The Great Gatsby Chapter 3

Fitzgerald opens chapter three projecting Gatsby’s fictitious success through Nicks description of Gatsby’s parties. The colour yellow is repeated throughout this chapter, it is used to describe ‘the yellow cocktail music’ at Gatsby’s parties and also his station wagon which was ‘scampered like a brisk yellow bug’. The colour ‘yellow’ represents a fake gold- gold being associated with those with ‘old money’- suggesting Gatsby’s assets to be deceptive. This is further exemplified by the ‘two girls in twin yellow dresses’ at Gatsby’s party who aren’t as alluring a Jordan, yellow is given prominence to project that Gatsby’s lifestyle to be illusory.
Fitzgerald uses the indecencies of the 20th century to illustrate the unreliability of the considerable efforts taken by Gatsby in order to achieve a sense of high status. Owl-eyes who was spotted drunk in Gatsby’s library represents the inappropriate behaviour which surrounds Gatsby. Owl-Eyes, unwilling to believe the speculations which surrounded Gatsby, identifies the ‘realism’ in his library. Exclaiming that the books were ‘absolutely real- have pages and everything’, suggests Gatsby to be going to great lengths to prove his ‘realism’, relating to the next chapter where Nick suggests that ‘Even Gatsby could happen’. Fitzgerald metaphorically describes Gatsby through his library, Nick tells the readers that ‘if one brick was removed the whole library could collapse’, this represents the instability in Gatsby’s life, in doing so Fitzgerald indicates that Gatsby’s life is unsecure and could ‘collapse’ at any moment.
Fitzgerald illustrates that futility in Gatsby’s life by exemplifying the pointlessness in materialism. Fitzgerald contrasts the extravagance within Gatsby’s parties with the ‘casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot’, suggesting the fruitlessness of materialism and the pursuit of materialistic possessions. This is further amplified in the chapter when Gatsby’s guests disregard him. Nick