Gatsby's Parties And The Wealth example essay topic

The Two Faces of Gatsby's Parties During the 1920's, everyone is making easy money off the stock market and lives their lives to the fullest potential. The decade, also known as the Jazz Age, brings a lot of glamour into many households; one of which belongs to Jay Gatsby. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby shows his wealth by arranging humongous parties every so often. At these parties most of the people who are in attendance are uninvited, but at the same time are also very rich. Although Gatsby's parties and the wealth they represent are initially portrayed as alluring and glamorous, in Chapter 3 Fitzgerald subtly undercuts the apparent allure and glamour of both through specific words and images he uses to describe the party scene and the behavior of the party goers.

The scene appears alluring and glamorous, yet there is a subtext, an undercurrent of negative images and commentary running through much of Fitzgerald's description which undercuts the apparent allure and glamour, suggesting the destructive side of wealth. Both, the positive and the negative images are represented when the servants, the setting and the entertainment are being described in the chapter. Behind the scenes of a beautiful party, there are those that do not have much fun; they are the hard working servants. These servants work long before the party starts to get it set up and during the party to keep everyone happy. Before the party starts the servants have the job of driving people over to the Gatsby's house, and it is described in a following manner, "On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city... while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains". From the impression, it seems like a normal preparation for the party which actually makes it sound very courteous, but a closer look at the description also reveals the hard work that the servants do in order to keep these parties on track.

They are like a "brisk yellow bug" in a way that they give it their all to get their job done, but at the same time they are unappreciated and can be squashed like a "bug" when their services are not required anymore. During the preparations for the party and the clean up from the old one, there is another huge example of the mistreatment of the servants", [servants] toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden shears, repairing the ravages of the night before". Once again, it does not seem too bad when the clean up is being described, but the rough words like "toiled" and "ravages" give the scene a very ugly face. In this case, wealth destroys the ability of the wealthy to recognize that the servants are as human as they are, and deserve equal treatment.

Gatsby's house is an enormous place with a lot of space and the beautiful descriptions of it make it seem so wonderful, this also allows for sneaky descriptions of destruction and negligence. To prepare for the party described in Chapter 3, Nick notices that for the party it takes, "several hundred feet of canvas and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby's enormous garden". The example shows that Gatsby is just getting ready to treat his guests as warmly as possible, but at the same time that he makes his place look nicer and richer he also makes it look like he is showing off in a major way. All the extra decorations make the scene sickening to an average person who knows that everything is done to impress other rich and egotistical people. There is also a description of the setting around a cocktail table, "the only place in the garden where a single man could linger without looking purposeless and alone".

Even thought cocktails during the party seem like a lot of fun, the description gives a cold feeling about how everyone is treated in the place. The destruction of wealth is also shown through the entertainment provided for the party goers. The arrival of the orchestra is described in a following way, "No thin five piece affair but a whole pit full of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos and low and high drums". There is again the sense of showing off by Gatsby because it is really not necessary to invite that huge amount of people for entertainment purposes only, with all those different types of musical instruments.

Still, the word that really catches an eye is "pit full"; even though there is nothing bad about a "pit" of musicians playing their instruments, in this case the word has a deeper meaning that gives it an evil look. The similarity is made between wealth and evil, and the best way to summarize both would be in a word destruction. Everything that goes on around the Gatsby's place before and during the party is very glamorous and exciting, but there is an implicit meaning of dis confirming images that make the whole scene look devastating. In Chapter 3, there are also images of guests who seem sophisticated, poised, elegant, but upon closer examination are revealed to be insincere, careless and immoral.

The party goers show the destructiveness and ignorance through the way they act in Gatsby's place, spread rumors, and interact with each other. If there is one point that could show the destruction done by the party goers, it would definitely be the way they dance and have fun at Gatsby's place. Nick notices one of the things that is going on: There was dancing now on the canvas in the garden, old men pushing young girls backward in eternal graceless circles, superior couples holding each other tortuously, fashionably and keeping in the corners. The guests are unquestionably having a lot of fun, yet there is an unbearable amount of destruction going on.

Strings of words used in the description such as "pushing in eternal graceless circles" and "holding tortuously", show the destruction and hate that la yes deep within wealthy people and the allure that they represent. Other examples of the ravaging behavior are shown also"; they conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with amusement parks" and also "people were doing stunts all over the garden while happy vacuous bursts if laughter rose toward the summer sky". These statements about the rich guests easily show the immoral and careless behavior on their behalf. During the party, there are numerous evidences of rumors spreading around, mostly about Gatsby.

This treatment of the host demonstrates the party goers' insincerity and how the enchanting party is unappreciated. Nick makes a very true statement about the people spreading the rumors by noticing, "there were whispers about [Gatsby] from those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world". The preceding expresses the amount of interest the party goers show for Gatsby because of their need to ruin his reputation and make him seem invaluable. The greed and selfishness is what pushes these self-absorbed guests to spread the rumors. Lucille is one of the women who spread the rumors around and she is the one that tells Nick the following one, "Somebody told me they thought [Gatsby] killed a man once".

The false statements of that sort is what is constantly kept up at the party, and it clearly shows the destructive nature of wealth and glamour. The interaction between the members of the party is also very depraved, insensate and once again is very destructive. There is a comparison about the way the groups of people come together and fall apart because of the people's ignorance, "the groups change more swiftly, swell with new arrivals, dissolve and form in the same breath". It is evident that people at the party really do not care about each other and are there just to enjoy themselves and worry only about their own problems.

Destruction is also symbolized in the line", men and girls came and went like moths" because moths are destructive bugs that eat away at things, just like the party goers do. The guests "eat away" other people's attempt to have fun and destroy relationships with the people they know, in order to have as much as possible to themselves. The party goers are shown having fun at Gatsby's party, but a closer look inside reveals the arrogance, carelessness, and insincerity of the wealthy kind. Parties during the Jazz Age were not rare and in almost everyone's eyes seem like a great way to spend good time with friends, dancing and singing through the night. Yet beneath the alluring and glamorous image of wealth and parties, lives the part of the human nature many cannot withstand. This is the part that brings destruction and hate into their lives, in order to make their way to the top of their class and be recognizable in the society.

This applies to Gatsby's parties in every way possible, and it is driven by the negligence of the people that attend them. The party not only represents people controlling the money, but also exemplifies money controlling the people.