Comparative Essay: Tom's Party V.S. Gatsby's Party

However, to be part of the American dream, and the right social class it was almost impossible to create a perfect 'glittering surface ' that would make you a part of this materialistic society. Gatsby, constantly working on his 'glittering surface ' to become a part of this society, tries to perfect the elements of his American dream, which included financial success, material acquisitions, proper self-image, and social status. The most fashionable financial situation is "old money", meaning that you have been born into a large wealth and therefore do not need to work to support yourself. Tom and Daisy are in this classification, along with the rest of fashionable East Egg. Daisy was born into a life of wealth and privilege in Louisville and has no reason to trouble herself in anything involving the slightest bit of work. This almost makes it seem as her life is void of meaning, "What 'll we do with ourselves this afternoon?" cried Daisy, "and the day after that, and the next thirty years?" Gatsby, on the other hand is the complete contrast of this. He is in the less fashionable, but certainly tolerable "new money" situation of West Egg. He has worked to acquire his wealth , even if he has done it through illegal means, "A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know." He has built up a great wealth from nothing, as he was born into a common life, with nothing but a dream, or an

Gatsby’s stubbornness to rekindle his past love causes his to spiral out of control. He would constantly try to put his needs aside in order to fulfill hers. Gatsby is blind to the fact that Daisy does not have the same feelings towards him. Daisy was only going with Gatsby in order to get back at Tom for having multiple affairs. Gatsby is still not in the same social circle because Daisy is a part of West Egg, which is old money; inherited money, while Gatsby is a part of East Egg, which is new money. This naivety from Gatsby causes him to be blatantly unaware of everything that is happening around him. “Gatsby, just like the brand new monstrosity he inhabits, is ‘flashy’: he wears pink suits, gaudy shirts, and drives an extravagant Rolls Royce. Despite all of their obvious wealth, the nouveau riche are imposters—cheap materialistic imitations of the American Dream. They can never possess the Buchanans's old-wealth taste, epitomized by their "cheerful red and white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay" (4). On Long Island, aristocratic grace and elegance cannot be purchased, only inherited. Try as they may, the inhabitants of West Egg will never be able to acquire true opulence. Daisy Buchanan's white roadster and "spotless" flowing gowns,

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald focuses on Daisy Buchanan’s relationship with Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Tom and Gatsby both love Daisy in different ways, but the fact that they both want Daisy as their own makes them similar. Both Tom and Gatsby share many similarities while having even a greater amount of differences. While differences are good, they sometimes lead to unhappiness, jealousy, and grief.

Jay Gatsby is renowned for throwing the biggest parties in New York to display his wealth. In reality, these parties are meant to impress one person, Daisy, the love of his life. Daisy’s friend, Jordan Baker, confirms this when she tells Nick, “I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night, but she never did. Then he began asking people casually if they knew her, and I was the first one he found” (F, 80). Unfortunately, Gatsby lost his chance to marry Daisy because of his low social class. His hope to be reunited with Daisy is the ambition behind his wealth. However, the parties he throws fail to attract Daisy’s attention and results in his self-doubt; this is seen through his attempt to ask people about Daisy. His uncertainty makes him desperate, which conducts him to use his wealth to throw parties for their use value. Even though Gatsby is now accepted as a bourgeoisie, he remains unhappy because he cannot be with the person who makes him truly

Tom’s youth brims with privilege and worth, as he boasts an education from one of the most prestigious universities and is a respected figure in the world of college football. In fact, “among various physical accomplishments, [Tom] had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven—a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anticlimax” (6). However, his halcyon days of New Haven now in the past, Tom is depicted as agitated and uninterested. His life now reeks of “anticlimax” when compared to the glory of his Yale football career, and the threat of violence constantly awaits provocation within him. Moreover, Tom’s

Houses in The Great Gatsby are another on of the very important symbols, depicting conspicuous consumption, and the hopeless wish of the American dream. "the one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, ing new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. it was Gatsby's mansion (9)." Gatsby's house, and his elaborate parties, signify a certain emptiness in Gatsby. His only reason for setting up these gigantic parties in his large house is to, though futile, attract the attention of Daisy. His enormous house goes to show that he has this money to spend, but spends it on something that will not help him to be happy, or to catch the attention of Daisy; This is probably the most conspicuous consumption of all. Tom Buchanan also has a large house, but for entirely different reasons. "Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile,

One of the major topics explored in The Great Gatsby is the sociology of wealth, specifically, how the newly minted millionaires of the 1920s differ from and relate to the old aristocracy of the country’s richest families. In the novel, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, while East Egg and its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom, represent the old aristocracy. Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste. Gatsby, for example, lives in a monstrously ornate mansion, wears a pink suit, drives a Rolls-Royce,

The culture of the upper class, illustrated by Tom and Daisy’s lifestyle, was a closed society that individuals such as the Wilsons had seemingly no chance of achieving. Tom and Daisy represented the old wealth which will cause conflict in between the society in their time when the book stated, “I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors eyes; fresh, green breast of the new world; the trees vanished where they made way for Gatsby’s house”

Expressions such as these only distance Tom from benign human tendencies, leaving him less worthy of receiving any compassion from his audience. By creating a character like Tom, Fitzgerald leaves the reader with the impression that one born into and consumed by wealth will become the most unappealing and bland character of all. In this way the author leaves a sense of emptiness associated with Tom and continues to sew the thread of emptiness in all other characters consumed by wealth in his story.

