Question

What words in the following passage have the greatest impact on the tone the author creates?

The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour.

Question 8 options:

valley, scene, hour


foul, dismal, stare


drawbridge, river, passage


bounded, waiting, small

Answer 1

The answer is: foul, dismal, stare

In literature, the tone refers to the attitude of the author towards a certain topic. In the excerpt from "The Great Gatsby," the writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald directs attention to the Valley of Ashes, which symbolizes poverty and despair on the one hand, as well as the immoral values and degeneration of culture. As a consequence, the author uses words that express a negative and gloomy overview of Gatsby's American society.