"It's stopped raining." "Has it?" When he realized what I was talking about, that there were twinkle-bells of sunshine in the room, he smiled like a weather man, like an ecstatic patron of recurrent light, and repeated the news to Daisy. "What do you think of that? It's stopped raining."
Chapter 5 · Jay Gatsby, Narrator
Context
After the successful reunion with Daisy, Nick mentions that the rain has stopped. Gatsby, so absorbed in Daisy that he hasn't noticed the weather change, responds with delight and shares the news with Daisy as though it were a personal gift.
Analysis
The pathetic fallacy aligns the clearing weather with the clearing of emotional obstacles between Gatsby and Daisy, while the simile 'like an ecstatic patron of recurrent light' elevates Gatsby to a quasi-divine figure who commands natural phenomena—as though the sun returns at his pleasure. The synesthetic phrase 'twinkle-bells of sunshine' fuses auditory and visual imagery, creating a sense of magical perception that reflects Gatsby's transformed emotional state, where the mundane becomes enchanted.
How to Use in Essay
Ideal for essays on Fitzgerald's use of pathetic fallacy to externalize emotional arcs, or for arguing that Gatsby's relationship to the natural world reflects his grandiose self-conception—he experiences weather as responding to his desires.