Friday, November 9, 2012

Analyze the description of any one of the parties or gatherings, showing how it is used in the characterization of the participants.

In chapter 3, Nick describes one of Gatsby's parties. He tells us that he is most likely one of the few invited guests. This shows us that most of the people at the party are there of their own volition.  They are taking advantage of Gatbsy's hospitality to have a good time.  They drink his alcohol and eat his food and listen to his music.  Soon after arriving and finding Jordan there, Nick sits among a group of people who are gossiping about Jay Gatsby.  It's clear from their conflicting stories that none of them really know their host.  Again, this shows us that these people are nothing more than users - getting what pleasure they can from Gatsby's generosity.  At the first dinner of the evening, Nick sat with Jordan and her friends.  Nick notes that the people at the table were from East Egg and looked down on the West Egg people at the party.  This reflects the social snobbery that we see in other parts of the story, specifically the snobbery that Tom displays. Also this reaffirms the division of social classes that is a basic story line and theme.  Just as Jay can never fully enter Daisy's world, the East and West Egg inhabitants are separated.  Later, at the party, Nick runs into the man with the owl-eyed glasses who is sitting in Gatsby's library and is impressed that Gatsby's books are real.  This is the one person, besides Nick, at the party who sees beyond Gatsby as simply a host who is allowing them all to have a good time.  This man, though drunk, realizes that there is more to Jay Gatsby than what others see on the surface. This is shown again when the man in the owl-eyed glasses is one of the few who shows up at Jay's funeral. At the end of this chapter, there is an auto accident that displays the immorality of the people at the party.  The victims of the accident are drunk and don't seem to care that they've had a wreck.  This is typical of the people at these parties who are selfish and self-centered, just as Tom and Daisy are.

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