Nick
describes watching endless parties going on in Gatsby’s house every
weekend. Guests party day and night and then on Mondays servants clean
up the mess.
Everything is about excess and a sense of overkill. Each weekend,
guests are ferried back and forth to Manhattan by Rolls-Royce, crates of
oranges and lemons are juiced, an army of caterers sets up tents and
lighting, food is piled high, the bar is overwhelmingly stocked, and
there is a huge band playing. It's an even bigger deal than it sounds
because all this is happening during the Prohibition, when alcohol was
supposedly unavailable.
The first night Nick goes to Gatsby’s for a party, he’s one of a very
few actually invited guests. Everyone else just crashes. At the party,
Nick is ill at ease. He knows no one. There’s a surprising number of
English people at the party, who seem desperate to get their hands on
American money.
No one knows where Gatsby himself is. Nick hangs out near the bar
until he sees Jordan Baker. Nick and Jordan chat with other party
people. A young woman tells them that at another one of these parties,
when she ripped her dress by accident, Gatsby sent her a very expensive
replacement. They gossip about what this odd behavior means. One rumor
has it that Gatsby killed someone, another that he was a German spy.
