contradictory emotions Performance/Reality 85%