Question

What is the literal and figurative meaning of "raw" in the following excerpt from the first chapter of The Great Gatsby?

The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard ofrawivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden.

Answer 1

Literal language uses words exactly according to their conventionally accepted meanings or denotation.

Figurative (or non-literal) language uses words in a way that deviates from their conventionally accepted definitions in order to convey a more complicated meaning or heightened effect.

In this case, the word "raw" illustrates the characteristics of the nouveau riche of the 1920s. As people who have acquired wealth in only one generation; they, therefore, do not have the cultural background in which refinement and good taste is acquired.