Gatsby’s house serves as a key symbol of aspiration, reflecting both Gatsby’s success as an American self-made man and the mirage of an identity he has created to win Daisy’s love. Gatsby follows his American dream as he buys the house to be across the bay from Daisy, and has parties to gain wide-spread recognition in order to impress her. In the beginning of the novel, Fitzgerald sets the scene describing how the party was prepared and when the entertainment arrived. At these parties, an extreme amount of preparation went into the food. According to the account of Nick Carraway,
Jay’s neighbor, the caterers rolled out numbers of tables with load upon load of every variety of food imaginable. Each table was delicately stacked with all different and exotic types of foods. Few of the guests know the host or are even invited at all. This chapter builds on the idea that there is something not only mysterious, but sinister, about Gatsby. As Nick makes his way to the party he sees “A whole pit full of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets… ” Fitzgerald uses polysyndeton, the repetition of conjunctions.
He chooses a technique to put emphases on how important Gatsby’s parties are to others, like Nick; who’s impressed by Gatsby’s turnouts but mostly everyone shows up to make a known appearance to put their name out in other industries of businesses. Cars are lined up “five deep in the drive” and everyone has on extravagant attire to impress one another. If there are masses of people trying to find a parking space just to get into the party, this shows that Gatsby is a well-known person and that he is very generous when it comes to public events.
It also drew people’s attention to come a check out what was going on. This led to uninvited guest strolling in and pretending to be someone they are not. This leads to Gatsby’s goal, to find Daisy. When Gatsby’s party guests start to arrive most of the ladies had “hair shorn in strange new ways. ” This concluded that the genre of people that were approaching were of a higher class than most who possess riches and elegant garments that they could flaunt amongst others. It’s as if they were dressing up for a Halloween party. Their garments were immense and stentatious so people could recognize who they were and they could at least have the attention on them for few minutes. If their outfit was excessive, then the rest of their attire had to be fit to a tee; including their hair, nails, make-up and even shoes, “shawls beyond the dreams of Castile. ” All of these preparations were all just for appearances. No one cared for one another, not even the host of the party; they only cared about their wants and needs in life.
At the same time as guests were filling the halls, the bar was set up overflowing with several alcohol everages and the “floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside. ” This quote is symbolic because it seems as if no one would touch the food until they made their appearance in front of everyone and in order to achieve that goal, the place had to filled with chatter and laughter. When everyone introduced themselves, it is “casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on spot. ” This represents their carelessness toward each others’ mind-set and their individual personalities.
It’s like words went in one ear and out the other and all people wanted were their ive minutes of fame. As the evening went on, the women became more and more drunk and less captivated by their appearances, “Already there are wanders, confident girls who weave here and there among the stouter and more stable. ” This concludes that even though most women were intoxicated, it seems as if they did it on purpose to get more attention from themselves. While the married women weaving to and fro, the other women would look for their husbands to possibly find a new mate to support them through their hard times as well.
Everyone at this party was corrupt and if you looked deep enough into their personal lives, you could see it was nothing but hollowness. The only thing that mattered to them was their appearance and how they can achieve their own American dream by climbing the social latter. This passage also relates to recklessness, ignorance and greed. All of these qualities represented to fake people who showed up to party jus to be seen. All in all, Fitzgerald gave a wonderful description on how Gatsby’s party scene affected him and others around him.