The Great Gatsby "party Scene"

The Great Gatsby "Party Scene"

The narrator, Nick, of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald describes Gatsby's parties as elaborate and grand affairs that attract entertainers, socialites, and even ordinary people. "There was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars." (39) Gatsby plays as a perfect host, generous and hospitable. In fact, he is courteous to the point of being taken advantage of. People come to his house for parties like it is the everyday routine, but also use his boats, plane, his cars, and so on. Gatsby does not mind all his guests, because every weekend continues in the same patterns of excess and lavishness as he provides his guests with only the finest food, drink, and entertainment.

Nick observes Gatsby's parties from a distance until he is officially invited to attend one. Nick is able to provide an informed view of not only what goes on at Gatsby's parties, but also what the people who attend are like. He notices that, "I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited-they went there." (41)

The impression that Nick gives is not appealing. It turns out that the glamorous party guests are actually quite shallow. Nick observes that they are "agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity and convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key." (42)

Fitzgerald is also suggesting that the only way in which a sense of meaning is found through altering one's sense of consciousness. Through the partying, people are able to bring meaning into their otherwise meaningless lives. Nick explains "...that I slunk off in the direction of the cocktail table- the only place in the garden where a single man could linger without looking purposeless and alone." (42)

Also "I was enjoying myself now. I had taken two finger-bowls of champagne, and the scene has changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental, and profound." (47) For them, it seems like drinking was an escape, allowing them to exit the mundane world of security. "The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until