The social group West Egg represents the corruption of the American Dream, during the 1920’s. Fitzgerld describes West Egg as a home for the newly rich. This is a place where people who have recently become fortunate live. It is a place that represents new money. New money portrays the image of the corruption of the American Dream by showing how the people strived for acquiring only material goods. It made attaining material goods their goal in life. In addition, people in the 1920’s connected the American Dream to making quick money. In The Great Gatsby many of the residents that lived in West Egg became fortunate through illegal methods, such as bootlegging alcohol or gambling. Fitzgerld shows this through the character Gatsby. Gatsby’s goal was to become wealthy so that he could win Daisy’s love. By selling stolen alcohol Gatsby was able to mange to rise up to the top of the upper class and live in West Egg. The want for money and power to achieve love shows the decay of the American Dream. The parties that were held at West Egg also represent the corruption of the American Dream. The parties that Gatsby threw were huge and glamorous. Everyone from West and East Egg would attend these parties. They had no care for who Gatsby was. Rather, they only cared that he was someone who was extremely

The roaring 20’s was an extrodinary time, and F. Scott Fitzgerald captured the feeling in his book The Great Gatsby. Throughout the book many of the characters showed the importance of the 20’s through their differences and similarities. Two main male characters, Tom and Gatsby, were both different and similar in many ways. Tom and Gatsby were both liars, but they also loved Daisy, and they were different on how they lived.

He especially envies the lives of those who live so close to him. The Buchanan’s live in an elite section of Long Island, known as East Egg, and Gatsby desires to inhabit the lives of those across the bay. He pursues the lives of Daisy and Tom, who come from ‘old money’, and it is the green light at the end of their dock that symbolizes his longing for wealth and power. This desire for material possessions is evident upon the arrival of Mr. Gatz. Describing the awe in his eyes, Nick narrates, “[…] when he looked around him now for the first time and the saw the height and splendor of the hall and the great rooms opening from it into other rooms, his grief began to be mixed with awed pride” (168). The luxurious parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night in his extravagant home attract many people, however; he does not deem it necessary to befriend these individuals. Gatsby’s obsession for material gains is reflected in his house, decadent parties, expensive clothing and his car. Gatsby’s dream of wealth proves to be “a naïve dream based on the fallacious assumption that material possessions are synonymous with happiness, harmony, and beauty” (Fahey 70). Gatsby is captivated with the idea of Daisy, but not the true embodiment of her character. Unfortunately, Nick is the only person to recognize this and comprehend that “Gatsby’s dream has been futile from the beginning: he will never be accepted into the

Another theme in The Great Gatsby is one that is very evident throughout the novel. It is the conflict between the new wealthy class of self-made men and the "old rich." This is most noticeable in the physical separation between them. The new rich live in West Egg and the old rich live in East Egg. The new rich people are not yet acclimated to being upstanding citizens so they are not well connected in the social world, not to mention their incredibly ostentatious nature. In Gatsby's situation, he lives in a huge, repulsively tacky gothic mansion and he throws wild, lavish parties that could be better classified as raves. Daisy and Tom, who represent the old rich, are very refined, tasteful, and very well-mannered. However, the old rich also have come to rely on their money as a defense against trouble (either that they have caused or become victim of). This is exhibited very well when Daisy and Tom simply move away instead of going to Gatsby's funeral. Gatsby, on the other hand, is extremely loyal to his friends

To make this possible, Gatsby has to secure a high status in society to even be in the same circle as Daisy or even have contact with her. After this, he waits as week after week passes, “half expecting her to wander into one of his parties, some night” (79). Eventually this paid off because one night Tom and Daisy decide to attend one of Gatsby’s celebrations (104). Gatsby now has attained his status as part of his American dream through this, and, in his mind, is closer to achieving the other parts as well. Fitzgerald’s experience during the 1920’s was one of great influence on his life and writing. In relation to the novel, he led a life based on status and shallow relationships, and this was typical of the time period he lived in. The decade of the 1920’s changed the way the typical American’s priorities were ordered. Even Fitzgerald “relied on personality, which depended upon appearance, grooming, gesture” (Lehan 58). The fact that the author lived this kind of lifestyle shows how it influenced his writing including The Great Gatsby. The disillusionment of Gatsby’s dream in the story is caused by these choices and changes that Fitzgerald experienced throughout the 1920’s. In addition, Fitzgerald shared a similar routine as Gatsby as he was a frequent partier and drinker (Brackett 58). This most likely produced the leading role that the image of parties played in the story. Fitzgerald’s

The impromptu party in chapter 2 of the Great Gatsby is a scene that fundamentally catalyzed the entirety of the story, both in the book and in the movie. The portrayal of this scene in the movie is like with many other novelistic movies, slightly inaccurate. Whether this inaccuracy starts in the director's decisions, or the inability to express an idea visually, the movie’s version of this scene has various key differences in character portrayal, setting, and mood that separate it from its read counterpart. After Tom drags Nick, and Wilson’s wife Myrtle to New York City, they enter the Morningside apartment where this party seems to begin. The apartment is described in the book as “a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath”. It is clear that the only purpose this apartment serves is as a hub for the two philanderers to meet up. It is further described to have raunchy paintings and wall art, and various oversized furniture pieces. This description symbolically explains Myrtle and Tom’s affair at this time, a sexually charged, chaotic nightmare. In the movie, when the camera initially enters Myrtle’s apartment, it is shown as a relatively small area, with a dominating presence of the color red on practically everything in their apartment.