The narrator goes on to describe the guests’ presence at the parties; “Men and girls came and went like moths”. “Moths” represent the flighty nature of those who visit the parties, indicating that they care little for the host and are attending merely for their own amusement, therefore coming and going as they please. The guests not only attend for their own amusement but also take advantage of the host’s generous hospitality. “…guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motorboats slit the waters…” Instead of visiting the host, they are simply abusing his benevolence. Alternatively, this could be interpreted as the host using his plentiful possessions to lure them to his parties. This is also accentuated by the narrator’s use of the word “moth” to describe the guests, who are lured by possessions to the parties, as a moth is lured to a flame.
The host’s cars are another way in which he flaunts his belongings to lure guests to his parties, suggesting that if he did not do so, the guests would for the most part not be there of their own accord. “On weekends his Rolls Royce became an omnibus bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains.” Not only does he own a Rolls Royce which is usually associated with immense wealth, he also owns a second station wagon, both of which he carelessly uses as “omnibuses” to pick up his guests from the city. This again emphasizes how little he actually values his own assets, regardless of their material value. Also the fact that his second car is yellow, underlines how much the host takes pleasure in being able to show of his elaborate possessions as well as showing his gaudy nature.
The narrator refers to the “…high tide in the afternoon…” implying that not only do the parties take place at night; the house is also occupied by guests throughout the day. The house, being in a constant state of revelry, leads the reader to question the nature of the host, and the motives behind these actions. The fact that the host as well as guests can give up the time to attend such a party in the middle of the day indicates that they are men and women of extreme leisure. Another element that reinforces the host’s wealth is the continuous listing of possessions throughout the piece as well as his capability of constantly amusing his guests and providing them with the extravagance to which they are no doubt accustomed.
The second section starts by describing the elaborate clean-up procedure necessary after one of the parties; “And on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day……repairing the ravages of the night before”. Monday marks the end of the state of debauchery, and the house is once again brought back to reality from the festivities and the disorder. This is emphasised by the fact that even with numerous servants and an extra gardener, those responsible for the home’s maintenance must “toil all day with mops and scrubbing brushes and hammers and garden shears”. The narrator once again uses a list to indicate how much work the job entails.
Interestingly, we do not read of the host’s role in the parties at all, instead he seems to take a more passive stance altogether. He shows his detachment from the outside world by the way he simply has goods delivered to his door: “Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from the fruitier in New York.” Not once in the passage does he engage in any of the more tiresome aspects of hosting a party, perhaps giving a reason behind his willingness to host so many. The reader is again driven to question why the host would take such joy in hosting these multitudinous and extravagant parties, when the narrator describes the guests having fun without mentioning the host: “…I watched his guests diving from the tower…”
The narrator depicts the scrap oranges and lemons as a “…pyramid of pulpless halves.” This symbolically represent the parties themselves; The guests take enjoyment from the parties, and leave without an afterthought for what destruction is left behind, just as the usable centre of the oranges and lemons is used and the rest discarded. This description of the scrap left outside the door reflects the parties’ excessiveness as well as the narrator’s disapproval towards them.
Another phrase in which the narrator exposes his critical thoughts on the parties is during the last lines of the text, when he comments on the host’s fruit-squeezing machine: “There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two-hundred oranges in half an hour if a little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler’s thumb” This illustrates the way the host disassociates the butler’s thumb from the butler as a person, thereby revealing his ability to assign such menial tasks to his butlers. An interesting aspect of these final lines is that the narrator somehow knows about the happenings taking place inside the host’s home. This gives the narrator a sudden omniscient quality, making the piece even more layered and mysterious.
Throughout the passage, the narrator’s ambivalent attitude towards the host is prevalent; on one side, the narrator speaks in wonder and mysteriousness about the parties, making them sound pleasant and enjoyable (“There was music……through the summer nights.”), but on the other hand the narrator speaks in a resentful tone making the parties seem less appealing and attractive (“…the ravages from the night before.”). Thus the author of this passage has successfully created a character whose ambiguous feelings contribute vehemently to the reader’s judgment of the neighbouring party host.
