The Great Gatsby’s third chapter mainly focuses on Nick’s first encounter, with the shrouded character of Jay Gatsby. Nick meets Gatsby at one of his gaudy parties; at which Nick seems to be “one of the few guests who had actually been invited”. Nick, of course, is employed by Fitzgerald and used to frame this chapter. Our established retrospective narrator writes in the subjective first person, meaning we only get his point of view of events; this peripheral style of narration generates intrigue within the reader, as Fitzgerald deliberately doesn’t want us guessing everything .In Jay McInerney’s article on ‘Gatsby’, he writes “Fitzgerald’s best narrators always seem to be partaking of the festivities even as they shiver outside with their noses pressed up against the glass.” I have to concur with McInerney here, as this quote sums up Nick’s narrative style completely. Nick is “within and without”, constantly on the outskirts of events, observing. From this it would be easy to conclude that Nick is a very dull narrator, whose appearance in the novel is only to mask Fitzgerald; so that Fitzgerald can get his opinions and views on this hedonistic lifestyle across. However, that is not the case, as Nick accommodates many aspects which pair with a good narrator. Nick is undoubtedly “one of the few honest people that I have ever known” and through his powerful quality of reservation, Fitzgerald allows other characters to express themselves and develop. This makes the novel more accessible and entertaining for the reader. Nick’s popularity, seen in the novel ,may be the sole cause of his self-deprecation, but majorly is down to his tendency to “reserve all judgement, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.”

This chapter is set predominately in Gatsby’s mansion, during the course of one of his extensive parties. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s mansion to highlight the opulence, grandeur and excessive hedonism of the 1920’s. Fitzgerald’s use of phrase here evokes a kaleidoscopic image in the readers mind, almost like the continual cycle of parties. He sets the scene in the style of a vignette; through which he describes the music being heard from the mansion, “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” Fitzgerald portrays the scene in a modernistic way with his descriptions of “blue gardens”. A lively setting is created with this almost fantastical description; however the simile of the moths shows a frantic side to the party, as unsettledness hangs over the delicate scene. There is also symbolism in the “oranges and lemons that left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves,” conveying the destructiveness of Gatsby’s parties, and embodying the guests as they leave on Monday morning. Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as the ‘Trimalchio of West Egg’. A character found in Petronius’ ‘Satyricon’; in which ‘Trimalchio’ is famous for throwing excessive hedonistic parties. ‘Trimalchio’ is later referenced in chapter seven of the novel; so clearly inspiration was derived from Petronius’ work, when Fitzgerald was planning the character of Gatsby.

Fitzgerald depicts the 1920’s in a satirical commentary on the hedonism of the leisure classes. The novel lampoons the novueau riche, as ‘Gatsby’ presents a penetrating criticism of a moral emptiness that Fitzgerald saw in the wealthy. Furthermore, in terms of the genre of the novel, ‘Gatsby’ is far from being classed as a Comedy. As written on ‘Shmoop.com’, “Fitzgerald is much more interested in plumbing the depths of Gatsby’s heart and experimenting with symbolic language, that he is with a page-turning plot.” Therefore, Fitzgerald takes an aforementioned modernistic approach to this work, as the narrative shifts from dialogue to foreshadowing etc. Generally, Modernists were driven by the belief that the assurances once provided by religion and society, no longer sufficed. This evidently applies to Fitzgerald as he portrays the 20’s as a chaotic time period in a satirical way; as the ‘Jazz Age’ breathed new life into American Culture. Modernism is a Trompe l’oeil; Fitzgerald used a modernistic writing style in ‘Gatsby’, to provide readers with a challenge, coherence and insight into the human condition, which could only be found in the new modernist writing of the early 20th century, e.g. James Joyce and T.S Eliot. Joyce’s’ “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” and “Ulysses” are excellent examples of Modernist writing and how far the limits of the experimental side of Modernism could be pushed.

‘Gatsby’ is told in a fairly chronological order, with its nine short chapters. The chronology of this chapter is quite linear; as Fitzgerald builds up to the climax of the party and the unveiling of his titular character. Fitzgerald employs dazzling imagery to suggest that the party has now reached its peak, “A pair of stage twins did a baby act in costume, and champagne was served in glasses bigger than finger-bowls.” Gatsby’s introduction is almost anti-climactic, as the mystery surrounding his character is dispersed with a simple, “I’m Gatsby.” Nick is instantly infatuated with Gatsby, and describes him using the paradox, “elegant young rough neck”. The party then descends into chaos, and Gatsby disappears. Fitzgerald chooses to end the chapter with a car crash, perhaps foreshadowing the death of Myrtle, and with the reveal of a brooding romance between Nick and Jordan. Fitzgerald may have purposefully presented the romance in the midst of this anarchy, to ensure that the reader questions the likelihood of the relationships success.

Fitzgerald doesn’t waste language in ‘Gatsby’. Every word has relevance and is important to the overall scene or emotion Fitzgerald is trying to convey. Therefore, Fitzgerald almost writes the novel as an epic poem, as he has carefully thought out what he wants to include, and what doesn’t have an overall purpose. In this chapter, Fitzgerald elevates the prose style when describing the magic and frivolity of the party. Poetic language is used to describe Fitzgerald’s impression of the excess present in the 1920’s, “I had taken two finger-bowls of champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental and profound.” Fitzgerald goes on to purposefully make use of contrast and juxtaposes the party goer’s revelry with the foreshadowing of tragedy at the end of the novel. His language changes with, “But the wheels off”; a visual metaphor for the zenith of the ‘Jazz Age’, as Fitzgerald’s prescience is quite apparent here. This has an overall uneasy effect on the reader as they’re unsure which direction the novel will now take. The wild excess and drunkenness found in this chapter combine the depravity and hedonism of the 1920’s society; which Fitzgerald was directly aware of.