The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned "character" leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne.
Chapter 4 · Narrator
Context
Nick offers this internal commentary immediately after Gatsby finishes describing his life as a 'young rajah' in Europe. Rather than believing the story, Nick's imagination conjures an absurd image that exposes the artificiality of Gatsby's narrative—a stuffed figure from a penny arcade rather than a living person.
Analysis
The metaphor of a sawdust-leaking mannequin devastatingly reduces Gatsby's self-narrative to the level of a carnival prop—hollow, mechanical, and incapable of sustaining belief. The image simultaneously critiques both the content of Gatsby's story (its clichéd orientalism) and the medium of storytelling itself, suggesting that overused language loses its capacity to create meaning, much as Gatsby's over-rehearsed persona fails to convince.
How to Use in Essay
Excellent for essays on Fitzgerald's metafictional awareness of language and narrative construction, or for arguing that Gatsby's tragedy lies partly in his inability to find authentic language for his genuine feelings.