Chapter 3 - Gatsby's Party Setting

In Chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby we are introduced to one of Gatsby’s famous parties in West Egg. The party setting illustrates the characteristics of West Egg and novae riche emerging in modern America. West Egg is first defined by an abundance of beauty and pleasure. Abundance is illustrated through the use of run on sentences: “whisperings and the champagne and the stars… harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys… gins and liquors and…” The repetition of the conjunction “and” demonstrates a God like status where pleasure is limitless and this places them above moral responsibilities. People of the West Egg are attracted to this beauty demonstrated by the metaphor “men and girls came and went like moths.” This metaphor compares West Egg’s attraction to beauty to the meaningless attraction moths have to light. This idea is further developed through the use of diction, words are used such as “came and went”, “dissolve”, “wonderers” and “floating”. When analysing the behaviour of people in West Egg there are many paradoxical findings. In is paradoxical that it is alcohol, a poison that makes “the air alive with laughter” yet this is short lived as “causal innuendo is long forgotten on the spot” and “enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other.” This paradox illustrates the distort nature of West Egg, although West Egg is undeniably beautiful, there is an oddness about it. This is further explored in the line “shorn in strange new ways” explaining how even though these West Eggers have the wealth, they lack the right behaviour like the East Egg and do not make it into upper class.
This passage exposes new realities to the great American Dream. The pursuit for happiness is corrupted and becomes the pursuit for money and cheap pleausre. People sacrifice their morals but never reach true happiness and fulfilment. This is the real tragedy of The Great Gatsby.