Superficiality In The Great Gatsby

Jay Gatsby, one of the main characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, is a wealthy man with dubious sources of money; Gatsby is renowned in New York due to the lavish parties he holds every friday in his mansion. These are spectacles that fully embody the wealth and glamour of the roaring twenties, and are narrated through the eyes of another character Nick Carraway, an ambitious 29 year old man that recently moved back to a corrupt new york in a cramped cottage next to Gatsby’s palace. After admiring the careless behaviour of the parties from a distance, Nick gets a personal invitation to Gatsby’s next party, he promptly becomes infatuated by the extravagant and frivolous lifestyle the parties portray, along with the superficial

Fitzgerald uses this word to emphasize on how many people Gatsby hires, shining light on his wealth. As well, this quote represents the amount of effort he puts into his parties to let the society know, basically, that he is just like them. This shows the aspect of superficiality in the 1920s and how everyone obsessed over how they were perceived by everyone else. In addition, Nick continues to emphasize on Gatsby’s wealth when describing the snacks: "On buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors-d’oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs” Fitzgerald decided to translate the word appetizer into french, hors-d’oeuvre, as the word makes it sound much more fancier in french than in english. As well, this is something most readers won’t grasp immediately, therefore giving the impression that he is talking about something else that is too high-class

First of all, Nick tells us about the impressive amounts of people that showed up: “wandered around rather ill-at-ease among swirls and eddies of people I didn’t know” Fitzgerald uses a metaphor, swirls and eddies, to give the impression of the numbers of guests; eddies are currents that move constantly, meaning that people travelled in groups, like currents, constantly therefore giving the impression of a messy and busy environment. As well, we get to know that Nick doesn’t fit in within the other guests, as he mentions “wandered around rather ill-at-ease” this is because the people in the party are seeking for the complete opposite of what Nick is. He’s attended because of Gatsby’s invitation, everyone else is there without an invitation and a reckless mentality. Additionally, we discover the incorrect gossip that surrounds the characters, as seen in: "Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once.”, this proves the guest’s superficiality, as they aren’t sure the gossip is true, or they made it up in an instant, yet they say it out loud to make themselves seem informed and involved. As well, gossips are speculations, the kind of gossip that surrounds people in the party supports the argument of them not being on the classier side of society, the old money. This is because higher class guest’s conversation topics wouldn’t often be about speculations,