In the opening of the book, Fitzgerald portrays Nick as someone who is unjudgemental and chooses to keep what he thinks of people to himself. In doing so Nick can remain neutral throughout the story and won’t be influenced by people’s thoughts and feelings.

This can be supported by a simple sentence – “Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope”. All the sentences before have been long and drawn out and builds tension, having a short sentence releases all tension and demands the reader to focus on a certain point. In this context the sentence summaries that Nick reserves all judgment possible and chooses not to voice it. It shows that Nick will delay judgement on people who may have done wrong – giving them “infinite hope” until they do right.

Personification is to help humanise things and help the reader to relate to the text. It makes the text more lively and vivid. “turning over in my mind ever since” is a form of personification. The fact that Nick has been turning over the advice in his mind indicates that he’s been thinking it and may even mean that Nick believes the advice. This further supports that Nick is unjudgmental and tries to remain neutral making him a good narrator.

Emotive language helps persuade readers, it helps the writer to get the reader to sympathise with characters. It evokes emotion and causes impact in the text.  The use of ‘vulnerable’ is used in past tense indicating that Nick isn’t vulnerable. It suggests he is older and wiser now and therefore more mature.