The best place in The Great Gatsby to
"outline" historical elements of the Jazz Age is probably chapter three, in which the
parties in general and one party in particular is
detailed.
Gatsby throws the parties hoping that Daisy will
happen in to one. He doesn't drink and most of the time appears to not really be too
socially involved in the parties, but virtually everyone else present certainly
is.
The lavishness and extravagance of the parties is what
we, today, associate with the Jazz Age. In chapter three, Nick outlines
both:
- People come
from every direction and are brought to the house by Gatsby's two motor boats, his
Rolls-Royce, and his station wagon. Some drive themselves,
also.- Oranges and lemons are shipped in--the lemons for
drinks, presumably, and the oranges for freshly-squeezed juice from what today we call a
juicer.- Caterers "make a Christmas tree of Gatsby's
enormous garden."- The bar [alcoholic beverages are
illegal] is "stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most
of his [Gatsby's] female guests were too young to know one from
another."- The orchestra [of special note, when
considering the novel and the Jazz Age] is "no thin five piece affair but a whole pit
full of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos and low
and high
drums."
Everything
about the party is extravagant. Figuratively, we, today, looking back, could say that
this is the party that led to the stock market crash of
1929.
Of course, a great deal of wealth and extravagance
doesn't necessarily lead to an economic crash. But perhaps another element of the Jazz
Age that's detailed in this chapter is relevant to your question, as
well.
Carelessness is prevalent in the party
scene:
- in the long hours spent drinking and
dancing and partying in general - in the driving and the
accident and the onlookers and the hurt driver - in those
that attend--Nick repeatedly states, though he does not comment or draw attention to
it--that the party is attended by mostly men and girls,
not women. And the girls are
young.
I'll let you draw conclusions from that
fact.
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