Foreshadowing and Flashback: Two Writing Techniques Repeatedly Used in The Great Gatsby In one of the greatest works of the Twentieth Century, "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are many writing techniques used throughout the novel. However, the two literary devices that occur in just about every chapter in the novel are: foreshadowing, and/or flashback. Immediately in chapter one, upon his arrival in West Egg, Nick Carroway makes the distinction between Gatsby, whom he loves because of his dream, and the other characters, who constitute the "foul dust" that "floated in the wake of his dreams." Nick's instantaneous scorn for these "Eastern" types for shadows all the way to the very end of the novel. At the end the novel, after all the commotion has been caused by these Easterners, Nick refuses to deal with them any longer. He leaves the East, returns to the Midwest, and, for the time being at least, withdraws from his involvement with other people. "Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself." "I hope I never will," she [Jordan] answered. "I hate careless people. That's why I like you." (pg. 63) Jordan is explaining to Nick how she is able to drive badly as long as everyone else drives carefully. This quotation represents the writing technique of foreshadowing, which is being used in one of its finest form. Fitzgerald is foreshadowing to chapter seven where Daisy kills Myrtle Wilson because of her reckless driving. Fitzgerald uses foreshadowing to strengthen the plot of his book. In The Great Gatsby, the structure of the novel is influenced by foreshadowing and flashback. Fitzgerald utilizes foreshadowing to the best of its ability to help organize the novel. "Luckily the clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head, whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers and set it back in place. 'I'm sorry about the clock,' he said. 'It's an old clock,' I told him idiotically."...