Diction!

When Nick first relocates in to his house in the West Egg he witnesses Gatsby’s lavish parties, night after night imagining what it must be like to be experiencing them from the other side. This became a reality when one day he was personally invited by Gatsby’s butler to attend his next social. Fitzgerald uses heavy diction, through the character Nick, as he gives a detailed description of his first experience. This scene makes the author’s opinion of this type of lifestyle clear when he describes the mannerisms of the people, and the way the interact with one another. He writes that Jordan “responded absently and held [his] hand impersonally” (43). Through the use of these words the authors tone of vacancy is revealed. Although the party seems lively, the people are often absent and unconsciously going about their lives without thoughts of  the future or consequences of present actions. Fitzgerald also describes a man at the party’s actions as “cynical and melancholy” (45). the word melancholy denotes  thats his sadness had no obvious cause, and connotes a felling of perpetual depression. This same feeling of sadness is also displayed by a chorus girl who “during the course of her song, she had decided, ineptly, that everything was very, very sad” (51). The detail that she was highly intoxicated proves even more the author’s tone of concealed sadness. Often, when people have become drunk, suppressed feelings can come to surface. This gives substance to the idea that underneath the seemingly happy partygoers lies some unexplained sadness or feeling of absence, that comes from lack of structure or purpose in their lives