Because a simple reunion is not enough...

The parties that were hosted by Mr. Gatsby are iconic. Luxury in all its meaning, combined with good taste, champagne, jazz and elegance. Music, and by music I do not mean a simple man playing the violin but a complete orchestra, each week during summer. The parties started on Friday and continued all through Saturday and Sunday. Gatsby referred to his parties as “little parties”. Nick claims to be one of the few people who were actually invited, most of the guests were people who did not know other thing than Mr. Gatsby’s name. Here you can see how differently the world was. It was either quite safe or security was not an issue. In spite the fact that Nick Carraway now knows Gatsby, he still maintains a mysterious style. It is funny how Gatsby waits for Nick to comment on the party and about this man who is his neighbor, and then tells him he is actually Gatsby. 

I am one of those people who really enjoys spending time with close friends and therefore prefers small events. I kept on reading the following line, until I realized it is actually true. Jordan Baker is talking to Nick when she mentions that Mr. Gatsby’s parties are quite intimate. My first thought was, well that is funny, what is intimate about being with strangers in a large room, but then she says that small parties lack privacy, whereas large parties and intimate because everyone is minding its own business. But it is contradictory because everyone is interested in what Gatsby is doing. Jordan’s friend, Lucille stars speculating on Gatsby’s past, meanwhile Nick believes he was with him during the war who served with him in the same division.

As Daisy and Tom advised him, Nick starts dating Jordan. Somehow he feels attracted to her, but knows about how dishonest she is. “I wasn’t actually in live, but felt a sort of tender curiosity”. (Fitzgerald, 1925, p. 57) 

There is a part during the great party when Nick and Owl Eyes enter the library, he could not believe that the books were actually books and not just empty covers. This talks a lot about the society, we could even say that books are people. Fitzgerald once more refers to materialism and the false mask that everyone used. A cover up for what they really were. I might be referring to the past, the thing about materialism it that it continues, it is not something that was fashionable in the 20’s but something that we experiment and live daily. 

Mr. Gatsby is conscious about all the rumors that come and go about him. When he meets Nick for dinner he tells him a little about his life and says “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea of me from all these stories you hear”. (Fitzgerald, 1925, p. 65)

Gatsby starts opening a little more. Jordan tells Nick about a mysterious talk they had about Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby is in love with her, he is a sensitive man. The green light appears once more, green tends to be associated with hope, the hope Gatsby has for being with Daisy. At an obscure time as the post-war time was, it might also represent the hope for a better time. 

Vocabulary

disembodied p. 80 - to free, without a body. In the context of the book I believe it refers to the possibility of having being with her. Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs. 

perspiration p. 58 - sweating. 

loitered p. 56 - Standing or waiting without an apparent reason. Prowling.