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Alliteration
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Teutons and World War I:
As Nick describes his past at the beginning of the novel, there is an allusion to both the Teutons and World War I:
I graduated from New Haven in 1915, just a quarter of a century after my father, and a little later I participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War.
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Explanation and Analysis—Midas/Morgan/Mæcenas:
Nick’s description of the books he buys when he moves to West Egg contains several allusions:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities, and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Mæcenas knew.
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Explanation and Analysis—Christopher Columbus:
The book’s initial description of East Egg and West Egg’s geography contains an allusion to Christopher Columbus:
Unlock with LitCharts A+They are not perfect ovals—like the egg in the Columbus story, they are both crushed flat at the contact end—but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual confusion to the gulls that fly overhead.
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Explanation and Analysis—The Rising Tide of Color:
When Nick has dinner at his cousin Daisy and her husband, Tom’s, house, Tom makes an allusion to the book The Rising Tide of Color by Lothrop Stoddard:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Civilization’s going to pieces,” broke out Tom violently. “I’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. Have you read ‘The Rise of the Colored Empires’ by this man Goddard?”
“Why, no,” I answered, rather surprised by his tone.
“Well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.”
[...]
“This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.”
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Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Kaiser Wilhelm:
While Nick attends a gathering at the apartment where Tom and Myrtle conduct their affair, the downstairs neighbor, Mrs. McKee, makes an allusion to Kaiser Wilhelm:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Well, they say [Gatsby is] a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm’s. That’s where all his money comes from.”
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Explanation and Analysis—Town Topics/Versailles:
The passage just after Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose contains allusions to the newspaper Town Topics and the Gardens of Versailles:
Unlock with LitCharts A+When [Mr. McKee] 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.
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Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Kingdom of Castile:
Nick’s description of one of Gatsby’s parties contains an allusion to the Kingdom of Castile:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and are dressing upstairs; the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors, and hair shorn in strange new ways, and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile.
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Explanation and Analysis—Frisco/Gray/the Follies:
A passage depicting one of Gatsby’s many parties contains allusions to Joe Frisco, Gilda Gray, and Ziegfeld Follies:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Suddenly one of these gypsies, in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for courage and, moving her hands like Frisco, dances out alone on the canvas platform. A momentary hush; the orchestra leader varies his rhythm obligingly for her, and there is a burst of chatter as the erroneous news goes around that she is Gilda Gray’s understudy from the Follies.
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Explanation and Analysis—Stoddard and Belasco:
The passage when Nick and Jordan meet Owl Eyes in Gatsby’s library contains allusions to John L. Stoddard's Lectures and David Belasco:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Absolutely real—have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they’re absolutely real. Pages and—Here! Lemme show you.”
Taking our scepticism for granted, [Owl Eyes] rushed to the bookcases and returned with Volume One of the “Stoddard Lectures.”
“See!” he cried triumphantly. “It’s a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too—didn’t cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?”
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Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Paul von Hindenburg:
As some women lounging on Gatsby’s front lawn gossip about Gatsby, one of them makes an allusion to Paul von Hindenburg:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“One time [Gatsby] killed a man who had found out that he was nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil.”
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Explanation and Analysis—Meuse-Argonne Offensive:
As Gatsby relays his experiences as a first lieutenant in World War I, he makes an allusion to the Meuse-Argonne offensive:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“In the Argonne Forest I took two machine-gun detachments so far forward that there was a half mile gap on either side of us where the infantry couldn’t advance [...] I was promoted to be a major[.]”
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Explanation and Analysis—Herman Rosenthal:
During Nick and Gatsby’s lunch with Meyer Wolfsheim, Wolfsheim makes an allusion to Herman Rosenthal:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“I can’t forget so long as I live the night they shot Rosy Rosenthal there.”
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Explanation and Analysis—1919 Black Sox Scandal:
Gatsby’s explanation of how his business partner, Meyer Wolfsheim, earns a living contains an allusion to the 1919 Black Sox Scandal:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Meyer Wolfsheim? No, he’s a gambler.” Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: “He’s the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919.”
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Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—1893 Chicago World’s Fair:
Nick’s comment about what Gatsby’s mansion looks like when it’s lit up at night contains an allusion to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Your place looks like the World’s Fair,” I said.
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Explanation and Analysis—Clay’s Economics:
The passage when Gatsby is waiting for Daisy to arrive at Nick’s house contains an allusion to Sir Henry Clay’s book Economics:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Gatsby looked with vacant eyes through a copy of Clay’s "Economics," staring at the Finnish tread that shook the kitchen floor, and peering toward the bleared windows from time to time as if a series of invisible but alarming happenings were taking place outside.
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Explanation and Analysis—Immanuel Kant:
Nick’s description of himself gazing at Gatsby’s mansion contains an allusion to Immanuel Kant:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There was nothing to look at from under the tree except Gatsby’s enormous house, so I stared at it, like Kant at his church steeple, for half an hour.
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Explanation and Analysis—Marie Antoinette:
When Gatsby gives Nick and Daisy a tour of his mansion, Nick’s description of the interior contains allusions to Marie Antoinette and the Stuart Restoration:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And inside, as we wandered through Marie Antoinette music-rooms and Restoration salons, I felt that there were guests concealed behind every couch and table, under orders to be breathlessly silent until we had passed through.
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Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Platonic Idealism:
As Nick recounts Gatsby’s backstory, he makes an allusion to Platonic idealism:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.
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Explanation and Analysis—Madame de Maintenon:
One of the novel’s flashbacks to Gatsby’s past contains an allusion to Madame de Maintenon:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The none too savory ramifications by which Ella Kaye, the newspaper woman, played Madame de Maintenon to his weakness and sent him to sea in a yacht, were common knowledge to the turgid subjournalism of 1902.
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Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Trimalchio:
As Nick describes the end of Gatsby’s parties, he makes an allusion to Trimalchio:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night—and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over.
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Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—The Holy Grail:
As Nick is narrating Gatsby’s backstory, he makes an allusion to the Holy Grail:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[Gatsby] had intended, probably, to take what he could and go—but now he found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail.
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Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—James J. Hill:
When Henry Gatz (Gatsby’s father) and Nick talk at Gatsby’s funeral, Henry makes an allusion to James J. Hill:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“If he’d of lived, he’d of been a great man. A man like James J. Hill. He’d of helped build up the country.”
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