Chapter 3

Select a passage that describes the party.


"The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music, and the opera of voices pitches a key higher. Laughter is easier minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word. The groups change more swiftly, swell with new arrivals, dissolve and form in the same breath; already there are wanderers, confident girls who weave here and there among the stouter and more stable, become for a sharp, joyous moment the centre of a group, and then, excited with triumph, glide on through the sea-change of faces and voices and color under the constantly changing light" (Fitzgerald 40-41)

This passage brings about surrealism. The Earth is personified by the party as "lurching away from the sun".  The sentence " The groups change more swiftly, swell with new arrivals, dissolve and form in the same breath;.."  describes how numerous amounts of people arrive at the party, but as soon as they arrive they have already become a part of the party. The author makes Gatsby's party seem bizarre and unreal. Because of Gatsby's parties and wealth, he is very popular in the town. He is somewhat mysterious since no one knows where he came from or how he made his wealth. To add on, the parties can be a way for the people of the town to relieve stress and have fun.