How you party defines who you are. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a young man named Nick travels from the Midwest to New York, where he meets jay Gatsby, a rich man with an extravagant past. Gatsby shows Nick the world of wealth, but inadvertently exposes him to the corruption that comes with that wealth as well. Throughout the novel, Nick is introduced to two different kinds of parties: those of the rich, and those who mimic the rich.
The Great Gatsby contains two different types of parties, one of which is thrown by the rich. In these parties that are thrown by the rich, the names of the patrons in attendance at the party are never mentioned, lest they had been introduced earlier in the novel, such as Gatsby, Nick, and Jordan …show more content…
In this so called Valley of Ashes, Nick and Tom attend a very different kind of party. In this party, these patrons all have names, such as Catherine, Mr. Wilson, Mrs. Eberhardt, and Mr. and Mrs. McKee, but each of them has a very different personality, which they use to play off of each other in different ways. This serves to show how those who are poor do not have a mask of money to hide behind and how their honest person shows on a daily basis. Despite the differences of the party, the poor attempt to mimic the rich by dressing nicely and drinking in excess. For example, Nick says “I have been drunk twice in my life, and the second time was that night.” This represents the moral decay that the rich frolic in while the poor seek to achieve it. Another example of this is shown by Myrtle’s dress, and her reaction seals her as an impersonator of the rich. Mrs. McKee says, “I love your dress!” to which Mrs. Wilson responded, “It’s just a crazy old thing.” Her response is not true, since the dress is used like a supervillain's outfit: when the outfit goes on, she sheds her skin of the day and becomes an immoral and fake human being, a creature the likes of which her identity is hidden from the world. The parties of the poor are separated from those of the rich merely by principle of monetary value and a mask of moral decay that protects the identities
The Great Gatsby contains two different types of parties, one of which is thrown by the rich. In these parties that are thrown by the rich, the names of the patrons in attendance at the party are never mentioned, lest they had been introduced earlier in the novel, such as Gatsby, Nick, and Jordan …show more content…
In this so called Valley of Ashes, Nick and Tom attend a very different kind of party. In this party, these patrons all have names, such as Catherine, Mr. Wilson, Mrs. Eberhardt, and Mr. and Mrs. McKee, but each of them has a very different personality, which they use to play off of each other in different ways. This serves to show how those who are poor do not have a mask of money to hide behind and how their honest person shows on a daily basis. Despite the differences of the party, the poor attempt to mimic the rich by dressing nicely and drinking in excess. For example, Nick says “I have been drunk twice in my life, and the second time was that night.” This represents the moral decay that the rich frolic in while the poor seek to achieve it. Another example of this is shown by Myrtle’s dress, and her reaction seals her as an impersonator of the rich. Mrs. McKee says, “I love your dress!” to which Mrs. Wilson responded, “It’s just a crazy old thing.” Her response is not true, since the dress is used like a supervillain's outfit: when the outfit goes on, she sheds her skin of the day and becomes an immoral and fake human being, a creature the likes of which her identity is hidden from the world. The parties of the poor are separated from those of the rich merely by principle of monetary value and a mask of moral decay that protects the identities