What parallels (or differences) between Trimalchio's banquets and Gatsby's parties can be drawn? How far do you consider that Nick is an objective reporter and interpreter of what he sees in general (Chapters 1 - 4) and, in particular, in forming our init
What parallels (or differences) between Trimalchio’s banquets and Gatsby’s parties can be drawn? How far do you consider that Nick is an objective reporter and interpreter of what he sees in general (Chapters 1 – 4) and, in particular, in forming our initial impression of Gatsby’s character?
Often one of the most important ideals when reading about a modern text is looking at, perhaps, less modern texts which will help us to decipher the aims, sources and opinions of the author of the book that we were originally studying. Although it is important not to be too drawn in to every possible allusion, as if we did we would perhaps have no time left to study the original book, reading occasional contextual points could be very useful, especially one written in around 50AD, when the Roman economic boom was in full swing, and riches were distributed around the land. There is a wealth of context to discover, and unfortunately I can only just touch the tip of the iceberg; however, this should be informative to my studying of the literature.
One of the most important things in a Roman society was wealth and social status. In order to gain the latter, you needed to have the former and so people were neither afraid nor reluctant to throw money about to make themselves seem very rich. They also needed to garner respect in order to obtain any position in Roman hierarchy and so hosted lavish parties in order to seem popular, and to bribe the Emperors, Judges and others in high position. Often this was done with drink, sometimes with impressive and lavish presents and sometimes with young boys for them to do with what they will. Fitzgerald may not have copied the way of doing so, but he definitely captured the motive of the Roman Baron and Judge when trying to describe the hosting of Jay Gatsby’s party, that is to make friends and to show of his wealth. Though many would say that this is a particularly controversial belief, I believe that there enough quotes and other morsels of evidence in the passage to show that it has foundations in truth. Despite the fact that he had never met Nick Carraway before, the first thing that they discussed was Hydroplanes, and that Jay Gatsby has a new one and would like Nick to ride it. He clearly wants to try and make social contacts from the parties, as his invitations go to most everybody either attractive or relatively wealthy. At the start of Chapter 4, Nick presents, what could be described as, a “Who’s Who” of 1920’s New York, in which he names all of the wealthy people that he had met at Gatsby’s party. Not only does this show particularly that Nick is heavily influenced by Gatsby; but also that Jay Gatsby does want to present himself as a popular and wealthy man with many friends.
